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The movie Twilight is based on the New York Times Best Seller written by Stephenie Meyer. Her book sold over 17 million copies. The romance novel involving the torrid love affair among Bella (a mortal) and Edward (a vampire) is considered one of the best books of the decade. It will be interesting to see how this story translates to screen. With award winning conductor Catherine Hardwick calling the shots behind the camera and a cult following with over 300 fan sites, the movie Twilight has the potential to be an sheer blockbuster. Many people are exceedingly excessively affected emotionally to see this literary masterwork make the transfer to the huge screen, but a big portion of people are not excessively affected emotionally by this prospect. Some argue that the movie version will not do the book justice and that it could potentially shed an unjust negative light on the precious series. Only time will tell if the movie will pay this awful book a reasonable tribute that it undoubtedly deserves.
Twilight is a love story where a girl named Bella Swan falls in love with a vampire named Edward. Bella is somewhat of an outcast, who perpetually feels misunderstood and bored by the persons her age. She stays proceeds in this melancholy state until she meets and falls in love with a Vampire. Bella is the classic girl who never in truth fit in. She goes to school with a bunch of preppy kids in Phoenix Arizona and then she finally moves to Washington to stay with her dad.
When she moves to Washington she is not happy at first. She feels like the move has brought her not one thing but more of the same. It isn’t until she at long last meets a young man who she fines most intriguing. It turns out this boy she is so mesmerized in, Edward, is genuinely a vampire. Edward and his family are much dissimilar than your mutual vampire. Edward and his family follow a dissimilar pattern than most vampires in that they don’t feed on humans. Not only do they not attack, kill, and slaughter humans, but they also choose not to drink the blood of humans, in spite of being very much aroused by the prospect. They have moral hang-ups with killing humans so they fight their desire daily. Edward and his family likewise do not have fangs, something mutual to most vampire.
Bella and Edward soon fall in love, fulfilling a deep longing that has pained Edward for galore 90 years. Their deep love is shadowed by a dark twist, in that Edward must fight a primal urge to consume blood. At any moment he could be swept up by this urge and convert Bella into a vampire on accident.
Despite Edwards inner struggle, the two’s romance seems as if it will be ceaseless until a band of vampires move into their town and totally shake things up.
Twilight
The #1 New York Times bestseller is available for the firstborn time in a mass market paperback edition, featuring a striking movie tie-in cover.
Bella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, constantly 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 mystery in the little community he lives in, but now not a single soul is safe, exceptionally Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.
Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle among defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.
Review”Softly he brushed my cheek, then kept my face amidst his marble hands. ‘Be very still,’ he whispered, as if I wasn’t already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek versus the hollow at the base of my throat.”
As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beauteous Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because–he’s a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than share from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the (erotic|sexual pleasure|sexually arousing tension of their dangerous and inevitably chaste relationship.
Meyer has achieved rather a feat by making this scenario totally humane and believable. She begins with a intimate YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the little town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders regarding a group of five to an outstanding degree beauteous teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, portion of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce humane prey. For Edward’s sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile humane in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer’s writing lifts this terrifi novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place amid the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up) –Patty Campbell
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Stephenie Meyer
 Q: Were you a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Angel? What are you observing now that those shows are off the air?
A: I have never seen an entire episode of Buffy or Angel. While I was writing Twilight, I let my older sister read along chapter by chapter. She’s a huge Buffy fan and she held attempting to get me to watch, but I was afraid it would mess up my imagination of the vampire world so I never did.
I don’t have a ton of time for TV, and my kids get rowdy when I have on “mommy shows,” but I do have a mystery fondness for reality shows (the good ones, at least in my opinion). I always TiVo Survivor, The Amazing Race, and America’s Next Top Model.
Q: What inspired you to write Twilight? Is this the beginning of a series? Why write for teens?
A: Twilight was inspired by a very bright dream, which is reasonably in a faithful manner transcribed as chapter thirteen of the book. There are sequels on the way–I’m hard at work editing book two (tentatively titled New Moon) right now, and book three is waiting in line for it is turn.
I didn’t mean to write for teens–I didn’t mean to write for any person but myself, so I had an audience of one twenty-nine year old (and later one thirty-one year old when my sister started reading). I think the reason that I ended up with a book for teens is because high school is such a compelling time period–it gives you some of your worst scars and some of your most exhilarating memories. It’s a arousing and attention holding place: old sufficient to feel veritably adult, old sufficient to make conclusions that affect the rest of your life, old sufficient to fall in love, yet, at the same time too young (in most cases) to be free to make a lot of those conclusions without somebody else’s approval. There’s a lot of scope for a novel in that.
Q: What is your favored vampire story? Fave vampire movie?
A: I guess my bestloved vampire story would be The Vampire Lestat, by Anne Rice, plainly because it’s one of the only ones I’ve ever read. I keep meaning to pick up Bram Stoker’s Dracula, because I get asked this question so often times and I ought to in all likelihood start out with the classics, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Again, I’m afraid to read other vampire books now, for fear of finding things either too similar, or too dissimilar from my own vampire world.
Ack! I can’t even answer the movie question. I can’t do not forget ever seeing a single vampire movie, outside of clips from Bela Lugosi movies on TV. I don’t like true horror movies–my favored scary movies are all Hitchcock’s.
Q: What other young adult writers do you read?
A: My favored young adult author is L.M. Montgomery I also take pleasure in J.K. Rowling (but who doesn’t?), and Ann Brashares. As a teen, I skipped straight to adult books (lots of sci-fi and Jane Austen), so I’m rediscovering the world of teen creative writing of recognized artisti value now.
Stephenie Meyer’s List of Books You Should Read
Anne of Green Gables |
Romeo and Juliet |
Dragonflight |
To Kill a Mockingbird |
The Princess Bride |
See more recommendations from Stephenie Meyer
Q&A with Stephanie Meyer
Q: What book has had the most substantial affect on your life?
A: The book with the most substantial affect on my life is The Book of Mormon. The book with the most substantial affect on my life as a writer is probably Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card, with Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier coming in as a close second.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD–what are they?
A: The CD is easy: Absolution by Muse, hands down. It’s harder to give myself just one movie, but the one I watch most often is Sense and Sensibility–the one with the screenplay by Emma Thompson. One book is impossible. I’d have to have Pride and Prejudice, but I couldn’t live without something by Orson Scott Card and a nice, thick Maeve Binchy, too.
Q: What is the worst lie you’ve ever told?
A: My lies are all very, very boring: “No, you in truth look outstanding in hot pink!” “My children only watch one hour of TV a day.” “I didn’t eat the last Swiss Cake Roll–it will have to have been one of the kids.” That’s the best I’ve got.
Q: Describe the perfective writing environment.
A: It’s late at night and the house is silent, but I’m still (miraculously) full of energy. I have my headphones in and I’m listened to a mix of Muse, Coldplay, Travis, My Chemical Romance, and The All-American Rejects. Beside me is a fabulous, and yet mysteriously low in calorie, cheesecake….
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: I’d like it to say that I actually tried at the indispensable things. I was never perfective at any of them, but I candidly tried to be a great mom, a loving wife, a good daughter, and a unfeigned friend. Under that, I’d want a list of my favored Simpsons quotes.
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: I’d love to have a chance to talk to Orson Scott Card–I have a million questions for him. Mostly things like, “How do you come up with this stuff?!” But, if he wasn’t available, I’d settle for Matthew Bellamy (lead singer of Muse).
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: I’d want something offensive, rather than defensive. Like shooting fireballs from my hands. That way, you’re in truth open to going either way–hero or villain. I like to have choices.
From School Library JournalGrade 9 Up–When Bella Swan moves from sunny Phoenix to Forks, Washington, a damp and dreary town known for the most rainfall in the United States, to live with her dad, she isnt expecting to like it. But the level of hostility displayed by her standoffish high school biology lab partner, Edward Cullen, surprises her. After various strange interactions, his preternatural beauty, strength, and speed have her intrigued. Edward is just as mesmerized with Bella, and their attraction to one another grows. As Bella discovers more regarding Edwards nature and his family, she is thrown headlong into a dangerous adventure that has her making a desperate sacrifice to save her one unfeigned love. One of the more initial vampire constructs around, this recording of Stephenie Meyers debut novel (Megan Tingley Books, 2005) is narrated with outstanding style by Ilyana Kadushin, who makes the infinitely romantic tale of star-crossed lovers resonate with a bittersweet edge. Although Edward and Bellas romance and subsequent peril gives rise to slowly, the pacing is suitable for teens who want learn all the details in this suspenseful tale. An magnificent buy for both school and public libraries.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. In the tradition of Anne Rice and YA titles such as Annette Curtis Klause’s The Silver Kiss (1999) comes this heady romance that intertwines Bella Swan’s life with that of Edward, an alluring and tormented vampire. Bella’s life changes when she moves to perpetually rain-soaked Forks, Washington. She is without any delay drawn to a fellow student, Edward Cullen, finelooking beyond faith and angrily aloof. Bella senses there is more behind Edward’s hostility, and in a plot that tardily and frighteningly unfolds, she learns that Edward and his family are vampires–though they do not hunt humans. Yet Edward cannot promise that his powerful attraction to Bella won’t put in her in danger, or worse. Recklessly in love, Bella wants only to be with Edward, but when a vicious, blood-lusting predator complicates her world, Bella’s danger is barbarically revealed. This is a book of the senses: Edward is basi attracted by Bella’s scent; ironically, Bella is drove when she sees blood. Their love is palpable, intensified by their touches, and teens will respond viscerally. There are a heap of flaws here–a plot that could have been tightened, an overreliance on adjectives and adverbs to bolster dialogue–but this dark romance seeps into the soul. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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857 of 966 people found the following review helpful.
 Are you guys serious?
By Rachel Rooker
I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. I thought young adult fiction had hit it is low point with Eragon, but apparently I was wrong. Bella Swan (literally, “beautiful swan,” which must be a red flag to any discerning reader) moves to the rainy town of Forks, and the whining begins on page 1. She goes to live with her father Charlie, and is speedily established to be a mopey, ungrateful, self-pitying little toerag. Bella then attends her new school, which turns out to be an all-out caricature of high school with regarding zero (rounding up) grounding in real life. Her classmates’ reaction may be summed up thusly: “OMG. NEW STUDENT. OMG YOU GUYS, NEW STUDENT. STARE AT HER, FOR SHE IS CLEARLY SUPERIOR TO US.” Bella Sue is promptly adored by everyone in the school, except the mysterious Cullens, who spend their time brooding, being pretty, smoldering, being perfect, and sparkling. No, seriously. NO, SERIOUSLY. Bella meets Edward, the Culleniest of the Cullens, (meaning he is more perfective and emo than the rest of them,) they fall in love within thirty pages, (much of this time is expended in Bella’s head going back and forth among “Does he like me?” “Does he hate me?” “Do I like him?” “Why does he hate me?” and on and on and on AND ON. That is, when she’s not being a horrid snobby twit to the boys at school who show affection in genuinely sweet ways, i.e., not breaking into her house and observing her while she sleeps. While she sleeps. Not knowing that he’s there. IN HER HOUSE.) The plot shows up someplace in the last fifty pages, which involves an EVIIIIIILL vampire named James who wants to eat Bella. James is the only reputation I like.
I in general undertake to find something redeeming with regards to books, but I frankly have not one thing good to say with regards to this drivel. Meyer writes as if the reader is an sheer moron who has to be told each sing tiny little thing; we are never given the probability to interpret what’s going on in the characters’ heads. There is no mystery, no intrigue, no suspense. The characters themselves are cut-and-dried, stereotypical, and maddeningly unoriginal. Bella’s (supposedly) the clever, gorgeous heroine, Edward’s the dark, brooding bad boy, James is… uh, the guy that wants to eat Bella. Meyer distinctly wants Bella to be a strong female character, but the horrid sad truth is that she’s pathetic. Bella follows Edward’s each word religiously, never sticks up for herself, has no spine to speak of, plays Suzie Housewife to her father, and has no existence outside of her “romance” with Edward. On that note, let it be said that Nathaniel Hawthorne got more romance into a few lines regarding a rosebush than Meyer managed to cram into 400 pages. Edward and Bella’s kinship comprises closely completely of staring at each other dewey-eyed and arguing when it comes to who’s prettier (NO I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.)
You know what? This could have been a outstanding book if Meyer had focussed more on the kinship among the leads, (and treated it for what it is: unhealthy, creepy, pathetic, borderline psychopathic,) and less on how perfective Edward is (interesting note: the word “perfect” or affiliated terms like “flawless” are used to describe Edward more than a hundred times. That’s just bad writing, guys.) What burns me up most regarding this book is that Edward and Bella are plainly meant to portray the perfective couple. Yeah, I actually want my hypothetical daughter to walk out on her family for a guy she scarcely knows, invite said guy to sleep in her bed, have utterly no life outside of said guy, and turn into a sniveling wreck when this guy looks at her the faulty way. And I likewise actually want my hypothetical son to break into his girlfriend’s house and watch her sleep (SERIOUSLY, GUYS?) , abandon whatsoever life he has so he may stalk this girl, and be so possessive of her that he throws a fit whenever she so much as looks at somebody other than him. And persons think these two are good role models? WHAT. JUST WHAT.
This book genuinely wouldn’t bother me if it were being taken for what it is: a silly, sappy, shallow, juvenile, wish-fulfilling rag. The fact is, every one is going on in regards to how it is literary merit rivals the frakking “Scarlet Letter” and how Bella Swan is the new Elizabeth Bennet (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?). “Twilight” will have to be rotting on galore publisher’s desk in a pile of rejection letters; not being lauded as the greatest novel since “Pride and Prejudice.” I weep for literature.
947 of 1068 people found the following review helpful.
 Good for a rainy day fantasy…
By T. Adlam
It seems this book has received massive amounts of acclaim, but I never heard of it until I decisive to watch The Dark Knight. A preview for the movie Twilight came on and noted that it was based on the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer. Since the preview looked good and I prefer to read books before seeing the movie, I picked up a copy.
Now that you know why I purchased the book, I will have to likewise mention that I’m not inevitably the target demographic and haven’t been for a few years. But that doesn’t mean I don’t take delight in the good YA fantasy fiction book each now and again. (I’ve been called a perpetual teenager on more than one occasion.)
I’m going to undertake and keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. In case you haven’t already collected it from other reviews, or the book description itself, Twilight is in regards to a young girl named Bella Swan who moves to Forks, Washington and finds herself in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. The climax of the story happens when a vampire who doesn’t refrain from feasting on humans, as the Cullen coven does, decides he wants Bella. Up until this point (first three quarters), the novel progresses at a moderate, but not lagging pace and then without any delay picks up.
The book itself is a rather easy read, however, the characters seem somewhat shallow. Bella is supposed to be an honour student, but behaves precisely the opposite. Edward, who has been in existence for more than a hundred years, ought to be more intellectual and far wiser than is portrayed in his character. Armed with this tidbit in regards to him, Meyer had a great deal of room to play around and mold him into so much more, but never veritably took that opportunity.
In fact, after finishing the initial book (I’ve read both Twilight and New Moon), I wondered what a century old vampire might find perfectly beautiful in a seemingly intermediate 17 year old girl, besides the fact that she smelled delectable, could pick out a mutual tune by Debussy, and had a penchant for identifying the mitotic phases of an onion. Even Bella herself wonders the same thing and makes it merely apparent by asking almost each other page what this splendid Adonis may perchance see in her, which became rather tiring.
(On another note, I’m still attempting to figure out how any person with dark circles under his eyes and lavender eyelids may be likened to Adonis. It could just be me, but the way Meyer described their features, I couldn’t support imagining a well-fed crack fiend half the time.)
While I don’t comprehend how the love amongst Bella and Edward may be so unfeigned and deep as made out in the book, giving careful consideration to they only knew each other for a few months, I may understand how Bella formed such a strong attachment to Edward: he saved her life on more than one occasion and, in a sense, has become her personal Superman. Is this right thinking? Dunno, but I guess constantly saving a girl who may scarcely walk without tripping does equate to being inexplicably lovable.
By the end of the novel, I realized that Bella’s character, even though stubborn, was unbelievably insecure–more so than one would suppose from the typical teenage girl–and Edward, arrogant as he may be, employed this insecurity to his gain (whether consciously or not), thence causing multiple crises of sense of right and wrong for “putting [her] in harm’s way”.
When one genuinely steps back from this novel and looks at the entire scope of it, the unfeigned dysfunction of their unhealthful kinship is plainly apparent.
Plus, Meyer’s overuse of the word incredulous begun grating on my senses, not to mention all the glaring, whining, cringing, grimacing, and her overpowering need to append a “he said” or “she said” to almost each bit of dialog that transpired. (Surely, even genuinely young minds are capable to keep up with the usual flow of dialog). And let’s not get started on the editing: You recognise the editor was asleep at the wheel, or either non-existent, when there’s a glaring grammatical error within the primary ten pages.
But, in spite of all of that, I enjoyed the book. Meyer is a terrifi storyteller. There was a cliffhanger at the end of each bite-sized chapter pressing the reader to proceed on, if for no other reason than to see who else is glaring or grimacing at whom. The story also had a light-hearted comedic edge which played in it is favor.
Rather than sentiment as altho I were trudging through a heavy piece of fantasy fiction, I was competent to let my mind relax and float into the story as if I were looking at galore queerly intoxicating reality show regarding a clumsy teenage girl and a exhaustively confused vampire. In the end, in spite of their flaws and not to the full or entire extent understanding their logic or reasoning, I even enjoyed the characters Meyer created.
This is a novel you ought to pick up when you just want to shut off your brain for a little while and escape reality. Basically, you shouldn’t undertake to read this novel with too severe an eye. Ideally, it will have to be read while curled up in your most comfortable outfit eating your bestloved snack with the lights dimmed, and television and phone turned off.
1349 of 1555 people found the following review helpful.
The legends are true; the vampires sparkle
By Elizabeth A. Barr
I wasn’t going to read this, but all the sparkly text and hystrionics on the internet piqued my curiosity. It took a couple of goes to get into it, but once the story hooked me, I found it difficult to put the book down — except for those moments when I had to stop and shriek at my friends, “SPARKLY VAMPIRES!” or “VAMPIRE BASEBALL!” or “WHY IS BELLA SO STUPID?” These moments came more and more oftentimes as I reached the climactic chapters, until I merely reached the point where I had to stop and flail around laughing.
The plot revolves around Bella Swan, a Mary Sue whose essential attainments seem to be having a martyr complex, attracting trouble, and falling down. She moves to the rainy town of Forks to live with her father after a heap of banal shenanigans make it totally unlikely to live with her mother. Or so she likes to claim, but like I said, one of Bella’s superpowers is Being a Martyr. At her new school, Bella is instantaneously feted as the queen of the social scene — every one likes her except (shock!) the impossibly finelooking Edward Cullen. Who is a vampire.
(Particularly grating is Bella’s OUTRAGE that the normal boys of Forks like her and want to spend time with her, and express this by being friendly and in an open way indicating that they have a romantic interest in her. I mean, sure, it’s awkward being the subject of undesirable romantic attention — or so I’ve heard — but at least they’re not playing creepy mind games and breaking into her house to watch her sleeping, because that would be — oh, hang on…)
Edward doesn’t genuinely hate Bella, he plainly lusts after her. I mean, wants to suck her blood. I mean, sniff after her creepily. Bella apparently poses a threat to the entire non-evil vampiric subculture, so of course Edward asks her to go steady with him. But not until they’ve expended many, many, numerous chapters engaged in tedious ‘banter’ that is perchance intended to remind the reader of Pride and Prejudice, or at least, remind the reader of a lot of fanfic based on a loose film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Then they hook up, and Edward glitters in the sun a bit.
Then a lot of evil vampires turn up, one of whom is obsessed with Bella. Why? Because her blood just smells that good. Apparently there are sequels — well, there’s no “apparently” with regards to it, I may see the sequels from where I’m sitting — but unless they implicate Bella Swan and the entire town of Forks being obliterated in a nuclear devastation, I don’t intend to read them.
Twilight will have to be taken as mindless fun, but it has a lot of subtextual ugliness that makes it is popularity disquieting. Bella is one of the most useless, insipid heroines I’ve came upon in a long time — and I genuinely love Fanny Price, btw — while Edward is like a textbook example of a creepy stalker boyfriend. There’s a strong factor of wish feeling of satisfaction — intermediate girl attracts bad boy who’s more than willing to change for her — but I cannot be comfortable with a text that portrays abuse as love. Apparently, the series is usual for it is temperance subtext — Edward and Bella can’t be together until their kinship has taken the proper form, that is, Bella’s a vampire — but perhaps parents must be marveling if it’s actually a good idea to conflate “marriage” with “death”.
Or, possibly, I’m overthinking. When a series has become this massive, I don’t think it hurts to give some severe brain-time to the question of what, exactly, is being consumed.
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