Book Review: Twilight – 15 years apart

True enough, I had a different intention for the first come-back post after the revival of the Sunlight Writer. But life gets nicely in the way of our intentions. I’ve been down with the flu all week and since I had no energy for anything else, I thought I might give it a read, with adult eyes now, and write a review. Besides, I was also curious about the elements of craft used by the author, since the book was a best-seller at the time and that recognition must have stood for something, right?

About the Story

Disclaimer: This review may contain spoilers.

The overall chain of events is very straightforward for a book of so many pages (nearly 500 depending on the edition). The story follows the narrator and main character Bella Swan, a human girl, who moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to damp and rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father. At first, Bella hates the place and she doesn’t expect there would be anything there for her. She is unhappy, being separated from her mother who’s her only best friend in the world. Everything changes when she meets the mysterious vampire boy Edward Cullen with whom she falls madly in love. Eventually, after a sequence of fortunate and unfortunate events, some of them a bit too dramatic, she settles in Forks and decides to continue her life there with Edward.

I wouldn’t call this a fast-paced story, given how many repetitive parts there were about the daily routines of Bella and all the similar school scenes. In fact, half of the book follows Bella in school or at home, stuck in a monotonous routine that is only spiced up by her trying to talk to Edward and figuring out the mystery behind his being. In a sense, a big portion of the story felt quite calm and serene, reflecting on the feelings and emotional state of Bella, all nicely backed up by descriptions of rainy quiet Forks. This is kind of unexpected in a story talking about vampires, sinister creatures of the night (think “Dracula”). You would imagine some kind of horror element would be present.

The narration does speed up more significantly at the end (last few chapters) where poor Bella is targeted by the wild vampire James and is in real danger of not making it out alive. This part really feels more true to the classical vampire story. But compared to everything else before, it definitely felt a bit out of place and somehow rushed to an end. To be honest, you wouldn’t expect a book with such limited turns of events, as described above, to be a page-turner but interestingly enough it is. I was kept engaged all throughout. Even having read the story before, I cannot say I was bored while re-reading it.

Style and Overall Feeling

The tone of the narrator is matter-of-factly, and straightforward, which is a good contrast to all the feelings Bella fights inside. It further adds to the calm atmosphere described above which predominates in a big part of the book. Had it been otherwise, in my opinion, it would be quite unbearable to read. You can imagine the story can get quite melodramatic. After all, Bella is a girl of 17, lonely and estranged from her parents, with few friends out there who genuinely care about her. She falls in love for the first time, with a vampire boy at that who’s also never been in love before and believes he’s a danger to her. She wouldn’t be the most emotionally stable girl out there. Thus, the straightforward tone, together with the visual descriptions of moss-covered, rainy, calm Forks do help to keep the mood balanced.

Talking about the descriptions – perhaps one reason why the book is such a page-turner is the fact that the numerous grounding descriptions get you engulfed in the story. You can easily imagine the scenes, the conversations, even the expressions of the characters: how they looked, how they breathed, how they smiled. This helps to feel “part” of the story as if you can experience everything together with the characters as if you’re there. On the other hand, the first-person narrator is quite unreliable, and I cannot stress the word unreliable enough in this case. The book would definitely lose its “coziness”, had it been told from a third-person perspective. The reader would surely not feel so close to the characters and could even get uninterested. However, Bella as a narrator was, in a lot of instances, purely annoying.

About the Characters

There was an overwhelming self-pitying or rather self-deprecating feeling all throughout Bella’s reflections – like she is not worth it, like who is she to imagine she could be with Edward, comparisons with other girls in school, even utter disinterest in whether she’d live or not (at the end). In a lot of instances, it was not easy to make sense of why she would think say, or feel in a certain way. It did make sense that she would be insecure and depressed after moving to the last place she wanted to be, almost all by herself, with a father with whom she barely shares a connection and a mother who did not prioritize her enough. Still, some things felt like too much or even a bit absurd.

At the end of the day, Bella is just a lonely teenage girl longing for love, connection, and security. But even when she does establish this connection with Edward, she still seems to have a hard time embracing the happiness of being with someone, as if she doesn’t dare to believe it. Furthermore, in places, it was painful to read about her obsession with Edward and his “irresistible looks” or her heart almost stopping any time he is around. Perhaps that does help feel the immediacy of the first love, but in some instances, it sounded exaggerated and somehow oblivious. The big focus on Edward’s good looks in the descriptions can even lead us to believe that she fell in love with him only due to his vampire charm or that she is under some kind of vampiric influence.

When I was 12, Edward was my favorite character for obvious reasons: handsome, fast, fit, a hero saving the damsel in distress, and selfless in his caring for Bella. This time around he was annoying, maybe even more so than Bella. In a sense, both characters are so similar, probably that’s the reason they attracted each other, but both think so lowly of themselves and are so bad at this whole “first love thing”. Like Bella, Edward strongly believes he is not worth it, that he is a killer, a freak, or even a monster. Even if this may or may not be the case, he is so consumed in his belief that he tries to take charge of what’s best for Bella, even though he cannot know that and she is the one to make this decision. Every time she dares to feel some happiness of being together, he cuts her off saying how she shouldn’t love him and he’s no good for her or that they should be separated. Even at the end when she says she wants to turn into a vampire to be together with him forever, he still tries to take charge.

From another angle, Edward’s persistence does help in showcasing how Bella can stand up for herself. This is maybe the part I liked about her the most. All depressive, obsessive, and insecure feelings apart, Bella is clear on what she wants and she desperately pursues it. She feels that Edward gives her all the security, comfort, and love she needs to live a happy life. She does not want to give up on that, against all odds and even against Edward’s own better judgment. One scene in particular comes to mind here which shows her strength of character. It is the scene in the woods after she has discovered the truth about Edward being a vampire – Bella goes there to clear her mind and reflect on everything and then makes a decision that she does want to be with Edward. It is only lucky for her that afterwards Edward also makes a decision to be with her despite everything.

Conclusion

Cutting a long review short, what do I, now as an adult, think about this book? Obviously, both characters have a lot of issues to resolve within themselves, hopefully through being together and without harming each other emotionally in the process. These characters are not perfect, they are not reasonable in a lot of instances, and there are definitely cringe moments in there. But apart from being a craze for teenagers, the book does give certain food for thought – about love, loneliness, overcoming primal instincts, facing hardships, about wanting to belong with someone. I think in many instances this is beautifully described in the book, despite being coated in a way for a specific younger audience. At the end of the day, the book deserves some credit, besides being a really successful best-selling marketing trick.

Have you read any of the Twilight books or watched the movies? What do you think? Feel free to let me know.

Until next time,

D. D. N.