If a shrill, high-decibel squeal suddenly disrupts the Sunday peace and quiet from sea to shining sea, blame Stephenie Meyer.
Probably every teenage girl you know (and more than a few of their mothers) started reading Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final volume in Meyer's vampire saga, when it was released at midnight Saturday. So these 3.2 million fanatical readers are about to discover whether the heroine, Bella, ends up with the unearthly beautiful vampire, Edward, or with the devoted werewolf, Jacob. In fact, they ought to be turning the 768th, and final page right ... about ... now.
If the T-shirts worn by young, female Baltimoreans are any indication, the rivalry between the U.S. and China women's gymnastic teams in the coming 2008 summer Olympics is nothing compared to the competition between Team Edward and Team Jacob.
"I'm really torn," 15-year-old Julia Schneiderman says. "I have friends on both sides, and I personally have not been able to choose. It's a lot of pressure."
Meyer has said in interviews that she was a 29-year-old Mormon housewife when she had a dream about a conversation between a teenage vampire and a human girl that took place in a meadow. The young couple were deeply in love, but the vampire feared that if were to, um, let loose his animal urges, he wouldn't be able to control himself and would end up murdering his girlfriend and drinking her blood. Talk about a bad first date.
Meyer expanded her idea into a manuscript about a coven of vegetarian vampires who refrain from snacking on humans for moral reasons, and mailed it off to a bunch of publishing houses. A college intern read the story and brought the book to the attention of her bosses at Little Brown, who published the novel in 2005.
In the past three years, the first three installments of The Twi light Series have sold more than 10 million copies in more than three dozen countries, including 7.5 million books in the U.S. alone.
The series has spawned a major film starring newcomer Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison (Cedric Diggory in a Harry Potter sequel) as the sun-crossed lovers. Twilight opens nationwide Dec. 12.
The announcement that Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final volume would be released this weekend, was greeted with such rapturous anticipation that more than 4,000 bookstores across the nation threw publication parties at midnight Saturday.
