When I was fourteen years old I was really into the Flowers in the Attic series by Virginia Andrews. This, as far as I can make out, is the modern equivalent. I wanted to find out what all the fuss is about so I tried reading it. Twice.

The second time I made it to the point where Edward stood Bella up at the beach but it was just so... wet. I think Meyer has tapped into her audience beautifully. It's just that I am no longer an innocent teenage girl, so I can't help but be a little sickened by the sap, and worse, by the unhealthy messages: the erotics of abstinence. I think Judy Blume did a much better job of handling teenage female sexuality... back in the nineteen seventies.

Women's lib has regressed. I find that just a little bit sad.

Anyway, I watched the bloody movie, which saved me several hours' reading but bored me to tears in places, especially the bit where Bella declares her love for Edward in the forest while he says over and over how she needs to be careful of him or he 'might lose control' (jizz in his pants, or what?). So I won't bother finishing the book. The language is way too clunky and the frequency of unnecessary adverbs annoys the hell outta me.

I don't think I'll bother with the rest in the series either, now that I know what all the fuss is about. (I think.) ( )

After having heard all the hype about this series and reading the reviews, it made me curious enough to go out and buy Twilight. Since so many people seemed to either love it or hate it, I had to know what it was about this series that was provoking these reactions. So I bought it, but it sat on my shelf for a month or two because I kept thinking that I'd made a mistake, I wouldn't like this book. Well, after finishing a book I'd been reading, I decided that now was the time to read it, and I'm glad that I did finally pick it up.

The story centralizes around the development of the relationship between Bella Swan, a teenage girl who moved to the town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and Edward Cullen, one of a family of vampires who are living in Forks, passing as humans. I found it amazing that Twilight has almost no real plot, but still the book enthralled me. Nothing really major happens until near the end of the book. This entire book is devoted to development of characters and their relationships with each other. There is not a single author or book I've read that has successfully pulled this off, and still kept my attention. It is one thing after another that keeps you hooked. For me it was, if Edward is a vampire, what is it that makes him different from the normal, run of the mill sort? Then it turned to interest in the way Edward and Bella interacted and how their relationship developed.

While I did greatly enjoy this book, there were a couple of things that bothered me. Edward's mood swings are one thing, and I see this complaint a lot. His mood changes are so abrupt, it made me feel like he was bi-polar. Though I did see the reason behind the sudden mood changes, I think that it could have been written a little better than him laughing one second, and the next he's angry. The other thing that bothered me was how obsessed Bella becomes with Edward. I kept thinking, "I know you love the guy, but come on!" I don't like that type of love that becomes "I can't live without you! Anytime I spend away from you is agony and you're all I can think about!" I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my significant other to death, but I would never consider offing myself should anything happen to him.

Twilight is truly wonderful. I did not put this book down for long while I was reading it, because when I did, I kept thinking about what could possibly happen next, and when imagined what it might be, it made me pick it up again to find out. I am very, very impressed with the character development in this novel, and I fully intended to continue reading the next in the series, New Moon. ( )

Worst book I've ever read. ( )

people say its good ( )

such a good book ( )