Do You Live in the Twilight Belt? [INFOGRAPHIC]

There is no more divisive book on Goodreads than Twilight. It manages to top both our Best Books Ever and Worst Books of All Time lists. And now, surprisingly, we've discovered that where you live can indicate whether you're a Twi-Hard or not.
With the release of the film adaption of Breaking Dawn (well, the first half of the film adaptation), we thought it might be fun to dive into some more of the incredible trove of data we have on the Twilight Saga and its readers.
A map of what each state thinks of Twilight ends up looking a lot like a map of the most recent election results. On the map above, the readers in the red states rated the book highly (the darker the red, the higher the rating), while readers in the blue states gave it a lower rating). The Midwest and the South represent The Twilight Belt, while the coasts were decidedly less impressed with the book.
Reviews were mostly distributed according to population, with the notable exception of Utah. Utah is the 34th most populous state in the US, but it generates the 6th most reviews of Twilight. In terms of cities, Salt Lake City—the 125th largest city in the country—is second only to New York in number of Twilight reviews. Opinion on the book is split in the Beehive state, with the average rating a pedestrian 3.64.
Not surprisingly, the Twilight books also split along gender lines. Women were twelve times as likely as men to review Twilight on Goodreads -- we have 573,797 ratings by women and only 46,554 by men. Women were also more likely to have liked the book, giving it an average rating of 3.77 stars, whereas men were, well, not so happy with it, rating it 2.94 stars.
As the Boston Globe recently noted, young adult books have broken out big with readers of all ages, and Twilight is no different. In fact, as many 28, 29, and 30-year-olds read the book as 15, 16, and 17-year-olds. If you're on Goodreads and you're not young, chances are good that you're young at heart.

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sigh"
No need to be condescending. Brittany put it nicer.

Oh, it irked me too, but I think it's funny the typo is the subject of the first two comments. Now three.

sigh"
No need to be condescending. Brittany put it nicer."
Given the author used it correctly two out of three times in the sentence, it is a sigh-worthy (and bizarre) error. Nevertheless, cheers to nice Brittany.
Kathrine, let's ask GoodReads to map grammar-conscientiousness as it relates to love of Twilight. That would be funny!

sigh"
Brava!



He fixed his error. It's all good now so commence to trashing Twilight. :-)

And I agree that would be hilarious, Erin! Maybe the reason we're all talking about the typo is because Twilight's typos have completely removed the books from our minds' lists of mention-worthy topics.
Vicki, it has been fixed. Now it is correct.

For the longest time, I only read nonfiction (historical, feminist, Chuck Klosterman, etc). But YA is almost always an easier, quicker read. Something I can pick up and put down and walk away from to finish laundry or get a chapter in on my lunch break. And it's a nice way to escape all the things about being an adult that suck (no one has to stress about paying taxes or how bad the economy is, etc). I still read for-adult books and nonfiction (currently working on In The Garden of Beasts -- highly recommend it!), but I completely see the allure of not-so-YA people reading YA. That being said, there are so many better YA books out there than Twilight!

Technically, it's a good idea for everyone to read widely. In genres targeted at them, out of genres targeted at them, whatever. However, it might be worthy to mention that the industry is now very aware that adults enjoy "YA." I'm sure they target adults some since adults are now a large part of their market.
This could turn into a "what makes YA YA" discussion...

I've yet to actually read Twilight though. I want to out of curiosity even though it doesn't sound that appealing to me. I'll get around to it at some point.



Never read the books, myself. I'm not fond of modern YA books.

It's kind of funny, because I live in Ohio: I have four sisters and a 55-year-old mom who love Twilight (if on varying levels), and a large portion of our friends and acquaintances in the area enjoy it as well--and we're conservative Christians. So, not all of Ohio is blue. :P Of course, I think religious views have their play in it; we've heard a couple of people denouncing the Twilight saga as "demonic"--but usually this came from speakers who haven't even read the books.

So should I close my eyes to all mythology because it may be connected to other / older religions?
You can recognize that vampire lore has, at its core, a "demonic seed" (I don't know if it does or it doesn't) and still read the Twilight series, enjoying the books for what they are. The author didn't sit down and write an evil book just because it contains vampires.
I have yet to read the books though.



depends on how you define "the midwest"...there's only three red states in the region: in, ia and mo.....i'd note that oh, il, mi, wi, and mi are all blue on your map....
i'd describe the bright red belt as the great plains and the deep south
I believe that without readers' hugely varying opinions on literary works we wouldn't have the amazing variety to choose from that we do. Knowing what we like to read doesn't mean we can't be surprised. I LIKE being surprised. I was by Twilight. I'm still astounded by how venomous people get over the series. Goodness gracious.



Yes. In Utah Twilight is common but unliked.


Here is my review:
After walking into a Barnes & Noble and perusing all of the offerings on the Young Adult shelves, choosing to purchase a copy of Twilight is like walking into a five-star restaurant and choosing to dine on the urinal cake from the men's room.

Good thoughts. Of course Twilight-ites from Utah aren't on good reads. The only book they've read in the last decade IS Twilight so why would this site even remotely appeal to anyone who actually LIKED it? It's because they've not read anything to compare it with.
Last, though the idea is creative, the themes it espouses are true blue Utah culturally propagated. Shun college, find a possessive rich man, and get pregnant by the time you're 18. College? Travel? Other things in life besides having a boyfriend? What is this blasphemy?!? Thanks Meyer, for influencing so many of our young women and spreading the idea that the most important thing in life before you hit age 20 is to find a boyfriend and get married and have a baby. If you do that, you don't need an education, life experiences, or a desire to experience new ideas and cultures.

Overheard this from two of my 8th grade girls in the hallway: "I swear, you run into a buncha guys with shaved chests and no shirts hanging out in the middle of the woods together, they AIN'T interested in you, girl."


News flash: Mitt Romney is big in Utah too. Shocking I know...

I applaud your ability to state the obvious with confidence and authority.

The best YA book I've read in years was Kenneth Oppel's "Airborn."

sigh