I try to stay away from vampires. That includes vampire books, movies, and television shows (sorry, Buffy). Not interested. But I haven't been able to avoid the hype about tonight's release of the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn (I didn't even have to look any of that up). A lot of what I've read, including this article by Laura Yao in the Washington Post ("Bitten and Smitten," 8/01/08), is about the Twilight series as a publishing phenomenon on a par with Harry Potter, and about its predominantly female fan base of daughters and (gasp!) their moms. But Laura Miller, in Salon, offers a damning critique of Twilight in the context of literary vampirism and traditional feminine fantasy as well ("Touched by a Vampire," 7/30/08). I'm beginning to wonder if I should read it myself, if only to know what everyone's talking about, and despite the fact that (see above) I'm not even interested in vampires. Help! They're sucking me in.