I didn’t read juvenile fiction when I was a juvenile, so you can imagine my surprise that I’ve recently enjoyed so much fiction geared toward young adult readers. Perhaps I’ve hit my second childhood?
Over the years I managed to withstand Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Anne Rice’s vampire series and Buffy and Angel and friends. But now, I find myself stuck on, of all things, a vampire teenage love story. Well, the girl is seventeen when the story begins, the guy hmmmm more like seventeen for the past 100 years. Yes, I’m talking about Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Bella and Edward.
I’ve heard the rumblings that some of Meyer’s fans have turned on her, are in an uproar about the final book (Breaking Dawn) of the series. Jane, a reviewer at the blog site Dear Author breaks the series down this way: “I totally loved Twilight, was less than enthralled with New Moon, watched the wheels fall off the bus in Eclipse, and now have come to this sad and somewhat crazy conclusion.” She speculates that Breaking Dawn reads more like a compilation of fan fictions.
Even if I never read another book of the series (like that’s going to happen!), I am amazed to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this little play on Romeo and Juliet meets Moonlight (TV series) and (now I’m revealing age) the soap opera Dark Shadows. Ohhhh Barnabus how we loved you back in the 1960s – and how our mothers worried that our little Ids would be damaged by such an evil-worshipping soap opera. What is it about young women (and not so young) that ‘bad boys/men’ seem irresistible. In my mother’s day it was Valentino and later Clark Gable of Rhett Butler/Gone with the Wind fame. In my mother-in-law’s day, it was Bogart, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley, James Dean. Come to think of it, there seemed to be an abundance of bad boy heroes and celebrities during the war years and into the 50s. Having raised two sons, I’m not sure who the baddie romantic interests were of their generation – Sean Penn? Rockers like Axel Rose?
But, back to Twilight.
If you have not heard of this book, let me ask -- Where have you been? If you
have, then you’ve probably already read it at least twice. The premise seems
like a straight forward girl meets boy with all of the angst and moodiness of
adolescence. Bella Swan – I know, I know, a little to Hans Christian
Andersen-ish-- has exiled herself to a dark and dreary spit of land in the rainy
Pacific Northwest: Fork,
On Bella’s first day at the new high school, she sees a group of beautiful students sitting together, isolated from the majority of the student population. They look like an exclusive club of Greek gods, perfection. Bella’s new friends quickly inform her about the Cullen clan, a group of five foster and adopted children of a much admired surgeon and his wife.
The first meeting between Bella and Edward -- one of the Cullen kids -- goes less than perfect. His attitude toward her was described as “if looks could kill.” Of course the biology teacher assigns them as lab partners, forcing the young couple together for at least one class a day. The problem, we eventually discover is that Bella has the sweetest blood and Edward wants nothing more than to taste her, ravish her, kill her. At the same time he’s frustrated because Bella’s thoughts are the only ones he cannot read and he’s developing an overwhelming need to protect her. Well, since this is basically a romance, you can imagine that they figure out how to be together without any blood shed. An interesting byplay involves Bella accompanying Edward home to meet the little family – all vampires of course. All on edge for fear they can’t stop themselves from ‘tasting’ little Bella.
The author creates engaging characters. Bella is charming, strong, sarcastic and vulnerable and not over the top. Edward too is believable, a thinly veiled image of a rock star, right down to music that makes a girl’s head spin. He’s moody, but not melodramatic. A bit angst ridden, but he’s been living with raging teen hormones for a century, so maybe his extremes are to be expected. Thankfully no flashing fangs or red eyes and no, he does not turn into a bat. For the most part the writing is even, the pacing works, and the storyline fraught with a comfortable balance of difficulties and light moments to provide readers with a satisfying diversion from the harsh realities of life. This is, after all, a fairy tale.
Meyer, unlike Rowling, has serious problems with her fan
base. Writing a series can be a fun indulgence until readers take ownership and
turn into a raving mob when the series fails to meet their expectations. I
suppose that is one of the pitfalls of success. Perhaps Meyer watched Rowling
and decided that when ending a series everyone should be happy and all dangling
story lines should be neatly tied up to form a happy little knot – thus the
fairy tale “Happily ever after” ending. She may have gone overboard with that
concept, I couldn’t say -- yet. But when it comes to the first book in the
series, Twilight, I think she’s
written a winner. -- Clio
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Note: Opening Nov. 21, the movie based upon this book and with the same title will debut. Check out some of the trailers.





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