Meyer, Stephanie: Twilight
Twilight
Writer: Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal Romance
Pages: 498
I'd never heard of Stephenie Meyer or her books until an article ran in Entertainment Weekly ran just prior to the release of the third book. This came just off the heels of Harry Potter, and the article speculated that Meyer's series was to teenage girls what Harry Potter was to YA on the whole. Or something like that. The point was that Meyer was the "next big thing."
So I was curious, but not overly so. Then a friend of mine recommended the book to me. And I kept seeing people squee about it on LJ, going so far as to make fan art of the characters, even though the movie hasn't even been cast yet. Curiosity got the better of me so I went ahead and picked it up. And stared at it, suspicious. Finally moved it to my "to-read" pile.
By now, I should know better than to think, "Oh, I'll just read the first chapter before I go work on X, Y, or Z." Really, I should. Because every time I think that, I end up getting sucked into the book and can't put it down until the wee hours of the morning.
Which is pretty much what happened with Twilight.
It's easy to see why teenage girls love this book (series) so much. I mean, what girl DOESN'T want to imagine herself attracting the adoration and love of a perfectly beautiful and gorgeous guy who's completely devoted to her, especially if she herself isn't exactly the prettiest girl in the market, and is also accident-prone? Couple that with the subconscious attraction girls/women seem to have for boys/men who aren't good for them, and you've got gold. After all, even though Edward IS a vampire, he'd never intentionally hurt Bella, so the fact that he's a vampire isn't important. What's important is the TRUE LOVE.
Seriously, it's not hard to figure out why the book is so popular, particularly with its target audience.
What drew me in to this was first Bella's voice. I'm a fan of the first person narrative, and even though she sounded old for her age (a fact that's addressed in the book, so good for Meyer), I was hooked pretty quickly. I was curious why she left her mom, who she clearly loves, to live with her dad in a place she clearly hates. I was amused by the fact she ended up LOVING the clunker of a truck her dad bought for her, because in this day of materialism, it's hard to find people who don't need or want something new and shiny (and I know when I was Bella's age, the LAST thing I wanted was a clunker of a truck). So she's not your usual teen, but usual enough in her shyness and awkwardness that you can't help but sympathize with her. Her first day in high school felt pretty realistic, and while I was at first dubious about all the boys fawning all over her, it made sense, and even Bella pointed it out: in a small town, someone new is BOUND to be the most attractive option in the place, simply because the newness makes that person attractive.
But what hooked me was Edward's reaction to her: the hate and the malice, and even though I knew ahead of time he was a vampire, I still couldn't figure out what his aversion was (even though it turned out to be obvious). So I kept reading to figure out what Edward's problem was and how Bella would handle it, and found that the more I read, the more I couldn't put it down, because I wanted to find out what would happen next.
I'll admit, I like Edward and Bella better when they're antagonizing each other, but I can see why they fell into their relationship so quickly, because of Edward's need to protect her, something that's hard to do when you have to stay away from the person you're protecting. And I liked Bella's rationalization to figuring out he was a vampire and what she was going to do about it. Not that it was the smartest decision in the world, but she wasn't going to run away either, and I can admire that.
I'm still mulling over the fact that Edward can't read Bella, which is, of course, one of the things that makes her so fascinating to him. I like that he can't, but we don't have a good "explanation" for it either. What does it mean in this world of supernatural creatures? After all, in this book we learn vampires exist, and if you pay attention (Bella isn't), you know werewolves exist in this world too. So is this quirk/ability of Bella's going to lead somewhere? Will it mean something? Or is it merely a device for Edward's fascination and an obstacle that he can't hear her when she needs help?
And while I'm glad the "why don't you just make me a vampire?" issue is addressed in this book, it concerns me a little bit about how much Bella WANTS this to happen. In some ways, it's easy to read her love as pure infatuation. A crush. Which makes her desire to become immortal just so she can stay with Edward even more disturbing, because my adult mind wonders what's going to happen if it doesn't last? Obviously, this is going to be addressed in later books, and it'll be interesting to see how Meyers handles it.
Yes, Bella is often a damsel in distress. But she still makes choices, and that I appreciate. She's the one to come up with the plan to save herself, her family, and keep the Cullen family out of trouble. She's also the one who chooses to confront James, even though it's all a trap. And while I would've liked to see a human way for her to defeat the vampire, I can't complain too much, not yet. Maybe in later books. Meyers has done a pretty good job showing us vampire culture, dispelling some myths while creating new ones (the sunlight thing is a lovely touch), but she won't tell us how one kills a vampire, other than to say it's insanely hard. That irks me a bit, but I can't say I want to see Bella going all slayer over the ass of any vampire who tries to eat her, but again, choices are important. It'll be interesting to see how all of this develops, especially considering that from the moment Bella meets Edward, her number is up. In a way, she's simply living on borrowed time.
So it's easy to see why this book/series is so popular with its intended audience. I enjoyed the hell out of reading it, but I'm not so anxious to get the next books in the series, since I bought this one in trade and the other two are in hardback. And just to quench the need to read them ASAP, I looked up enough spoilers to keep my curiosity at bay. ;) The one thing that has be curious about this book--and maybe it'll come up in later books, but I don't think so--is all the talk about the eroticism of it. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but I swear I kept hearing "erotic" used to describe this book, and I'm sorry, but no. There's nothing erotic about this book. Sensual, yes. Tantalizing, yes. But erotic? No. Maybe there's a different definition of erotic when it comes to adult fiction versus YA fiction, but even considering that possibility, there's nothing in this book that truly be described as erotic.
Writing-wise, Meyer has a few writing ticks, and she's got a horrible dependence on the word "grimace," which is horribly overused in the course of these 500 pages. Still, I couldn't put the book down, and I certainly enjoyed myself while reading it (there's some nice moments of humor, and Bella is a plucky character), so I look forward to the rest of the series. When it comes out in trade, that is.
Next review (still! Sorry!): Visual Journeys: A Tribute to Space Artists edited by Eric T. Reynolds
Next read: Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge