{"id":152,"date":"2008-07-03T21:52:31","date_gmt":"2008-07-04T01:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/03\/review-of-twilight-by-stephenie-meyer\/"},"modified":"2008-10-11T22:03:32","modified_gmt":"2008-10-12T02:03:32","slug":"review-of-twilight-by-stephenie-meyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Review of Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"twilight.jpg\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Twilight<\/em><\/p>\n

by Stephenie Meyer<\/p>\n

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), New York, 2005.\u00a0 498 pages.<\/p>\n

Starred Review.<\/p>\n

Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008:\u00a0 #4, Fantasy Teen Fiction.<\/p>\n

I took a Resources for Young Adults class last quarter.\u00a0 As part of the class, I signed up for a Listserv on which librarians serving teens discuss good books.\u00a0 That’s where I heard about Twilight,<\/em> as well as some of my classmates mentioning it as the best vampire novel they’d ever read.\u00a0 I read an extensive article about the author, Stephenie Meyer, and I was intrigued.\u00a0 She’s a Mormon, and promised that she would not include graphic sex in her novels.\u00a0 It sounds like her values are similar to mine.\u00a0 I was intrigued, so I put myself on the wait list for Twilight<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have to say that the only thing I didn’t like about Twilight<\/em> was how late it kept me reading!\u00a0 I thought I’d read one chapter before going to sleep–and finally managed to close the book hours later.\u00a0 But I have to admit, I like it when a book engages me that thoroughly.<\/p>\n

Bella, the heroine, is everygirl.\u00a0 She was easy to identify with, and I felt sympathy with her from the start.\u00a0 Stephenie Meyer keeps you reading by not answering every question.\u00a0 We wonder, along with Bella, why that handsome Edward seems so angry with her, after meeting her eyes once, that he stays away from school for a week, and she can’t help but feel it’s to avoid her.\u00a0 Then, how does he move with superhuman speed, but deny it?\u00a0 Why does he say he’s bad for her?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’m not giving anything away by saying this is a vampire novel, since it’s on the cover of the book and in any reviews.\u00a0 But even knowing that, Stephenie Meyer manages to keep you guessing as to how Bella will find out and what, exactly, that means.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’ve never been a big vampire novel fan, but this book doesn’t have the usual feel of a vampire book.\u00a0 Instead, it’s a powerful, sensual love story.\u00a0 Since Edward has to be careful not to get to close to Bella, so as not to be tempted to taste her blood, the tension between them is extreme.\u00a0 Today’s TV writers would do well to learn a lesson from this book.\u00a0 Sometimes less is more when it comes to describing romance.\u00a0 This is good clean fiction that packs a punch.<\/p>\n

Twilight<\/em> is hugely popular with teen girls, and I can see why.\u00a0 43-year-old abandoned housewives find it wonderful, too!<\/p>\n

My only complaint is that the vampires are a little too perfect.\u00a0 They are more beautiful than ordinary mortals, have superhuman speed and strength, don’t have to sleep or breathe, and live forever.\u00a0 Edward’s group has found a way to get around drinking human blood.\u00a0 So what’s not to like?\u00a0 I don’t see any compelling reason why Bella shouldn’t just become a vampire, too.\u00a0 Sure, it would be tough explaining it to her parents at first….<\/p>\n

I can’t wait to read the next two books!\u00a0 In fact, I liked this book so much, instead of getting on the library’s hold list, I ordered the next two books from Amazon.\u00a0 I have a feeling I’m going to be reading these books more than once.<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), New York, 2005.\u00a0 498 pages. Starred Review. Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008:\u00a0 #4, Fantasy Teen Fiction. I took a Resources for Young Adults class last quarter.\u00a0 As part of the class, I signed up for a Listserv on which librarians serving teens discuss good books.\u00a0 That’s where I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,31,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-romance","category-stand-outs","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}