Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: a Book Review of Book 1 in the Twilight Saga

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Page Count: 498

Plot: A teenage girl named Bella risks everything when she falls for a vampire named Edward.

Book Review:
I never intended to read the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer but things do change. There has been quite a bit of buzz on the Internet because of the March 21, 2009 release of Twilight the movie on DVD. I ended up reading a few articles and online news stories that were about the Twilight series of books and movies. I kept reading that the Twilight story was not just about vampires and not just for kids and tweens or teens.

Now that my interest was peaked I read a few blogs about how moms and other adults were falling in love with the Twilight Saga. I wasn't quite sure that I would like the Twilight book written by Stephenie Meyer because I don't like stories or movies about vampires. But the book seemed to be more of a romantic love story than anything else, and I am a sap for characters falling in love. I can tolerate a story that is about love more than I could tolerate a suspenseful violent bloody vampire book. So I borrowed the book from a friend and started reading.

I was surprised by the size of the book; it was thicker and longer than I expected it to be. Similar in size to some of the Harry Potter books but Twilight was not similar in plot to the Harry Potter books. Not similar unless you count the age of characters the romantic undertones and things revolving around a school.

The first thing I noticed while reading the Twilight book was that it was written in a First Person point of view. In the book Isabella (Bella) Swan is telling the story, her story as the narrator. There have been many books including the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain that have been written in the first person perspective. I am guessing Stephenie Meyer used the first person narrative so that we could read Bella's mind and know all of the emotions she was going through. I did not like reading this book in first person, it was confusing, and several times I had to re-read some paragraphs to figure out exactly who was saying what.

The author of Twilight tells us a story about a typical teenage girl. Bella is the product of divorce and has low self-esteem and bouts of depression. As we get to know all about Bella we start to care about her and become sympathetic. The main character is similar to many regular high school girls, which is why many teenage girls identify with Bella Swan and that has made the Twilight book very popular.

Bella was a wallflower in her old school in Phoenix, AZ but when she moved to Forks, WA she has many boys fawning after her. On her first day of school Bella sees an Adonis looking boy during lunch who just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest. She learns that the boy who looks like a runway model is named Edward Cullen. Bella later has Biology with Edward and their first close encounter doesn't go well.

My rating for this book review of Twilight by author Stephenie Meyer is a 4 out of 5 stars. The reason it got only 4 stars from me was because of the confusing first person parts that had to be re-read. The ending of the book is where most of the action is and the end was not completely predictable. I enjoyed reading the book and will definitely watch Twilight on DVD when it comes out on March 21, 2009. I will also be looking forward to reading the next book in the Twilight Saga titled New Moon. New Moon is also being made into a movie and will be released on November 20, 2009.