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For the last few weeks, we've been all atwitter around our office about the venom (with a capital V), being spewed about Stephenie Meyers' Breaking Dawn. If you don't know, Breaking Dawn is the fourth book in Meyer's bestselling Twilight series. It came out with much fanfare on August 1 -- readers lined up at midnight release parties around the country.

Well, the reviews came in ... and they were awful. Entertainment Weekly graded the book a D. Meanwhile, many fan reviews on Amazon.com have been deadly -- the title of one review by Eventide is: "A powerful message destroyed to tie up everything with a neat bow." (Read the customer's full review here.) Overall, Amazon customers still rate the book positively: At press time, Breaking Dawn has 1,332 five-star reviews and 413 four-star reviews. But, the book racked up the largest number of one- and two-star reviews (702 and 313, respectively, as of this post) of any of the Twilight books. (For comparison's sake, consider that Twilight, the first book of the four-book series, at press time has 164 one-star reviews and 98 two-star reviews.)

Me, I haven't read any of the Twilight books yet. But all the advance hype on Breaking Dawn and the upcoming Twilight movie piqued my interest and I was preparing to read the saga before the movie's release in November. Now, I'm a little let down -- do I go ahead and read anyway, knowing that so many die-hards hated the series ending? Or do I stay away? Tough decisions to make, indeed. Given that I always am looking for books to read, and I love most everything I read from the young adult shelves, I think I will delve into Twilight, and hope for the best.

Your turn: What did your teen (or you) think of Breaking Dawn? Will the negative reviews of Breaking Dawn stop you or your teen from reading the Twilight series?