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No rest for the Vampires in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight
Date of Review: Mar 17, 2007
The Bottom Line: Twilight delivers a satisfying love story and thriller to all vampire fans!
I enjoy reading teen/young adult novels because for me, it sort of puts my life in perspective. Also, I want to know what my kids are reading and what their friends are reading. The best discussions for me are talking to my kids about books and the way they effect them. I've been eyeing Twilight by Stephenie Meyer in the Young Adult section at Borders for awhile. Since it had a vampire theme, and I've been enjoying Laurell K Hamilton's books as of late, I thought I'd go ahead and jump into Twilight.
The Story
Twilight is about a seventeen year old girl named Bella and her experience with falling in love with a vampire. Far fetched? You bet! Far fetched but entertaining?? You bet!!
Bella moves from Phoenix to Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie. Her mother has newly married a traveling baseball player, and Bella decides she will stay with Charlie so her mom can travel with her new husband. She is not very excited about moving to forks because the weather is so damp and dreary. Her father is a very quiet person and one of the town's police officers. They begin their new lives together uncomfortably, but after awhile they get into a synchronized routine and things seem uplifting.
Bella is immediately popular at her new high school. She acquires new friends on the very first day and she is accosted by proposals for dates from several boys. The problem is, she is only interested in one boy who acts like she is an outcast. His name is Edward Cullen, and he has been adopted, along with his siblings, by the town's prominent doctor. He is beautiful, rich, and intellectually superior to his class mates. The more he is rude to Bella, the more she wants to find out about him.
One day Edward switches from mean to kind in an instant. Bella and Edward start spending time together and weird things begin to happen. Bella is almost crushed by a moving car but Edward somehow appears and whisks her out of the way. She is almost beaten by a group of thugs but Edward comes to the rescue. On her quest for more knowledge about the Cullens, Bella asks a local boy for some information and finds out that there is a legend in Forks that many people still believe. There is a vampire legacy- and the Cullens are suspected of being undead.
Bella decides to confront Edward about the situation and she learns that indeed, Edward and family are vampires. The myths about them coming out only at night and sleeping in coffins are completely false. Edward and his siblings confine themselves to feeding on animals and they don't sleep at all. Edward warns Bella that their relationship is very dangerous and it's not good for her to be around him, but it's far too late. Bella is in love, and in love with a vampire.
The plot thickens after Bella and Edward's relationship is solidified and Bella finds herself in a whole new world, facing danger and death. Almost 500 pages long, the books has many twists and turns and the ending is fantastic.
My Thoughts
When it comes to novels about vampires, one must admit (including me), that they are very far fetched. The 'rub' with Twilight is that even though Edward Cullen is a vampire (and the author has her own criteria for what a vampire really is), Bella could care less. It's frustrating that Meyer doesn't delve a little deeper into Bella's mind and unleash the intense fear that would obviously go with finding out you boyfriend is a member of the 'undead.'
One of other things that I didn't like also comes to mind. It's unnatural for a 'new girl' to go to a brand new high school and be popular on the first day. It's exceptionally not normal that a girl who's described the way Bella is described (exceedingly pale, thin) to be the perfect catch for the entire male population. I am not sure what the author was trying to accomplish with this, other than project Bella's feelings for Edward when she turns down all of the other boys' offers.
That being said, there are so many things I did like about this book. The originality was overwhelming. The way that Meyer classifies vampires was very 'new' to me. I've pretty much read of them with every kind of attribute and personality, but Meyer's vampires are totally different.
The beginning of the novel is sort of a far fetched love story which keeps the reader hanging on, but halfway throughout the novel the reader gets an action packed thriller. The twists and turns and terror are superb, and I found myself reading this book in the car, at the kids' practices, and before I went to bed at night. It's very addictive, and I don't find books that make me want to 'read all the time' very often.
This is a superb first novel and I am anxious to buy her second which is out in hard cover called New Moon. The saga of Bella and Edward continues!
4 out of 5 stars
