Yes, stories like Outlander have managed to capture our interest again, offering us a way of escaping rl issues. No second-hand embarassment either, as others have mentioned: the acting's great, the writing's better than SM's (well, how worse could it be) and watching the actors' interviews doesn't make you cringe at all. Professionalism all around.
Yet Twilight is the only story that seems to have caused such a frenzy. And I'm not even talking about the number of females affected; it makes sense that Twilight, with the 100+ y.o. vampire would appeal to both teens and adult women, whereas stories like OL probably don't. What I'm talking about is the intensity of the response. You know, women who had never read any book before not being able to put the damn book down, thinking about it all the time, going nuts on its fanfiction, watching the movie (first movie. Don't forget that SM wasn't planning on writing all those books before the publishers pushed her) over and oever again etc. I remember reading this quote ""If there is a chemical that's released when you're falling in love, your brain has it when you're reading or watching "Twilight.", and laughing. But now I see it's true. And that no other author has managed to write something so appealing to women.
I'm not the only one saying this btw, check out this article on psychology today or the endless sites created by women who used to laugh at the idea but then read or watched it and just went nuts (e.g. this). I used to think that Twilight was especially captivating to people like me, who always thought vampires were hot but scary. But, no, it's obvious that it's not just me. Of course there's the FSOG appeal, but there's no need to give any explanations on this site how it's built on everything that made Twilight so captivating.
So, what exactly is it that made Twilight so captivating while the rest of the stories aiming at female audiences not so much? Continuously praising the romantic hero's looks right from the first second (which is not what happens e.g. in Outlander)? The female protagonist, who's average looking, doing nothing else in her life so she becomes obsessed with her ideal man, and making the readers obsessed in return? The "loves me so much he doesn't even eat me oh he's so dangerous but not to me' notion? And, last but of course not least, the UST?
Any more ideas on why Twilight stood out so much? Or what element would you say helped it the most? What does Stephenie Meyer even subconsciously know that the others don't?
Stephenie with Matt Bellamy from Muse, whose angsty and passionate lyrics have been her source of inspiration:
