Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Meyer, Stephenie. (2005) Twilight. New York: Little Brown & Company 498 pages.

Bella, a clumsy and somewhat jaded teen, has just moved back to Forks, Washington to live with her dad. At school she is mystified by Edward who seems different from the rest and saves her life on multiple occasions. Edward is a vampire and before Bella knows it she's in love with him and the adventure begins.

So most people know that I struggled with this book. But it is my goal to write a fair and rational review. Thus, I'm going to start with what was good about it. Edward was attractive and at times downright sexy. I personally prefer men with a heart beat, but Meyer made him heroic in the most traditional sense. This made him easy to fall for. Second, although I had to wait almost 400 pages for it, I must say the climax was creative and exciting. That's all I'm going to say in case there are blog readers out there who haven't read the book yet.

Now for the critique. The writing left a little to be desired. In my opinion adverbs are the root of all evil and given Meyer's heavy use of them, she disagrees. The word "incredulous" was used multiple times in various contexts. It drove me nuts. To steal from The Princess Bride, "I do not think that means what she thinks it means." Second, probably over 100 pages of this book were spent with Edward explaining to Bella how dangerous he is. I kept thinking, "I know, I know - get over it! Less talking more action, Please!" Third, was the lack of a strong female character. I'm not used to reading books where the girl is constantly unable to take care of herself. I found this difficult to handle. Edward always had to be there to save her.

For the record, I did get sucked in. I think the only option is for Bella to become a vampire herself, and I'm proud of Stephenie Meyer for being so successful.