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The love story of Bella and Edward is intriguing to teen fans, who can often relate to the feeling of being different and stigmatized, said Syracuse University professor Robert Thompson.

Young love can be soooo complicated.

Take this couple, for example: new girl in town meets mysterious boy; girl and boy fall in love despite intense opposition; boy has to continually fight off urge to chomp on girl's neck.

It's Romeo and Juliet with a dash of Dracula.

It's also the story that unfolds in the new movie "Twilight," based on the hugely popular young-adult book series from author Stephenie Meyer.

The tale of forbidden love follows 17-year-old Bella Swan, who moves to a small city in Washington and meets a gorgeous vampire named Edward Cullen.

But does their desire for each other ultimately mean danger for both?

Don't worry, no spoilers here. The question of what happens to the conflicted couple, though, is what has driven millions to read the series.

Fans have devoured the four-book saga -- together, the first three books sold more than 5.3 million copies in the United States -- and are eager to delve into the new movie.

Fans such as Harmony Tripp, 17, who planned to see the flick with friends at a midnight showing Thursday. The group sported "Twilight"-themed T-shirts.

"I heard they were making the movie around the same time that I started reading the books. When I started watching the trailers for the 'Twilight' movie, I thought, 'Oh no! No one could be as perfect as the book Edward,' " Harmony wrote in an e-mail.

"But as I delved into the clips of the movie more and more, I began to feel excited because all the actors portray the characters as they were written."

An addictive story

Harmony, of Pembroke, started reading the series about a month ago and finished the books in a week.

"I started reading the books so I could see what my friends were so ecstatic about ... and then I fell in love. Edward is what makes the books so amazing," Harmony wrote.

She describes him as the perfect guy.

Allison Hurst, 16, also is enamored with Edward.

"He's just this perfect gentleman you don't see much of any more today, but that's what he is" to Bella, said the Roanoke teen. "He's very charming and he's very sincere."

The love story of Edward and Bella is intriguing to fans.

"They're so different from each other, but they still find that what they want more than anything is to be with each other," said Allison, who believes the characters are a good match.

She read the series after a friend introduced them to her. "It's so hard to put all of them down. They're all equally good," she said. "It's the way that Stephenie Meyer puts another world into the world that we know.

"You're so drawn into the second world that she has created," said Allison, who also is excited about the movie.

That world includes vampires and werewolves, with flashes of fairy tale themes thrown into the story.

Kathryn Graham, an English instructor at Virginia Tech, has also read the "Twilight" books.

"One of my major interests is what makes young people read," Graham said. "I'm always curious with any book or series of books that become an enormous hit with young people."

But teens aren't the only ones addicted to this series. Graham said some of her college students have also read the novels.

"I would say that probably the readership has got to be 99 percent girls or women," Graham said.

A draw, especially for teen readers, is what happens to Bella, who initially sees herself as an ugly duckling of sorts.

"Waiting for Bella to make that transformation into recognizing her own beauty and worth is something all adolescent girls need and want to read about," Graham said.

Vamping it up

Another lure for "Twilight" lovers is that whole fang thing.

"You've got what used to be a horror story with someone who is considered monstrous that now is going to be the focus of romantic love," Graham said.

In fact, vampire characters have transformed through the years, in movies and on TV shows, from scary guys with fangs to sensitive sexy types with feelings.

"We've domesticated them and made them just like us," said Robert Thompson, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the university.

"They've made them behave and act and look just like us," Thompson said. "They fall in love, they have crushes."

A vampire character can also work well for a teen tale.

"A vampire is a perfect metaphor for how they often feel. This idea that they're different, they're stigmatized," he said.

Thompson is also a fan of the "Twilight" series. "I'm 49 years old, and I completely enjoyed those books."

So, will these best-selling book characters find box-office success?

"I think the potential is there," he said. "They've already got a built-in fan base, which is pretty substantial."