Twilight Book Written by Stephanie Meyer
Teenager Belle Moves To Forks and Falls For Mysterious Boy Edward
Aug 24, 2009 Christopher Sharman
Book Information
Title: Twilight
Published by: ATOM New Edition Edition
Publish Date: 22 March 2007
ISBN-10: 1904233651
Isabelle “Bella” Swan moves from her mother’s house in Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her father. At the local school she becomes the focus for several of her male classmates and manages to form a few new friends. She also sits next to a boy named Edward Cullen, who seems to instantly dislike her, which is something she finds hurtful as there is no reason for him not to like her.
The definitive moment of their initial relationship comes when Bella is almost crushed by an out of control vehicle in the school’s car park. Edward appears out of nowhere, stopping the car with his bare hands and then disappearing just as abruptly. Later he denies anything happened, but Bella learns that he, and his family, are all vampires who feed on animals rather than people.
Twilight: The Plot and Characters
Bella seems to be a fairly typical teenage girl who is mesmerised by the gorgeous Cullen family, and Edward especially. Over time she comes to realise that Edward is a vampire and he reveals to her that the reason he seemed to hate her initially was because her blood smelled so sweet.
Bella gets into trouble several times and Edward saves her each time, he does comment that she seems to be a magnet for trouble.
Edward’s family seem to be unique in the vampire world because they have learned how to control their desire to feed on people. During the novel Bella and Edward fall in love but their relationship is threatened when three vampires who do feed on people arrive in town and one of them, James, targets Bella. What follows is the Cullen family trying to protect her and her family as they attempt to escape James.
The Pros and Cons of a Teenage Love Story
Essentially Twilight seems that this is a love story with a vampire twist, Edward and Bella are in love but they cannot be together because he is a vampire, so it could be argued that this is a kind of rehash of Romeo and Juliet.
Edward seems to be every average teenage girl’s fantasy, he is inhumanly handsome, strong, fast and just a little bit dangerous. The other guys in the story don’t get a look in as Bella wonders why the magnificently beautiful Edward seems to like her one minute and hate her the next before finally admitting his love for her
Unfortunately because Twilight is a love story with a vampire twist anyone hoping that there will be a decent amount of action will be disappointed. Edward can move a couple of tonnes of car without effort, yet sadly when James comes after Bella the potential battle between James and Edward for Bella’s life never materialises. Edward’s family don’t kill but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t kick some ass to protect the girl he loves.
The other key problem could be that the vampire in love with schoolgirl idea has been done, and done better. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s forbidden love for the vampire with a soul Angel. In Buffy, the two love each other, and get to beat demons senseless every week. So there was no real reason why Meyer’s could not have included an epic battle between James and Edward.
The Twilight reader will either like Bella or hate her. This is simply because every guy in her new school seems to fancy her, which does make you wonder if there are no other attractive women living in Forks. Bella also shamelessly manipulates Jacob, (another classmate), knowing that he also has a crush on her, into telling her more about Edward and then ditches him later on.
Verdict
Fans of a forbidden love story will love it; everyone else (who read it because they thought it would be about vampires) will probably wish they'd read a Buffy novel instead.
Twlight Front Cover
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