Review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I'm going to tell you about a little vampire love story I read this weekend. I think it's going to be huge. Okay, I might be the last person on the planet to have read Twilight! When I first heard about these books, I read that they were addictive, the series wasn't finished yet and so already being hopelessly in the lurch with Harry Potter, I decided to wait until I could just consume all the books at once. But then I kept hearing about them and it was impossible to avoid hearing lots of negative things as well as the positive. So it's likely a bit of that affected my own thoughts. So here goes:

I love vampire stories. It was a YA series about vampires that started my love in the junior high. I remember how my friends and I loved those books (I'm going to post more specifically about them for vampire day) and how I tried to recreate that experience by reading and watching all things vampire after that. There were, even way back then, a fair number of vampire books. I mention that because it became my biggest pet peeve to hear that Twilight started a vampire trend. I would like to point out that there are many very interesting vampire stories and vampire love stories that existed before Twilight, not least of which are the wonderful heartbreaking romances on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember at Comic-Con hearing someone describe True Blood as a story about a mortal girl in love with a vampire. The girl I was talking to said, "Oh it's like Twilight!" I smiled and responded, "and every vampire love story." thinking she would agree. She just looked at me and said, "oh but have you read Twilight?" (Charlaine Harris series was published before Twilight as well)

So it became apparent I needed to read Twilight. And I really wanted to read it before the movie as well.

(This is going to be longest post ever, all apologies!!!) I love romances as well. I love love love huge epic romances, thick with romantic tension and conflict. I kept hearing how Stephenie Meyer was a master of romantic tension, so I looked forward to the book.

This is definitely gripping reading and I have no problem whatsoever understanding why the teen girls love this book! The book starts out with Bella arriving in a new town one she hates but in this beginning she is doing what she thinks she must. The reason why is not entirely clear until later. Bella doesn't feel she is necessarily a pretty or outstanding girl but the guys fall all over in the beginning. She has eyes only for one "impossibly beautiful" boy with pale skin who seems to hate her from the start.

So the first half was pretty engaging as I waited for Bella and Edward to get together..but wow. Once they did I started wondering if anything else but them telling each other how wonderful they are was going to happen. And then...Bella actually swooned. I couldn't believe it! I almost threw the book. :) Don't get me wrong, I might actually swoon in Edward's presence as well, but it felt just a tiny bit over the top. Thankfully, shortly after this we were back to some action...some evil vamps and all!

So yes, lots of romantic tension and sappiness. Bordering, I felt almost on a little bit of emotional dependency. Even so, Edward is a wonderful vampire hero, impossible not to love, in his erratic mood swings and fierce protectiveness of Bella. In Bella's eyes he is perfect despite the major conflict they have where he sort of wants to drink her blood. He sizzles on the pages and in this way, Meyer effectively allows us transfer Bella's love into our love. :)

Meyer's vampire mythology is a little bit different from the norm. Mostly in how vampires are turned and killed.

One major complaint I've heard is that Meyer is not a good writer. While there was no sparkling prose, I found her writing to be adequate.

Soo...those are my thoughts on Twilight. I think it was pretty engrossing, I feel as though I need to devour the rest of the books and I keep thinking about Edward and Bella. Sigh. Definitely romantic, whether or not the romance is actually all that healthy remains to be seen. ;) (I wholeheartedly approve of the guy playing Edward by the way...he totally looks like my type. ;)

PS Shaun Groves song "Twilight" was going through my head all weekend. ;)