Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

I could not put this book down. Absolutely loved the story and finished the book in 2 days.

I enjoyed the book, I'm not a book critic or anything similar to it, but I just love reading any kind of book, science, biographies, self-help, novels, scifi, classics, etc. and in different languages.
Twilight was just a very easy reading book, with lots of fun, characters that I enjoyed, the story was superb. I got hooked to the book in such a way that I finished it in less than 24 hours. I LOVED THE BOOK!!
I already read the other 3 books (within a week), Moonlight was really good (read it in 9 hours!! I couldn't let the book down...I was just absorbed by the story, the characters and the dynamics of the whole saga.
I'm really surprised to read comments about the book and movie saying that the majority of fans/readers are teenagers...I'm in my mid 30s, mother of two and these kind of stories really can take you out of reality, which I think is the whole idea.
Thank you Stephenie Meyer for sharing these unique stories with those who enjoy reading and flying with our imaginations!!

being a vampire and having had a romance with a teenage girl, i can say with authority that this is a terrible representation of either.

In the midst of Harry Potter withdrawal, I began my search for a new YA saga worthy of the pedestal JK Rowling managed to build up. Along with a slew of others that managed to muster some semblance of a cult fan following (Spiderwick and Eragon among them), I was recommended the Twilight series.

I wanted to like this book; I really tried. And I thought that the hoards of obsessed teen girls who clog up these review sites had to be onto something. But then I started reading it. And I thought Eragon was bad...

If you're looking for an heir-apparent to Harry Potter, you might want to look elsewhere; Twilight is a pretender to the throne if there ever was one. The minimal plot revolves around Bella Swan, the newest inhabitant of Forks, which is apparently the rainiest little town in Washington State (I've never been to the real town, but I have lived in the vicinity of Seattle, and here's a little secret: it's nowhere near as rainy and dreary as most people think, and certainly not as much as Twilight's author seems to think). Bella, having decided to spend the summer in Forks with her police chief father instead of going to Florida with her mom and new step-dad, paints herself as the atypical Mary Sue: she's clumsy, brunette and apparently plain and unattractive, despite the fact that she has two boys drooling over her by the end of her first week in school. But Bella's too preoccupied with the resident A-crowd: the Cullen family, particularly Edward.

Ah, Edward; he's perhaps an even more wooden and one-dimensional character than Bella. He's beautiful and smart and perfect, and every plain, seldom-noticed teen girl's fantasy. Did I mention he's a vampire? But don't worry, he and his family don't drink human blood. See, they're the vampiric equivalent of vegetarians.

At first Bella is convinced Edward can't stand her, but it turns out he's just totally intoxicated by her smell, and wants to eat her. And so begins the long, entirely-too-drawn-out, tale of Romeo and Juliet- I mean, Edward and Bella. Apparently there's some action scenes at the end; I must admit, I never actually got there. And before anyone starts complaining about reviewers who never even finished the book, I honestly don't think I needed to finish it to get the gist of what happens. And in any case, once I got to the part where Edward explains to Bella why he and his siblings can't come to school when it's sunny out, I lost all ability to tolerate the idiocy. Aren't vampires supposed to be dangerous predators? Really, what possible survival advantage does sparkiliness serve? I don't think a vampire that dazzles in the sunlight would ever scare me, even as it's ripping out my throat.

But let's forget the dubious excuse for a plot and bizarre lack of research for a moment; for an author who professes to be so dedicated to her characters, they are rushed, undeveloped and shockingly-flat. Bella is a study in the good old fashioned damsel-in-distress; I can't, in good consciousness, call her a heroine, since she never actually seems to show any characteristics of one. (This is one thing I really like about the Harry Potter series: almost every female character in HP, be her good or bad, major or minor character is strong, intelligent, courageous, loyal and totally adamant in her beliefs, whichever side they happen to run towards). Bella likes to think of herself as the lonely outcast who has no friends, yet there are plenty of human kids in Forks who are eager to be her posse. She says she's shy, but she isn't. She thinks she's plain and undesirable, but clearly, that's not the case at all (by the time I stopped reading, she had a grand total of four boys fighting over her, and apparently the big bad vampire at the end joins the ranks). She may be able to ramble on about Shakespeare and cell division, but she's so ditzy and clumsy I'm glad she's not blonde (we have a bad enough rep as it is). She criticizes her mother for her neediness and naiveté, yet she herself can't seem to do anything on her own. Edward is constantly following her around, diving in just in time to save her from whatever distress she's found herself in.

As for the other characters, Meyers didn't seem to have taken a lot of time to elaborate on any of her secondary characters at all. Even the other Cullens weren't particularly interesting, just a mob of moody teenage vampires glaring around the school cafeteria disdainfully. The only character that I wanted to learn anything else about was Jacob, Bella's childhood friend who turns out to be a werewolf.

And then there's the writing; yes, this might not be full-fledged literature, but kids and YA fiction has come a long way. There are countless well-written, interesting kids fantasy series out there (and I'm not just talking about Harry Potter).

Twilight, on the other hand, is fanfiction, and it's not even good fanfiction. It reads like many of the stories Meyer's own fans write. The writing is juvenile, there weren't any plot twists to speak of, unless the arrival of the villain counts (as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't), and her multi-paragraph, adjective-laden descriptions of Edward every-other chapter are ridiculous and distracting.

At the risk of the wrath of a legion or seven of rabid fangirls, I am of the firmest opinion that there are far better alternatives to this badly-written garbage out there. This is fanfiction that someone decided should be published. And while they have certainly made a killing on the profits from this obsession, I don't believe the praise is at all deserved. Maybe if Meyers would take a writing class or two and spent more than a year writing her books, her future work might be tolerable. Until then, I'll pass on this saga.

my sister read this book and she said it was the best book she ever read.