Book Review: Twilight

NOTE: Please be aware that the following review has spoilers. If you are interested in the book and you wish to know what my opinion without knowing what happens, I strongly suggest that you read the concluding paragraph of this review. Thank you.

Unlike the majority of readers who had finished it in a single day, it took me two and a half weeks to complete Twilight, Stephenie Meyer's first book in the popular Twilight Saga. Twilight begins its story with a girl named Isabella Swann, who calls herself "Bella" for short, who has chosen to move in with her father after her mother gets remarried to a minor league baseball player. Now her life-long ties to Phoenix, Arizona gone and now has to deal with the dreary and wet-weathered Forks, Washington, Bella. However, there is one person in Forks that attracts Bella's attention away from her disdain for her new small town home. His name is Edward Cullen, and he's one of the most beautiful men that has graced the earth along with his adopted siblings. The catch? He's a vampire.

While Meyer's plot idea is interesting and an attempt to recreate a familiar tale about forbidden love, the story itself is very difficult to get into. Not much action occurs in the beginning of the book with the example of a near fatal car accident that the vampire Edward saves Bella from, and then after that the reader is subjected to one-hundred to two-hundred more pages of Bella's narrative before another point of action occurs. While she may be attempting to imitate Jane Austen's classic romance Pride and Prejudice, the reader mainly reads about Bella's thoughts that carry the same thought over and over: "He's so arrogant... and yet he's so beautiful. I think I love him." And rather than learning about the vampires a little bit at a time like it appears to be during the beginning of Bella's relationship with Edward, poor Edward is then forced to convey the entire history of how he and his family became immortal blood-sucking beauties within the course of two chapters. Although his monologue is insightful, it is very out of character for him to reveal so much to anyone all at once considering how secretive he must be to hide his true identity. Meyer tries to create a love that is unbreakable and yet extremely complicated by the supernatural differences between the two, one can't help but remember other media outlets that have told the same story in a more successful manner. The most popular example of this would be Joss Whedon's Buffy and Angel story arc in the first three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is often what Twilight is compared to in terms of basic storyline.

It is often important to have a main character that the reader can relate to in terms of personality and universal obstacles that many people face every day. Bella is not one of those characters. Even though she is referred to as an adult in a teenager's body, there are many ways of portraying that without actually making her behave and perform tasks that a thirty year old woman would know how to do. Also, some of her character choices seem a little too "omniscient," if that is the correct term for it. There is not one thought in Bella's mind that is irrational--although Edward would disagree--and the only time she shows a shallow state of mind is in terms of Edward's physical beauty, and nothing else seems to matter to her. With such focus on his face and body, one questions the sort of love that Bella really has for Edward. It is not until the last two or three chapters that Bella becomes a more suitable heroine and her irrational yet understandable sacrifices make her a bit more human. But the tragedy is that this moment doesn't happen soon enough or last long enough for the reader to side with her.

Despite the fact that Meyer is unable to make her lead female character realistic--or in my personal opinion, likable--she is able to bring other characters to life that are predominantly male. Edward's mysterious and attractive qualities make him an intriguing character, and despite Bella's (or Meyer's) constant use of the word beautiful referring to his physical appearance, it's Edward's cocky personality and humility that draws the eye of the reader. The menacing James is also fleshed out extremely well, and the chapter "Hide and Seek" where he contacts one of the characters with a phone call. Sadly, other characters are left underdeveloped or too much information is revealed all at once about them. While Meyer may not have anticipated the three sequels that followed, she seems to have a problem with balancing character and plot development.

Although there are many versions of the vampire mythology that share many similarities, Meyer's attempt to create an original background for these already popular creatures is a miss. Some of her ideas are intriguing, such as making vampires more primal and animalistic rather than demons, equipped with a venom that can turn their victims into one of their own after a long and painful transformation. But there are some other details that fall flat, such as the sparkling skin in direct sunlight or the individual "superpowers" that some of the Cullens possess. The most absurd of these powers is the ability possessed by one Cullen brother to control the emotions of any being within a certain range. It probably would have been a more interesting aspect if the vampires were more of a race or species that shared the same qualities and powers rather than the league of blood-drinking Super Friends.

As for Meyer's skills as a writer, I will say that for her first professional work as an author, this is an impressive work as far as imagery and half of the dialogue goes. She has an eye for vivid images and describes objects and events in such a way that is elaborative and beautiful, but it is also to the point and does not stray into Tolkien territory. Despite already mentioned issues with the forced narrative that Edward must tell, the chapter entitled "Confessions" is a good example of her descriptive technique. And again, while she has some issues with developing some of her characters, there are others that she immediately understands and successfully translates them into well-written products of the world she has created.

Despite its potential, Twilight is mediocre in terms of plot development and her character Bella is not a heroine that can be defined as strong or realistic. However, if there is any reason to read this book, it would be insight to the male characters of the piece, especially the sarcastic love interest Edward. And while the plot lacks substance and the writing is mostly what some may call "fluff," Meyer is definitely one of the few writers that can paint a clear picture of a scene without having the need to outdo Dickens or Tolkien with the amount of adjectives needed to describe a tree that Bella may happen to see. Would I recommend the book to someone who is a fantasy or sci-fi fan? I would probably say wait for the movie. Would I recommend it to someone who wasn't a fantasy or sci-fi fan? I probably would, because aside from the Harry Potter series, it's one of the few books that could be something that they would enjoy as an outsider to the fantasy genre.