For at least a year now, we’ve been hearing complaints about Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight series and how creepy the relationship between Bella and Edward is—keeping in mind that while Edward looks like a teenager, as a vampire he’s old enough to be Bella’s grandfather. Then we saw a post at science-fiction blog io9 over the weekend, positing that their grand romance, especially as it’s depicted in New Moon, has all the signs of an abusive relationship. Well, fifteen of them anyway, from “Does your partner control what you do, who you see or talk to or where you go?” to “Does your partner accuse you of cheating or is often jealous of your outside relationships?”

The conversation at io9 (which is where we got the movie image), sparked by the original LiveJournal post, is lively. As one commenter interprets things: “Writing a novel about a moody, exotic, pretty, totally awesome vampire guy who is inexplicably obsessed with some random, average high school girl is practically a licence to print money. But, surprise, it also accurately reflects that the kind of relationship that would develop from her desperation: being taken advantage of by a moody, exotic, pretty, totally awesome abuser.” Other people say it’s just a bunch of books (and movies) for teens, or it’s our modern Romeo & Juliet, so back off. But what do you think?