Why do you say they're probably not talking to the front desk all the time?

If they're not then yeah it'd be a massive mystery, so likelihood is, they are.

Turns out, they are. They're either hard-wired, or they're just powered and communicate with the base station wirelessly.

I'm a dude, and was like in my early twenties when the Twilight books started gaining traction.

I've never cared at all about the perception of who particular books are "supposed to" be for, so I picked the first book up, and they kept me interested enough to read them all. Even read that one that was gender-flipped just to see what the deal was, and yeah thought that one was a clear cash grab. Whatever, nobody forced me to get it, it was what it was.

I stand by the opinion that they're the victims of their own success, and a whole lot of bandwagon jumping. There have been way worse books published than those. I enjoyed her other book too that gets no mentions these days, The Host. Though the movie of it was entirely forgettable. Yeah her books aren't works of towering prose, but they do what they set out to do, and I don't think they do it notably more badly than a whole host of books that are equally as popular.