Twilight

Hello blogosphere! Today I am doing a book you may not have heard of...it's called "Twilight". Apparently, there have been some movies made out of the series and it's really popular with teenage girls and it's a global bestseller. Just kidding. If you haven't heard of Twilight, you might have been living under a rock for the past five years. But just in case you have, here is my official review of Twilight. However, it comes with a slight disclaimer: I am no longer a Twihard. I have recovered from the Twilight addiction and am now able to look past the superficial story line and dig into something deeper. So for the next few days I am going to review the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and be warned: I am about to make millions of teenage girls a little mad.

Characters: Bella Swan: recently moved to Forks/is crazy clumsy/wants to know Edward Cullen's secret
Edward Cullen: has a secret he wants to keep from everyone around him/has a very low body temperature/he is a vampire
Charlie Swan: Bella's father/chief of police in Forks/really good friends with Billy Black
Mike Newton: likes Bella/cannot stand Edward/one of Bella's new friends at her high school
Alice Cullen: another vampire/has the ability to see the future/one of the only members of Edward's family that actually likes Bella

The Plot: Bella Swan hates everything about her new hometown of Forks. It's cold, rainy and is a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. But when Bella meets Edward Cullen, her whole life changes. After a hostile encounter in Biology class, Bella assumes Edward hates her, but when he repeatedly saves her life in a series of mysterious events, Bella has to reexamine what she thought about Edward Cullen in the first place. As she delves deeper into the mystery, Bella begins to realize that Edward Cullen isn't human. He is something else entirely. He is a vampire. A vampire that could kill her at any moment whenever she is with him.

What I liked: The first time I read Twilight, I finished it in about two days. I flew through it. I cannot explain the hold this book has on people, myself included, but for some reason I was completely hooked the entire novel. Smarter people than me have tried and failed to understand the power Twilight has over the mind as soon as you read the book. If I had to guess what it was though, I would have to guess that the deciding factor here is Edward Cullen. At one point, and I am ashamed to admit it, I was on Team Edward too (book three reference sorry). Edward is pretty much the "ideal" guy for a teen girl: brooding, good looking and mysterious... he is a teen dream. I was able to realize while reading he is not the ideal boyfriend (not even close) but teen girls all over America compare every guy they meet to Edward Cullen. Basically I was one of a million teen girls who was high on Twilight. And you cannot deny that Stephenie Meyer can create an addicting book, just how she did it boggles the mind.

What I didn't like: This is why Twilight baffles me. Twilight is so addicting but if you stop reading the romance and look at the book as Twilight and not A Diary of How Edward Cullen Is Totally Awesome, the cracks in Stephenie Meyer's beloved novel begin to show. To be fair though, the cracks aren't as pronounced as in later books. So if I am going to focus just on this book, we should focus on the characters - stalker Edward and super dependent Bella. Hello my name is stalker Edward let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am an undead vampire. I am like totally in love with this girl I just met at my school. In case you didn't know, I cannot sleep at night so I decided to spy on this girl while she sleeps in order to learn more about her. Don't worry I promise I'm not a stalker and she is totally okay with it. Hey I'm super dependent Bella and I am like totally in love with Edward. He's so hot like I feel the need to describe how hot and good looking he is and how inferior I am compared to him every ten seconds. Did I mention he is hot? This is literally Bella and Edward's relationship. In Twilight, it is not as disturbing but their relationship becomes more and more unhealthy as the books go on. So I guess you could say that I find it upsetting that our main characters are a girl with no hobbies, interests, or redeeming qualities and a stalker, vampire boyfriend. Sweet.

Overall: 6 out of 10. While I cannot explain it, Twilight is a compelling read that makes you ignore all the other glaring defects. However, as you will see in my next review, the cracks become fissures that split open Meyer's other novels. Her poor writing, limited vocabulary, and one-dimensional characters turn her novels into a mess of a series that resorts to playing with teenage emotions in a last ditch effort to save a dying series.