Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

WARNING: This review contains slight spoilers for Twilight and the series in general, but I'm assuming here that most people have already read these books, so this is mostly just me saying what I think about the whole thing 3 years late.

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When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.
What Bella doesn't realize is that the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And it might be too late to turn back...
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Many things have already been said about Twilight, both good and bad. It comes down to individual taste.

All in all I like the book. I have read the series many times now and still the story captivates me. It's far from the best of all books and it's not even the best in the series, but I do think it contains an overall good story. Many people have spent an incredibly amount of energy and time pointing out all the flaws and whatnots in the book, and honestly, though I can agree with some of their points, I don't understand why anyone will waste so much of their life on something they don't like (I especially don't understand people who haven't even read the full series yet still rant and rave - but that's an entirely different matter and I plan to return to the subject of hate culture in a later article - maybe).

Reading Twilight I'm mostly just reminded of my boyfriend as we're still in the gooey newly-in-love stage. Because that's what Twilight's all about. Love. Edward is often accused of being a possessive stalker and Bella an annoying empty headed goose who's far too fond of being a house wife. Personally I don't really mind either of them - because it's fiction and it's an idealized story about two soul mates finding one another. I'm not very fond of the ending of the book, mostly because it seems forced. Almost as if somebody stepped in and *demanded* some action.

Another thing many have argued about is the sparkles. Again, it's fiction and Meyer is perfectly allowed to make her vampires be exactly as she wants them. It can't all be Vlad Dracul. I'm not saying that I didn't choke on popcorn laughing when I first saw the film and he sparkled (with added sound effect bonus!) but still. Creative freedom and all that - at least she was somewhat original about it.

The writing style of Twilight is a bit clumsy, but Meyer improves throughout the series. I enjoyed the portrayal of the other characters through Bella's eye, and though a bit too spelled out, quite realistic in how teenagers act around each other. It's an easy and relatively quick read and even after having read it several times now, I still struggle to put it down during the really good bits.

434 pages / published in 2005
Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2011

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After reading Twilight, I read the unfinished draft of Midnight Sun which is available for download on Stephenie Meyer's website. It is Twilight - just from Edward's perspective. I thought it was a very interesting read, quite fun seeing it all from through his eyes. It seemed to contain a bit more humour and it tied up nicely with Twilight explaining and elaborating some things and just in general painting a bigger picture of who the Cullens are.
I'm not reviewing Midnight Sun as such, as it's an unfinished book. It was leaked back while she worked on it and she didn't feel like continuing on after that. It doesn't make much sense to read it on its own, but reading the two right after each other was quite fun.