“My Heart Belongs to Edward”?

I know you’ve been wondering why teenage girls have crushes on vampires. After all, the four-installment Twilight series is the latest reading sensation for that social niche. And some of you have teenage daughters whose fancy for the undead has you flummoxed.

Well, if you really must know, Caitlin Flanagan may be the place to turn. In her recent Atlantic essay “What Girls Want” she explains how Twilight taps into “the complexities of female adolescent desire.” I sincerely hope there are exceptions to her generalizations. But her multifacted theory is as plausible as any we’re likely to encounter.