Twilight...Review

About the book:
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, Isabella'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 Isabella, 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.

Well, I read it. I needed a break from all the quilting novels that seemed to come my way, and I love a good vampire story. The reviews called it "gripping" and "suspenseful." I'd call it over-rated. I liked it, although I didn't LOVE it and I'm not jumping on the I-love-Edward-bandwagon any time soon. (My favorite vampire is, and always will be, Angel. I have all 5 seasons on DVD, most of the books, and a life-size cardboard cutout of David Boreanaz as Angel, in my home office. It used to be in my professional office, but I couldn't get rid of him when I quit working, so my husband humors me. But, I digress...)

I thought this book was a slow starter. The first 150 pages were awkward. It was as if Meyer was trying too hard: the dialogue was awkward and clunky at first. The editor of this book really needs to go back to school. It's as if they looked at the draft and said, "Oh look. Sexy vampire. Leave it as it is!" It needs a really good edit. I read this book over a couple of days, rather than in one sitting, and honestly, I almost didn't finish it. I was well into it before it finally captured my attention. Her character development improved greatly by the end of the book.

I really have a hard time seeing what Edward would see in someone like Bella, who is stupid instead of being strong. How someone like Edward could even look twice at her is beyond me. Well, we know why he looked twice: he couldn't read her, so he was fascinated. But there is no substance to her at all. It's all "poor me, I love a vampire and he won't make me be like him, sob, sob. I can't go on without him, sob, sob." She's annoying and I can't find any reason to like her, let alone have any sympathy for her. And the whole, "I can't be intimate with you because I'll hurt you thing" has the potential to get old really fast.

Meyer's take on the vampire genre and mythology was interesting. I liked the "family" aspect and how most of them accepted Edward's love for Bella and tried to protect her. I'll read the rest of the series when it comes in at the library, I probably wouldn't purchase them on my own. Although, I will admit that the potential is there for this series to grow on me. We'll see what happens. I'm hoping that like The Devil Wears Prada, the movie adaptation is better than the book!

I think that this book would have been better if it weren't written in first person. Bella is so shallow that you don't get the character development from the other characters. In this story, especially, there would have been so much more depth if it was told in third person, where we actually get Edward's reaction to Bella, rather than simply Bella's confusion.

Updated: Summer has a great post on her blog about the Edward/Bella story. She says it better than I can. There are spoilers for the other books.

Thanks to my local library for having a copy I could borrow.

Read 12/07

* *
2/5 Stars