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Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) By Stephenie Meyer ( Little, Brown Young Readers )
Release Date: 2005-10-05
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List Price: $19.99
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Product Description
"Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. ''Be very still,'' he whispered, as if I wasn''t already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat. As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love .But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he''s a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward,so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward''s sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst.The precision and delicacy of Meyer''s writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction.(Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell 10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Stephenie Meyer Q: Were you a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Angel? What are you watching now that those shows are off the air?
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"Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. 'Be very still,' he whispered, as if I wasn't already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat." As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship. Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward's sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer's writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Stephenie Meyer
 Q: Were you a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Angel? What are you watching now that those shows are off the air?
A: I have never seen an entire episode of Buffy or Angel. While I was writing Twilight, I let my older sister read along chapter by chapter. She's a huge Buffy fan and she kept trying to get me to watch, but I was afraid it would mess up my vision of the vampire world so I never did. I don't have a ton of time for TV, and my kids get rowdy when I have on "mommy shows," but I do have a secret fondness for reality shows (the good ones, at least in my opinion). I always TiVo Survivor, The Amazing Race, and America's Next Top Model.
Q: What inspired you to write Twilight? Is this the beginning of a series? Why write for teens?
A: Twilight was inspired by a very vivid dream, which is fairly faithfully transcribed as chapter thirteen of the book. There are sequels on the way--I'm hard at work editing book two (tentatively titled New Moon) right now, and book three is waiting in line for its turn.
I didn't mean to write for teens--I didn't mean to write for anyone but myself, so I had an audience of one twenty-nine year old (and later one thirty-one year old when my sister started reading). I think the reason that I ended up with a book for teens is because high school is such a compelling time period--it gives you some of your worst scars and some of your most exhilarating memories. It's a fascinating place: old enough to feel truly adult, old enough to make decisions that affect the rest of your life, old enough to fall in love, yet, at the same time too young (in most cases) to be free to make a lot of those decisions without someone else's approval. There's a lot of scope for a novel in that.
Q: What is your favorite vampire story? Fave vampire movie?
A: I guess my favorite vampire story would be The Vampire Lestat, by Anne Rice, simply because it's one of the only ones I've ever read. I keep meaning to pick up Bram Stoker's Dracula, because I get asked this question so often and I should probably start with the classics, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Again, I'm afraid to read other vampire books now, for fear of finding things either too similar, or too different from my own vampire world. Ack! I can't even answer the movie question. I can't remember ever seeing a single vampire movie, outside of clips from Bela Lugosi movies on TV. I don't like true horror movies--my favorite scary movies are all Hitchcock's.
Q: What other young adult authors do you read?
A: My favorite young adult author is L.M. Montgomery I also enjoy J.K. Rowling (but who doesn't?), and Ann Brashares. As a teen, I skipped straight to adult books (lots of sci-fi and Jane Austen), so I'm rediscovering the world of teen literature now.
Stephenie Meyer's List of Books You Should Read 
Anne of Green Gables | 
Romeo and Juliet | 
Dragonflight | 
To Kill a Mockingbird | 
The Princess Bride |
See more recommendations from Stephenie Meyer
Q&A with Stephanie Meyer
Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: The book with the most significant impact on my life is The Book of Mormon. The book with the most significant impact on my life as a writer is probably Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card, with Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier coming in as a close second.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: The CD is easy: Absolution by Muse, hands down. It's harder to give myself just one movie, but the one I watch most frequently is Sense and Sensibility--the one with the screenplay by Emma Thompson. One book is impossible. I'd have to have Pride and Prejudice, but I couldn't live without something by Orson Scott Card and a nice, thick Maeve Binchy, too.
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: My lies are all very, very boring: "No, you really look great in hot pink!" "My children only watch one hour of TV a day." "I didn't eat the last Swiss Cake Roll--it must have been one of the kids." That's the best I've got.
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: It's late at night and the house is silent, but I'm still (miraculously) full of energy. I have my headphones in and I'm listened to a mix of Muse, Coldplay, Travis, My Chemical Romance, and The All-American Rejects. Beside me is a fabulous, and yet mysteriously low in calorie, cheesecake....
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: I'd like it to say that I really tried at the important things. I was never perfect at any of them, but I honestly tried to be a great mom, a loving wife, a good daughter, and a true friend. Under that, I'd want a list of my favorite Simpsons quotes.
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: I'd love to have a chance to talk to Orson Scott Card--I have a million questions for him. Mostly things like, "How do you come up with this stuff?!" But, if he wasn't available, I'd settle for Matthew Bellamy (lead singer of Muse).
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: I'd want something offensive, rather than defensive. Like shooting fireballs from my hands. That way, you're really open to going either way--hero or villain. I like to have choices.
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 I read the entire series in less than a week...
OK, so when I first heard about this book, I was skeptical. Vampires? Hmmm. For some strange reason I bought it anyway. I absolutely love this book and could not put it down. Anyone who is a sucker for a good romance story will as well. The book is extremely detailed and as you read you really get a sense of how the girl feels and, I think, it is quite realistic. I don't know much about vampire lore and all that, but it is nice to see a vampire in a good sense and this book makes me want to date one. My only complaint about the series is that the first 2/3rds of the books don't really seem to have a lot going on (all though you still find yourself not able to put it down), and in the last 3rd, the action gets squeezed in.
If you are looking for a book with a huge amount of substance, double entendres, allegories and what not, well this probably isn't the book for you. But if you want a book where you can get entirely wrapped up in the story and find yourself thinking about the characters even while you're not reading, definitely the one.
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Amazing
If I could give this book, and the rest of the series more than 5 stars, I would. Stephanie Meyers has written an amazing book that keeps your attention going throughout the whole book. I bought the first book out of sheer curiosity. Once I started reading it, I was only 1/2 way through the 1st book, and ordered the 2nd for next day shipping because I couldn't wait to get it. The book is great because Meyers uses typical ideas of vampires, while spinning her own. She makes you feel so drawn into the book, and has your imagination going a mile a minute, while you feel like you're in Bella's shoes. You feel like you're living the experiences, not just reading about them. I would suggest this series to anyone. They've quickly become my favorite books.
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Intense and Fantastic!
When a friend recommended this book to me I didn't think anything of it. Then another friend...and another...and finally I gave it a go and OMG am I happy that I did. This book was probably one of the most intense, exciting, and romantic stories I have read in a while. I love the characters, their complicated relationships, and how it comes together in a sort of supernatural Romeo/Juliet kind of way. A die hard Buffy fan in my teens (I am 24 now), this book has reignited my obsession for vampire love stories.
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 The first half is enjoyable but the second half is absurd. On the whole this book is entirely mediocre. Not recommended
Bella is a new student in high school when she meets inhumanly handsome Edward. Despite their initial antagonism, the two are drawn inexorably into a passionate romance with one major complication: Edward is a vampire. The Twilight series is a recent young adult phenomenon with a bastion of rabid fans as well as many critics. Personally, I found Twilight neither good enough to love or bad enough to joyfully mock. Although it is fluffy and immature, the book begins well--but midway through it takes a sharp turn into the absurd and quickly degenerates. As a result, this book is entirely mediocre, and I don't recommend it.
The tragedy of Twilight (for me, at least) is that it's an enjoyable book go horribly wrong. That isn't to say that the premise is brilliant, but there is something good there. The book begins with a standard "new student" YA trope, and Bella is an unremarkable and vaguely irritating protagonist. But things turn around when she meets Edward. Enigmatic and mercurial, he is immediately attractive and secretive enough to be fascinating. The early stages of his relationship with Bella is also intriguing--his vampirism is comically predictable, but the gradual revelation of his personality is much more complex and interesting. So the first half of the book goes on: the protagonist is annoying, the prose is lengthy fluff in dire need of an editor, but Edward is intriguing and the story captures the reader's interest.
Until the middle of the book, that is. Almost exactly halfway through, Edward steps into direct sunlight and sparkles. Sparkling vampires epitomizes the Twilight series's foolish fluff, but it also marks the change in Twilight from enjoyment to pure absurdity. Edward sparkles, and then in quick succession Edward cleanly dumps his entire life story on Bella, Edward turns out to be a creepy stalker, Edward and Bella fall madly in love, an antagonist shows up for a long slew of action sequences that feel out of place against the rest of the book, some predictable and exaggerated angst ensues, and then Bella begins her campaign to have Edward turn her into a vampire before she gets "old." The protagonist remains irritating, the prose is still rambling fluff, but there is no longer a fascinating character or any gradual developments to make the book worthwhile or even enjoyable. Even the absurdity is more frustrating than it is funny: unrealistic, stereotypical, and (in Bella's premature, all-consuming love and Edward's stalkerish tendencies) a bit disturbing.
I liked Edward in the first half of the book, and wish that the second half continued in the same vein. Failing that, I wish that Twilight were as wonderful as fans claim or as laughably bad as detractors say. If it were either extreme, it might be fun to read. As it is, Twilight is enjoyable and then absurd without reaching an extreme at either end. It is conflicted. It is middling. It is average and entirely mediocre. It certainly doesn't deserve the fervor that it's received, but it's not particularly fun to mock, either. I'm not sorry to have read this book, and there's no strong reason to avoid it--there are worse novels, and this one is a brief waste of time. Neither do I recommend it. The book just isn't worth reading and there are many better YA and vampire novels out there.
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Love it or hate it, you'll probably still read it.
I've read many glorious reviews for this book and some pretty bad ones as well. I think this book and this series does an excellent job of getting your imagination working as well as sitting kids down to read, which is no easy feat these days.
I for one enjoyed this book. However, I am all for romance novels.
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