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Loading... Twilight (original 2005; edition 2006)by Stephenie Meyer
Work detailsTwilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005)
I read it because everyone else has, and I generally figure 100,000 lemmings can't be wrong. I confess, I loved the book. I swallowed it whole. First book for many many years I've read all in one day. I think it is a perfectly crafted romance - all the elements are exactly right to create the story that every young woman in the history of the world wishes was her story. I enjoyed the way the author used the title (and even the cover image) to beautifully reflect the themes of the novel. The action/adventure bits felt slightly contrived (and I imagine they'll be the focus of the movie, oh well) but she still pulls it off without forcing it too much. The damsel must have a climactic moment of distress. It may not be first-tier literature, but it was well done and deliciously readable. (  ) Snukes | Jun 14, 2013 |  Read it maybe 2 or 3 years ago, because my sister asked me. I couldn't get pass the hospital scene. The story was poor, too predictable, and the writing was annoying, Bella is one of the worst narrators I've ever read. (  ) Samscar | Jun 5, 2013 |   tauruseducation | Jun 5, 2013 | Twilight is like Buffy the Vampire Slayer without the part where a series of 16-year-old girls are enslaved to fight monsters until their gruesome deaths. (Also without the snappy dialogue. There's nothing special about the prose, but it's perfectly functional. Mileage varies in this sort of thing, but I'm sensitive to clunkiness and this didn't clunk.) Buffy as Bella can be an ordinary girl free to make her own choices; Angel as Edward has his conscience as a result of his own decisions rather than a curse. Bella and Edward's relationship has been much criticised as a manifestation of "stalking = romance", and Bella as entirely too passive. The former has some truth; the latter none. Bella makes decisions throughout the book, beginning before we even meet her by choosing to come to Forks for her mother's sake. She chooses to cook for her father, and just because this aligns with traditional female roles doesn't make it less of a choice. She chooses not to date Mike or Tyler -- which decision they each ignore as they continue to pursue her. And it's this context that I think is important regarding her decision to keep seeing Edward. Mike and Tyler are separately stalking her; Edward by contrast first makes an effort to avoid her and then attempts to convince her to avoid him. He has his own creepy stalky moments: it really isn't pardonable for him to be sneaking into her room to watch her sleep without permission, and it's deeply problematic that Bella is portrayed as "flattered". But at the same time, he resists his carnivorous attraction to her early enough and often enough that I'm easily convinced that if she told him to leave her alone, he would. In a culture that tries to tell us that men can't possibly be expected to control their primal urges, it's refreshing to see a romance hero illustrate that no, actually: "just because we've been... dealt a certain hand... it doesn't mean that we can't choose to rise above". And in a culture that tries to tell women that we have to be afraid of being alone, afraid of the dark, afraid of men, I gave Bella a big cheer for saying, "I refused to be convinced to fear him, no matter how real the danger might be." She knows what/who she wants and she refuses to let anyone tell her she's better off without him. Mid-book, when they're (as she puts it) "declaring" themselves, the conversation gets a little silly. But... I rather think a lot of romantic conversation is a little silly. And the thing I like here is that they're talking to each other. She asks questions, he answers (not always, but as he trusts her more he answers more). He asks, she answers. They share what they're feeling, what they want, with each other. There's actual healthy communication going on here. And it's this healthy communication that lets Bella make and implement the plan for escape when she's in danger: despite Edward's overprotectiveness he does listen to her. Their communication, and Alice as back-up to her -- and it's not the only time Alice supports her and her choices. Edward (and his family) save her physically, yes, and she remarks on the power imbalance here: "a man and woman have to be somewhat equal... as in, one of them can't always be swooping in and saving the other one. They have to save each other equally." But she's very far from helpless herself. There are, definitely, some seriously problematic elements in the book. (And I gather the later books only get more so.) But I think there's a lot of positive elements too, which really don't deserve to be passed over. (  ) zeborah | Jun 5, 2013 | Ok, I might be the only person in the world who feels this way, but the Twilight series does not hold a candle to Harry Potter. Yes, the book is exciting, the plot is thrilling. The combination of the good plot and romance makes it fun audiobooks. But, I would choose Hermione Granger over Bella any day. ( ) jmoncton | Jun 3, 2013 |
 "Meyer's prose seldom rises above the serviceable, and the plotting is leaden" [....] "It's like reading a young teenage girl's blog"  Astonishing, mainly for the ineptitude of her prose. Teen vampire schlock that has the nation’s youth in thrall.  [L]et me say to you as a meat-eating, Entourage-watching, sports-loving (OK, I really don't love sports, or actually understand sports) — heterosexual man who can't sit through a single show on Lifetime television, let me loudly proclaim: I, Brad Meltzer, love the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I confess, I have joined the legions of the bitten and smitten.  The plot may sound rather comic and camp, but Meyer chooses to play it straight and serious. Vampires or not, what this novel is really about is a fatal attraction to someone or something dangerously different from yourself. The trajectory of the story is such that Bella's behavior and choices grow increasingly more disturbing, with irrevocable, self-destructive consequences. Is contained inTwilight / New Moon / Eclipse / Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer Twilight / New Moon / Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer The Twilight Saga White Collection by Stephenie Meyer (indirect) Has the adaptationTwilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 by Stephenie Meyer Is parodied in
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As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.
Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward's sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer's writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Stephenie Meyer
Q: Were you a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Angel? What are you watching now that those shows are off the air? I don't have a ton of time for TV, and my kids get rowdy when I have on "mommy shows," but I do have a secret fondness for reality shows (the good ones, at least in my opinion). I always TiVo Survivor, The Amazing Race, and America's Next Top Model.
Q: What inspired you to write Twilight? Is this the beginning of a series? Why write for teens?
A: Twilight was inspired by a very vivid dream, which is fairly faithfully transcribed as chapter thirteen of the book. There are sequels on the way--I'm hard at work editing book two (tentatively titled New Moon) right now, and book three is waiting in line for its turn.
I didn't mean to write for teens--I didn't mean to write for anyone but myself, so I had an audience of one twenty-nine year old (and later one thirty-one year old when my sister started reading). I think the reason that I ended up with a book for teens is because high school is such a compelling time period--it gives you some of your worst scars and some of your most exhilarating memories. It's a fascinating place: old enough to feel truly adult, old enough to make decisions that affect the rest of your life, old enough to fall in love, yet, at the same time too young (in most cases) to be free to make a lot of those decisions without someone else's approval. There's a lot of scope for a novel in that.
Q: What is your favorite vampire story? Fave vampire movie?
A: I guess my favorite vampire story would be The Vampire Lestat, by Anne Rice, simply because it's one of the only ones I've ever read. I keep meaning to pick up Bram Stoker's Dracula, because I get asked this question so often and I should probably start with the classics, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Again, I'm afraid to read other vampire books now, for fear of finding things either too similar, or too different from my own vampire world.
Ack! I can't even answer the movie question. I can't remember ever seeing a single vampire movie, outside of clips from Bela Lugosi movies on TV. I don't like true horror movies--my favorite scary movies are all Hitchcock's.
Q: What other young adult authors do you read?
A: My favorite young adult author is L.M. Montgomery I also enjoy J.K. Rowling (but who doesn't?), and Ann Brashares. As a teen, I skipped straight to adult books (lots of sci-fi and Jane Austen), so I'm rediscovering the world of teen literature now.
Stephenie Meyer's List of Books You Should Read
Anne of Green Gables
Romeo and Juliet
Dragonflight 
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Princess Bride
See more recommendations from Stephenie Meyer
Q&A with Stephanie Meyer
Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: The book with the most significant impact on my life is The Book of Mormon. The book with the most significant impact on my life as a writer is probably Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card, with Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier coming in as a close second.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: The CD is easy: Absolution by Muse, hands down. It's harder to give myself just one movie, but the one I watch most frequently is Sense and Sensibility--the one with the screenplay by Emma Thompson. One book is impossible. I'd have to have Pride and Prejudice, but I couldn't live without something by Orson Scott Card and a nice, thick Maeve Binchy, too.
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: My lies are all very, very boring: "No, you really look great in hot pink!" "My children only watch one hour of TV a day." "I didn't eat the last Swiss Cake Roll--it must have been one of the kids." That's the best I've got.
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: It's late at night and the house is silent, but I'm still (miraculously) full of energy. I have my headphones in and I'm listened to a mix of Muse, Coldplay, Travis, My Chemical Romance, and The All-American Rejects. Beside me is a fabulous, and yet mysteriously low in calorie, cheesecake....
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: I'd like it to say that I really tried at the important things. I was never perfect at any of them, but I honestly tried to be a great mom, a loving wife, a good daughter, and a true friend. Under that, I'd want a list of my favorite Simpsons quotes.
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: I'd love to have a chance to talk to Orson Scott Card--I have a million questions for him. Mostly things like, "How do you come up with this stuff?!" But, if he wasn't available, I'd settle for Matthew Bellamy (lead singer of Muse).
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: I'd want something offensive, rather than defensive. Like shooting fireballs from my hands. That way, you're really open to going either way--hero or villain. I like to have choices.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:27:30 -0500)
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
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