Twilight
Thanks to a glowing recommendation from Katie, I finally read Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, last weekend.
Isabella (Bella) moves to dreary Forks, WA to live with her father, while her mother goes off to travel with her new beau who plays baseball. When she begins school, she immediately feels out of place, but notices another group of kids that look even more separate than she does. They are all pale and beautiful, and noticeably never seem to eat. When Bella sits next to one of them in her next class, she soon finds herself falling for the handsome young man that behaves so strangely. Edward is a vampire. But after he saves Bella’s life more than once, she finds herself hopelessly in love with him.
Marketed to the young adult crowd, this romantic fantasy would appeal to most genre-loving adults as well. Of course, the subject matter is tamer than most vampire stories, which I find refreshing. And besides the intense, teenage romance, the story flowed well and kept me enraptured from beginning to end. The story centered on Bella and Edward pretty exclusively, so their characters were much more fleshed-out than the others. But Bella was easy to relate to. She has her insecurities and struggles like every other teenage girl. Her boyfriend just happens to be a bit different from the other boys.
I’m not at all surprised that Twilight made it to the NY Times Bestseller List. A bit of mystery, sweet romance, vampires, and an intense, suspenseful ending gives readers a bit of everything.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:45 am
Yeah, too bad, for me the, series doesn’t retain its good qualities. It had a good start.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:48 am
What happens that ruins it for you? I don’t want to continue reading them if I’m not going to like them.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:53 am
I’m so glad you liked it! Mel read this one because I told him to and when he was done he asked me why I liked such angsty fluff. I could only say I just ‘loved it’
I love Edward too. He’s so great. And Meyer really did get the teenage stuff perfect. I guess that is why it has become so huge with the younger crowd.
New Moon isn’t as good… but is still so GREAT for a lot of reasons. Mostly because the characters change. They have to though, they needed the growth. The story would have died if they stayed the the same. So when you start that one don’t expect more of the same stuff from Twilight.
I’m starting Eclipse tonight. I’m very excited. I know I’ll stay up into the night reading.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
You have to read New Moon, though. The ending isn’t bad and everything works out perfectly in the end. But Meyer does ring your heart out a bit in the first few chapters.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
Looking forward to your review on it, Katie!
I’ll probably still pick up New Moon when it goes to paperback.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:58 am
Thanks for the review Angela – this book has been on my TBR list for a few months now.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
This does sound good for the young adult who might be fascinated by the vampire genre without all the sex and violence that makes the adult books inappropriate.
And what appeals to an adolescent might not appeal to an adult. If you guys are looking for good adult books in this genre you’ve got to check out Charlaine Harris and Patricia Briggs. They’re my favorites anyway.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Amy – Hope you enjoy it too!
SQT – Yes, I love Charlaine Harris – every series that’s she’s written. But the one book of Briggs that I began didn’t interest me, so I dropped it.
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Lookls a good plot outline.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
hahaha. Had a discussion with a bookstore employee today about this. My friend and I were there shopping and she asked if we’d read Twilight. Yep! Loved it. I continued to say that New Moon was ok, but that Eclipse sucked. My friend happened to chime in on the sucked. There’s nothing like saying it in unison!
She just pretty much goes somewhere in Eclipse that you really don’t want to do and then you end up getting annoyed with pretty much everyone. There are a handful of people who really loved Eclipse but the overall majority seems to be swaying very much in the opposite direction.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:58 am
I like Briggs’ Mercedes Thompson series. It fits into the werewolf/vampire lit group. I coudn’t get into her other stuff either; but these I liked a lot…
August 24th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Sassymonkey – I’m hoping I’ll be one of the few that actually likes it then! lol
SQT – That’s actually the series I didn’t like.. I only tried reading the first one a couple times. I guess I just didn’t like the characters.. And I’m not fond of werewolf characters usually.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I’ve got this on my list for the RIP. Surprisingly, I haven’t read it. And I’m a huge vampire fan!!
August 24th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
I thought, as a writer, Stephenie Meyer matured in her third book. The choices seemed cleaner and everything just seem to flow better. I felt there weren’t as many frayed ends poking out here and there, if that make sense. Since I like the third book best, I’m intrigued that so many readers don’t. (pondering) Perhaps, it is because some readers don’t like where the characters go and how things end up for one beloved character in particular (I won’t name names to give anything away.). I personally like the conflicts she pushes in the third book. (hands defensively up) I know we all love a good, clean love story with a happy ending and I hope we still get it, but I find it much more interesting and engaging when things are hard for all of the characters.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Okay. Now I want to hurry up and get to the 3rd book. I’ll try to read the 2nd one over the weekend..
August 26th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I’m so curious to hear what you think of the next books. I loved Twilight and was a bit disappointed with New Moon but Eclipse was just awful.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I can’t believe the third book in this series is out already. They seem to really be cranking them out in a timely manner…something writer’s and publishers are not always known for. Kudos to Meyer and her publisher!
December 12th, 2007 at 11:05 am
[...] More good news! Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies, has been cast as Edward in the upcoming movie Twilight. Twilight is based on Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling young-adult novel of the same name, which I reviewed here. [...]
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 pm
OMG! i love these books! they are so interesting and i cant put them down literally =D i hope the movie turns out to be good i would be dissapointed if they made it bad =(