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Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) | 
| Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: $10.99
Buy New: $5.00
You Save: $5.99 (55%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  2044 reviews
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.7
ISBN: 0316015849
EAN: 9780316015844
ASIN: 0316015849
Publication Date: September 6, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: **brand new, no NY, HI or AK**
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| Customer Reviews:
 I really wanted to enjoy this book... August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
***Of course there are spoilers below, sorry!***
OK, so after hearing about this book for ages, after having dozens of friends recommend it to me and hearing them laud it as the "next Harry Potter", I decided to pick up Twilight. Some quick background info on me (not really important, but just so you see where I'm coming from): I'm female, in my early 20's, LOVE fantasy and YA, LOVED BTVS and ANGEL w/ a fiery passion. Anyways, so I, and many others who know me, figured I'd love this book to pieces. Just finished reading it, and frankly, I thought it was horrible. The issues I have w/ this book are plentiful, and, this late into the game, have likely been discussed in other reviews, so to be brief (ok, not that brief):
1) Bella is the worst protagonist ever. She is the typical "Mary Sue" character (a quick glance at 1 star reviews also mention this, so I won't go into definitions of what a Mary Sue is). She's a big city girl coming to live in a small town where everyone knows her name and wants to be her friend. Guys line up and actually fight for the "privilege" to take her to a dance, yet she dismisses these friendly advances as annoyances. Her only flaw is that she's hopelessly clumsy, but even this isn't really a flaw since it makes her endearing and provides ample opportunity for a dashing man to sweep her off her feet. Oh, and this happens often. My main beef w/ Bella is that, as a main character, she does absolutely nothing to resolve the main conflict. In my opinion, this is a big no-no, especially in YA literature. Protags should be the one to resolve the conflict and not rely on other characters so heavily to do so. Bella is the quintessential "damsel in distress" who seem to only exist to get into grave peril so her dashing man can rescue her. In a world of strong YA protags who make heavy, sometimes life altering decisions to resolve a conflict, this is such a cop-out. Bella is just a victim and I would have had more respect for her is she had found a way to outsmart the villain and save herself. Bella herself says it best, she is the perpetual Lois Lane, and there's a reason why Lois never starred in her own movie/show! (now, don't get me wrong, I'm not some zealous feminist that hates this archetype, I feel that characters like these can serve a purpose in a well written story, just not as a protag/MC)
2) Edward is unbelievably boring. For a mysterious "creature of the night", Edward is an incredibly dull "Gary Stu". He's perfect in every way: perfect looks; super powerful; perfect looks; super fast; perfect looks; can play the piano like freaking Mozart; perfect looks; sparkles like a giant diamond engagement ring in the sun; perfect looks; is, for some absurd, mostly chemical, reason, completely devoted to Bella; and oh, he has perfect looks. Meyer seems to think it is important to mention his beauty, his perfection, his angelic, Adonis-like, model looks on a VERY regular basis (I swear, it was mentioned almost every other paragraph in one chapter). He's so oh-my-gosh beautiful, Bella literally faints every time he even touches her (but that's ok, it gives him yet another excuse to sweep her off her feet!). We get very little about his past (should I hope to see more of this in the sequels?) even though we get an entire chapter, really, almost 1.5 chapters, on the origins of Carlisle, a vampire who plays a minor role in this story. His mood changes rapidly from anger to condescending, back to anger, to undying devotion, exasperation, then, again, back to anger w/ a bit of mockery. Other than his mostly chemical attraction (and really, it is mostly chemical. Bella seems to let off some sort of exotic smell that makes vamps go wild), little is known about him, about what drives him to do the things he does.
3) Sparkling vampires? Look, I know vampires have been done in all forms of media for decades and I appreciate some originality. But really, vampires that sparkle in the sunlight? Meyer gives us no reason why they should sparkle, doesn't explain how this works, really, just uses it has some vague excuse why the vamps can't go out in bright sunlight. So overall, besides the drinking human blood aspect, which can obviously be overcome, there is no disadvantage whatsoever to becoming a vampire. You remain young and oh-my-gosh beautiful for eternity, become super fast and strong, get cool powers like telepathy, clairvoyance, and, well, whatever it is Jasper has, drive around in luxury cars, and basically, other than a troublesome Native American tribe, can live the good life. I would have FAR more respect for this book if the vamps were hideous in daylight, or if they couldn't go out in daylight at all, but really, sparkly, glittery, diamond like vampires? It's like stuffing every teen girl/woman's fantasies (looks, wealth, diamonds, power, everlasting youth) into a dull boring package. Despite my complaints about the vampires, I do like the characters of Alice and Jasper, Jasper because he seems to actually struggle with his choice to abstain from human blood, and Alice because of her spunky attitude and her mysterious past that was partially reveled in the end (I'd love to read more about Alice)
4) The conflict doesn't kick in until the end. Yes, thanks to Alice, we get a lot of foreshadowing, but even this doesn't come until later. The main conflict w/ the other vamps could have been woven in much earlier into the story.
5) The overall writing is blah. First off, 1st person is very, very tough to pull off properly, and, in my opinion, this story would have been much better in a tight 3rd person POV. I think this story suffers from this point of view is because Bella is just plain boring who is ineffectual as a main character. I know she's supposed to be the normal, everyday girl thrown into a wild predicament, but her voice is just plain boring and at times, snobby and superficial. Another issue I have is the number of times Meyer uses a hyphen to break up a train of thought, which, in the beginning chapters, is very annoying. The characters are all mostly one dimensional, some border 2-D, none are fully fleshed out. Rosalie, one of the vamps, is just described as oh-my-gosh beautiful and jealous of Bella (*cough cough, Mary Sue alert, cough*), and little else is done with her, indeed, we only hear her speak a couple of measly lines in the whole book, which is sad because it would be nice to know exactly why she feels about Bella the way she does. All the human characters besides Bella are 1-D stock characters that the author (and Bella) could care less about.
In conclusion, not a great book in my opinion, though I was intrigued by the conflict of Bella wanting to become a vampire. It's such an immature request, but that's why I liked it, because it was a way to remind the readers that Bella, is in fact a child tossed into a relationship with a much older boyfriend, a child who doesn't quite understand what she has gotten herself into or the potential consequences. The only time I ever liked Edward in this whole book was when he refused her request, despite the benefits to their relationship. A truly selfless act that sadly doesn't excuse the 450+ pages of drivel that came before it.
I will read the next book, not only because I'm the type of person that must finish whatever series I begin, not only because I truly want to see what the hype about this series is, but mostly because I hope that the flaws in this first book are remedied later in the series, hope the characters gain more dimensions, hope to learn more about Alice and see Jasper wrestle more w/ abstinence. And while I know Twilight is Meyer's first novel, it just doesn't excuse the excessive faults I found w/ this book. The next "Harry Potter" this is not, and frankly, there are other, far better written YA books out there that deserve more fanfare than what Twilight is getting
 SOO GOOD August 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didn't think i would like this book (even though it was constantly suggested to me on Amazon) because i never was a "vampire" fan.
I was completely wrong, and if you are trying to decide whether or not to get the book and read it, JUST DO IT.
Trust me.
 It might not be Shakespeare, but... August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Maybe Stephanie Meyer isn't the next Shakespeare or Anne Rice, but I think her series has a charm all of its own. I admit that Twilight is my guilty pleasure, because it isn't the most profound thing I've read literature wise, but I can't put the books down. I'm reading them for a second time, because it is easy to immerse yourself in a world that you can relate to. I live in Washington, I'm clumsy, and I am a hopeless romantic. The relationship Edward and Bella have is something that I think everyone wants out of life, a love that transcends all boundaries. Even though he has a "natural" urge to kill this girl, Edward finds himself more enthralled to protect her because she is to him everything he's never had. He's been alone so long, and he finds in her something extraordinary because she is unlike anyone he has met. I think that we all, deep down inside, strive to feel like Bella does when he tells her he loves her: Lucky.
The sad thing about most of the people who don't like these books is that they have let themselves become jaded. I don't know anyone personally who doesn't like Twilight, and I could see why they may not enjoy how the story is written, but it's sad to be so critical of such a beautiful story. What more to life is there than love? Pure love, something so rare? To deny the very instincts imbedded in your body to love someone that is "taboo" by your society's standards? Their relationship is about trust, because they both have many things to lose if anything goes wrong.
I recently heard of a group on Amazon that is trying to protest the last book of this series, and I think it's ridiculous. They think that Stephanie Meyer's is trying to send a political message through her story
of Edward and Bella, and yet it seems like only people who are overly critical are the ones who support that theory. I believe most people in Bella's shoes would do the same thing, and while I won't ruin the story for anyone who hasn't read it, I think it's incredibly childish for people to return the book because they don't like how it's written. Would you return Titanic because you wanted a happy ending? Would you take back the Bible because you don't agree with its content? Would you get pissed by The Notebook because it doesn't end like the movie? No.
Why protest a book that so encourages people who never read to pick up a book and do so? Or to give people like myself, who normally read things like Jordan and Brown and Austen, a break from a ramble of words to a clear and concise story of pure love? It's simple, and simple is beautiful.
A page turner you can't wait to re-read August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I remember easily how it felt when I first read Twilight in June 2007. The book had already been out for quite some time, and a friend referred it to me knowing that I was intrigued by vampires. This book had me interested by the end of the first chapter, and hooked by Port Angeles. I've recommended this book to all of my friends, and the 5 that has read it, enjoyed it.
Loved the book, but Breaking Dawn Killed the whole thing August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
i loved this book and for me it should have ended here. SM killed the series with Breaking Dawn.
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