Series: Twilight Saga #1
on 2005-10-05
Length: 513 pages
Reviewing Kindle from Amazon
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Beat the Backlist 2019
With 160 million copies of the Twilight Saga sold worldwide, this addictive love story between a teenage girl and a vampire redefined romance for a generation. Here's the book that started it all.
Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn.
Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife-between desire and danger.
Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.
I don’t even know how to begin this review. This isn’t the first time I’ve read Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight. It isn’t even the second or third. I’ve read the Twilight Saga countless times since I was first introduced to the series in the Fall of 2008. I credit Twilight with bringing me out of the dark ages (aka college, the time of required reading that killed my reading mojo).
This reread is the first time I’ve read the series in five years, almost six. The last time I read it was right before I started blogging. Revisiting the series now was like reading it for the first time. Not much has changed, and I still love it 😉 The writing style, the sparkly vampires, and the dreary Forks sucked me in 11 years ago, and y’all it will always remain one of my favorites.
Twilight opens with Isabella Swan, Bella for short, leaving her home in Phoenix to live with her dad in Forks, a small town in the Olympic Peninsula. Needless to say, she’s crazy to leave the warmth and sun of Phoenix for the cold and rain of Forks. But Bella wants to give her mom and new step-dad time to themselves, and it wouldn’t hurt to get to know her father a little better as well. Bella is an extreme introvert. I identify with her on every level. Like her, I’d much rather be the outsider looking in instead of the center of attention. Unfortunately for her, being the new kid in a town as small as Forks means exactly that. Bella is prepared for the attention. What she isn’t prepared for is the Cullen family.
The Cullens are also relatively new to Forks and an enigma to the students of the school. Most of Bella’s classmates regard the Cullens as you would a celebrity. They are looked at in awe, but not talked to or invited to hang out with the other kids. They are too beautiful, too perfect to truly fit in with the other students. Bella notices them immediately and finds herself drawn to them, specifically the youngest brother who is in her Biology class, Edward.
Edward Cullen will give you emotional whiplash. As described by Bella, he is beautiful in a tragic sort of way. He comes off as aloof. When he does talk, it’s very formal with a cadence not of this century. Bella is fascinated with him and finds herself falling in love…at least she calls it love. I personally think it’s lust for the first 90% of the book 😂
The plot revolves around the mystery surrounding the Cullen family and Bella’s obsession with Edward. It’s a character driven plot, with plenty of action towards the end. I still remember my reaction the first time I read the book. When the “big reveal” happens and you learn Edward’s secret, I flipped back (you know because it was pre-Kindle era for me) to all the interactions Bella had with him to that point. I wanted to see if I could pick up the foreshadowing, which is balanced well throughout the book. I knew before Bella what was going to happen because of Meyer’s subtle foreshadowing that left you questioning all of Edward’s actions. I loved it!
Overall Twilight will remain one of my all-time favorite reads. Everytime I read, I pick up something new. This time because it’s been SO long between reads it was like reading it for the first time. I remembered things as they happened, I picked up on subtle things that are important later in the series that I didn’t the first time I read the book. Bella, Edward, Alice, Jasper, Jacob, Emmet, and even Charlie are some of my favorite characters of all time. If you enjoy paranormal romance in a YA setting, I highly recommend it. You know for those that haven’t read it yet 😉
Classic YA fantasy!! And the setting is so dreamy. One of my “get away” faves, too!