Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publish Date: October 5, 2005
Series: Twilight #1
ISBN: 0316015849
ISBN-13: 9780316015844
2010 Challenged title
Reason: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group
Synopsis: Isabella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife—between desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was one of my earlier titles that introduced me to Young Adult. Aside from Harry Potter, I didn’t previously dabble in the genre. Around the release of Eclipse, there was hyper surrounding the series, between my friends, relatives, and the social media sites. I was trying to resist for as long as I can. I was used to adult fiction and romance. I thought to myself, what was I going to get out of a young adult book?
Was I wrong.
Twilight is told through the eyes of Isabella Swan, or as she prefers, Bella. This Phoenix native decides to move to Forks, Washington to live with Charlie, her dad. It was a sacrifice that she was willing to endure so that her mom could travel the road with her step-dad. All of the memories that she has of Forks, the population, and even her dad were uneventful, boring, and not even remotely memorable.
On Bella’s first day of school, she notices a group of five students, siblings in fact, that isolate themselves from the rest of the population. The Hales and the Cullens, according to one student, are unsocial and unattainable. Of course, in true story fashion, Bella is fascinated by one in particular, Edward Cullen. While it seems clear that Edward does not reciprocate the fascination, he simply cannot stay away from her. And that is the start of their storybook romance. Family, culture, and basic blood-thirst cravings stand in the way of their relationship, but can you blame the forces? He is a vampire after all.
Bella is an average protagonist, taking the role of the normal girl. She views the world with the eyes of a normal teenager, but I think she lives with a little more angst than the rest of them. While some issues that she deals with are common, I feel that she can be a little more “emo” than the rest of the female population. She is independent, appears to be intelligent, and observant, that’s for sure, but as a heroine, she lacks in bravado.
Edward Cullen is an enigma to Bella, and that is what I feel the foundation of the attraction. There is something about Edward that oozes elusive, and paired with his handsome traits and gentleman manners, it is a combination that could be deadly. Pun intended. Edward’s mysterious, yet seemingly all-powerful persona definitely channels a lot of his earlier story counterparts. Compare Edward to the likes of Mr. Darcy, Dantes, and Mr. Rochester, I can see why I fell for him.
In Meyer’s world of vampires and unrequited love, Bella and Edward clearly do not belong together, nor should they fall in love. Meyers takes familiar aspects from classic romances, like Bronte’s work for example, and she writes the story with a paranormal twist. Edward has constant internal battles with himself, and I fell for it all. Some scenes seemed forced and others were lacking some context. But in the end, I was a huge, HUGE sucker for this first love story and Meyers tapped into every emotion that I have ever felt. While the book, in my opinion, isn’t a masterpiece, it did its job well.
I was sucked into the world that Meyers created, falling in love with a boy who had the power to end me. This story brought me back to high school and the first moment I fell in love. It brought back how it felt to lose sleep and all rational thought because of someone. And in the end, aside from any shortcomings Twilight may have had, it brought back a love of love story.
Related articles
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- Day Twenty: Why Twilight is Just Another Harlequin Romance (Breaking Dawn, Chapters 2-3) (summerswithvampires.wordpress.com)
