I can fully understand the almost cult-like following that has grown up around this series by Stephenie Meyer. Although written for young teens, it has an appeal that will cross age lines and bring to it’s fan base a wide variety of people. It’s appeal is going to transcend fantasy, romance and suspense as this book (and I’m going to infer that the series is written in much the same manner throughout) touches on all of these elements.

It’s a dark series, make no mistake, but it’s not so dark as to be off putting. Much like the 1970’s television series, Dark Shadows, the human characters are very real in their lives and responses to being faced with the paranormal. The non-human characters are not so easily pigeonholed. Being Vampires, they have to fit a certain “traditional image”, yet Ms. Meyer has taken some liberties with the ones depicted in these novels.

I read one critique of this series that definitely put down the fact that the cult of Vampires depicted in this series are trying to be “good” and not drink the blood of humans. They cannot deny their need for blood to survive, but resist the very strong temptations presented to them while trying to co-exist among the human population of this small, Pacific Northwest town. She does sprinkle in the “true” vampire who does prey on humans and these are truly evil and provide the suspense.

Ms. Meyer has given her Vampires super-human qualities — to the extent that one can’t help but wonder why these denizens of the dark have not taken over the world, because it is patently clear that no human is up to combating them. The only way to kill one it seems is not with a silver bullet nor can you fend it off with a cross, but rather it must be torn limb from limb and the parts burned. Unless there is another weakness to their super-human strength and abilities revealed later in the series, this fact is what I would label the “fatal flaw” of these works.

Now for the story:

Bella is caught between loving her mother and father who are divorced and living thousands of miles apart. Bella’s mother has recently remarried and Bella has decided to go and live with her father in Forks, Washington despite the fact that she hates everything about Forks — from the dreary weather that always seems to be either foggy, raining or snowing but NEVER sunny to it’s small town atmosphere which she finds stifling. She feels enough like an outsider in Phoenix where her mother lives enough, but feels even more outcast in Forks. But, she’s determined to give her mother some space to make the new marriage something lasting.

Bella’s few belongings that are suitable for a colder, damp climate, fit easily into her suitcase — she doesn’t have much to begin with, and her books require only a couple of shipping boxes. Despite her mother’s trying to get her to take more things, she’s determined to travel light and she arrives on her father’s doorstep with only those things she wanted in the first place. Thwarting her parents successfully seems to be pretty easy for Bella, but she seems to only do it for those small things. She’s basically a rule follower although you’ll see her flouting more rules as the book goes on.

Her first day of school is one that she dreads. She hates being the new girl. She hates being stared at and is quite positive that she will be looked down on for her generic and decidedly un-chic clothes. She finds that she’s not so out of step with the kids at school. Only a few are dressed in name brand clothing and there’s only one brand new expensive car in the school parking lot, so the ancient truck that her dad bought her fits in OK.

At lunch, her new friend introduces her to others, but Bella notices a table where there are four kids who seem different. For one thing, they are as pale as she is. For another, they seem to be ostracized by the rest of the school kids and she immediately identifies with them for these reasons.

She asks who they are and is told they are the foster children of a local doctor and his wife. She’s told they don’t mingle with the other kids and that they don’t talk to them either. Bella is intrigued by them, though and wants to know more, but doesn’t want to seem overly interested in them.

When she walks into her science class after lunch, she discovers that the only empty seat is next to one of the Cullens — Edward to be exact and she’s totally baffled by his reaction to her. He scoots his chair as far away from her as possible and acts very angry with her although she knows of nothing she could have done to deserve that anger.

When class is over, Edward almost literally bolts for the door. Bella is nearly in tears over this rejection of her by him.

At the end of the day, she goes to the office to complete her paperwork and finds Edward there trying to get switched out of the Science class with her. Once more she finds herself wondering why he so dislikes her.

A few days later, there is an ice storm and altough Bella makes it to school with no mishaps, as she’s leaving her truck, another schoolmate’s van starts a slide into her truck and, unless stopped, will end up crushing her between the two vehicles. Edward is suddenly there, pushing her to the pavement and shoving the van out of the way.  Bella, Edward and the driver of the van are all taken to the hospital with various injuries.

The next day in class, Edward is less hostile and Bella confronts him about his initial reaction. Edward dances around an explanation, but it’s obvious that he’s attracted to Bella as she is to him.  As the book progresses and Bella finds out about what Edward truly is and they fall in love with each other, it becomes apparent that Bella wants to become a Vampire herself. When her mother’s life is threatened by one of the others and Bella almost loses her own life once again, her desire to become a Vampire becomes even stronger.

Of course the movie releases in 10 days, so if you’re one of those who likes to read the book before seeing the movie, you need to get cracking. Stephenie Myers has been touted as the “next JK Rowling” and while I personally didn’t get quite as enraptured by Twilight as I did by Harry Potter, there is still a definite appeal for me in this book.

Appeal enough that I’ll be reading others in the series.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
Published by Little, Brown and Company 2008
ISBN: 978-0-316-03837-9

Tags: Bella, Edward Cullen, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 9:04 am and is filed under Teen Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.