Stephenie Meyer was strongly critisized for the reasons that have already been named (a hundred of pages dedicated to Edward's beauty and the romance in his words...) and the fact that Bella is a kind of Mary Sue. Since I'm a teenage girl, twilight & co. are able to satisfy some of my pubertal needs and dreams from time to time, but also I have to admit that she's not the best author.

I don't know if you've come across the word 'Mary Sue' before, but it means that the (main) characters in a book/ story are obviously 100%-perfect and that often enough, the author resembles the main character, so that this character instead can fulfill all those dreams that can't be fulfilled in reallife. In this case, I think Bella resembles Steph, for they're looking quite alike (brown hair, pale skin, casual style, etc.) and Steph also admitted that the fact all boys fall in love with Bella is something that happened to her in some way, when she was younger. She said that no boy ever noticed her because she had a lot of beautiful friends, but when she went to another school or college suddenly boys would notice her because she was new and invite her on a date. That all the boys like Bella is very typical for a stereotype Mary Sue, too. Mary Sues are usually beautiful and have one or more special talents/gifts, they're brave, intelligent, rich, flawless. Even if Bella isn't like that all the time, Edward certainly is. He's way too flawless: Extremely goodlooking, immortal, a 'human' vampire who doesn't bite people, he can read minds, he is her boyfriend, he is intelligent, composes his own music, studied medicine, he is rich, he has a special family, he is a gentleman (unlike Jacob, who loses Bella to Edward because he's not that flawless and also fights for her in an unfair way, which Edward would never do, etc.), he's sportive, etc. He sacrifices himself, he suffers oh-so-badly - get it ? It's not realistic in no way, which makes people criticize it that much. Even though I'm a fan and even though I was lucky enough to meet Steph in person, I just have to say that she's no good author because good authors create realistic and imperfect characters.
Don't even get me started on the last book (which I absolutely hated due to the lacks of realism and imperfection, even though I'm a fan !).

A lot of boys and adults can't stand the books because they try to satisfy girl's wishes, so other people can easily see how weak the book certainly can be, considering its flaws. I would rather recommend Stephenie's other book 'The Host' - the story is less interesting for teenage girls, but it's written in a better way since Steph now learned to become a little bit better in writing.

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