Twilight Novel Review

The first Twilight novel sets the scene for a dark romantic saga and is bound to keep you reading into the vampire hours of the night. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005): Before the first Twilight book came on the scene, vampires had long belonged to the horror genre. When you mentioned the word vampire, literary works such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles came to mind. Twilight, however, was the first book to bring vampires to a mass readership and appeal to fans of horror, fantasy, and romance alike. 

This has led to a new fantasy sub-genre, of vampire romance. So just what is it about this story that makes it so widely appealing? Is it the teen angst that we can all relate to, the idea of forbidden love, or the backdrop of imminent danger? Is it the story itself or the way Stephenie brings it to life on the page? For me, it’s all these things, and more. I love every moment of the story, the development of the characters, the discovery of Edward’s dark but alluring nature, and most of all Bella’s commitment to love above all things. For what is life if we don’t follow our hearts, regardless of the consequences?  

The story

This, like all four Twilight books, revolves around 17-year-old Bella Swan. Bella moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to the rainy town of Forks, Washington, to live with her dad, Charlie. At first she’s depressed by the dismal weather and dreading her first day at school. But then she encounters the pale, brooding Edward Cullen and life in Forks becomes a whole lot more hnteresting. When Bella sees the Cullen siblings for the first time, in the school cafeteria, she can’t take her eyes off them. She is intrigued by their strangeness and fixated by their physical perfection. She finds herself drawn to Edward and is distressed when he in turn seems repulsed by her. 

We later find out that he is, in fact, tortured by the effort not to drink her blood because it’s so inordinately appealing to him. Bella tries to resist her attraction to Edward but it is a fruitless effort. She is annoyed by his often-aloof behavior and, unaware of his vampire condition, can’t quite figure him out. But when he jumps in front of a van to save her, she is unconvinced by his claims that she imagined his super-human strength. That’s when she begins to wonder just who and what he is.