Twilight (Twilight Saga, #1)

by Stephenie Meyer

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. When she meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen - a vampire - her life takes a thrilling and terrifying romantic turn.

• ISBN10: 0316015849
• ISBN13: 9780316015844
• Publish Date: 1 September 2006 (first published 27 September 2005)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 10 May 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Megan Tingley Books
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 498
• Language: English

Reviews

[Laurie]

This is my first reread since 2009 and honestly I felt SO nostalgic! I noticed that I remembered things differently, things that I thought happened in the book, actually happened in the movie. Anyway, I enjoyed this reread and will continue rereading this series in preparation of Midnight Sun.

[lauriesbookshelf]

This is my first reread since 2009 and honestly I felt SO nostalgic! I noticed that I remembered things differently, things that I thought happened in the book, actually happened in the movie. Anyway, I enjoyed this reread and will continue rereading this series in preparation of Midnight Sun.

[Berls]

enjoyed it as always. When James showed up I really was less interested though. I like the interactions between characters more than the action/suspense

[moraa]

I mean I read this book years back when I was young and naive but I liked it. I'm not sure how much I'd like it if I read it now but there was something about the outsider Bella and the brooding Edward that my mind was attracted to.
All in all, it was good... for my 13 year old self.

[kymmiejournals]

I can’t believe I would read this book. I mean, I thought it was cheesy and for hopeless romantic people but I guess I’m one of them now. I like the book better than the movie, however the movie’s helpful too that I can recall important details while reading which makes it less difficult to imagine a few places or situations. Honestly, the Bella and Edward on my mind isn’t the same as in the movie, I imagined them as really young. I like the character of Jacob here, fun and warm - not sure if it’ll change on the next book (we’ll see) Totally love it! I didn’t notice what page I’m in because I keep reading, a real page turner!

[Stephanie]

Let me just start off with when I last read Twilight, I was 16, and I LOVED the book. I read it about a year before the movie really hyped it up and I was in my own little happy Twilight bubble. But then all the criticism came out about it, and they obviously made good points and it completely turned me off to the book series. The movie really did ruin the series for me, which was such a bummer for me because these books were one of the few things that made me happy during a pretty rough time in my life.

So why did I feel the need to reread Twilight after 10 years of not touching the books? I have no idea, but since I've been in a terrible reading slump since February, I felt the pull to reread Twilight, so I went with it because at least I was reading something.

I actually sped through the first 200 pages, only because I remembered certain scenes and wanted to get to them quickly to see what I thought about everything now. But then I hit the 300 mark and hit a wall and it took me about 2 months to pick the book back up, and I only did that because I made it 300 pages in, I might as well finish it.

I am honestly shocked by how bad the writing was (and how did it not bother me at 16?). It was so bland, I felt like I was reading everything in a monotoned voice. Every time I read a sentence, I was mentally editing the sentence to make it better, which is kind of exhausting after a while. And I really was not feeling the love between Edward and Bella. I did not care about their relationship at all, which made reading the book even more difficult since, you know, that's the focus of the book.

So, this experiment was kind of fun, until it wasn't.

[verkaskodova]

Kecala bych, kdybych tvrdila, že si pamatuju kolikrát jsem to četla (čtyřikrát, nebo pětkrát?), tohle bylo každopádně poprvé v angličtině. Možná trochu guilty pleasure, ale stejně jsem si to užila.

P.S. I regret nothing.

[cornerfolds]

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Check out my live tweeting here http://storify.com/knowledgelost/reading-twilight

I don’t think I need to tell people what this book is about; rather I need to explain my actions,which I have done in a blog post called Reading Twilight, where you can read what made me pick this book up and just how crazy I was. Also you can read my live tweeting of the book which was the only way I was able to get through the story without rage quitting.

Twilight is an escapist book, plain and simple; I don’t fit in the demographic of this book so I’m reading it and looking at how this would translate in real life and not the fantasy. I want to take the time and look at the book as well as the difference between reality and the fantasy. I might be a little harsh and I’m not trying to make anyone that enjoys this book and the fantasy feel bad; this is just how I see the book.

First of all let’s look at Isabella Swan; the everywoman of the book but this is assuming that women are post-feminist, co-dependent, quick to fall in love women that are full of angst or have a morbid obsession with death. I’ve been told that women do fantasise about the post-feminist lifestyle but in reality most of them don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen. The little descriptions we do have about Bella has been made out to be a needy woman with no notion of independence and what she really wants; I hated her from the start. Apparently the lack of descriptions about Belle is so that female readers can put themselves in her shoes and live out this fantasy but really do people even like Bella, let alone be in her shoes?

Then you have the love interest, Edward Cullen who I tend to associate with Mr Rochester (whose name is also Edward) since I know there is this link to the Brontë sisters that tries to be made but really comparing the two feels futile, the only links I see have to do with sexuality and proto/post-feminism. I get the sense that Edward Cullen is supposed to be this Byronic hero but all I see is the type of man woman need to run away from; a jealous, controlling asshole that stalks his girlfriend. Now the Byronic hero is as Lord Macaulay describes it “a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.” While there are similarities between Edward Cullen and the Byronic hero (to me anyway) he doesn’t really fit the mould.

Someone told me that the blood in Twilight is a metaphor of adolescent sexuality which is interesting and explains why Stephenie Meyer went to all that effort in explaining why Belle got nauseous at the sight and smell of blood. This brings up another fantasy; the older more experienced man. While I don’t really want to compare this book to other novels (I’m sorry Brontë’s and the whole Romantic era) but this is almost like a polar opposite to Tampa. One explores the fantasy of a younger partner; getting them before they have been tainted by the world which is problematic because that person ends up being the one to corrupt and break that young man. Twilight looks at the older partner; but not in the same in-depth way. this plays out the fantasy and it’s up to the reader to look for the problems with a naive woman dating an older man (hint reverse the roles in Tampa or read Lolita). I’m not saying it doesn’t work, because it does work; I’m just looking at Twilight critically and wanted to look at fantasy verses reality.

I’m sure there are positive themes within this novel that you can explore like, sacrifices you make for the one you love, true love conquers all and even overcoming the bad within you to be a better person or vampire. I think those themes are in the book but for me they feel problematic, firstly Edward continues to tell Bella that she should run away but they never do and I got frustrated with them repeating the same conversation over and over and never making the sacrifice for the good of the other. Then I don’t believe this is a good example of true love, they hardly knew each other and they were madly in love, they never sacrifice for the good of the other and they are co-dependant, jealous, stalkers; to me this is not true love, this is a teenage relationship or something creepy. Finally overcoming the bad within to be a better person, the only example of that is the vampires eat animals rather than humans.

I’m going to overlook the obvious problem with the vampire mythology because it’s been done to death but I want to leave you with one thought (which you can answer in the comments if you like). Stephenie Meyer obviously has an interest in the romantic era and the Brontë sisters but is Twilight reflecting the ideas made by the romantic poets or has it missed the point completely? As you can see I didn’t like this book at all and I read it too fast to try and pull any more critical thoughts from the novel, but I think I have enough ammunition against Twilight. I hope I didn’t offend the people that enjoy this book, it’s escapism and I’m reading it critically so that might be my problem.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/08/09/book-rage-twilight/

[CrowNoYami]

Up until the last book I loved this series. I was never a big fan of Bella (which considering she's the main character that's something) but I am a fan of the concept of 'veggie' vampires, and of them having their own personalized gifts.