April Book Review #5

Book: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Age-range: 13 and up (although it's not a book I would ever recommend to someone not already out of high school)
Recommended: Yes
As good as the first time?: Yes, but different

I will willingly admit that I read Twilight before there was a Twilight craze.  I read it before New Moon came out.  I read it before it came out in paperback, even.  I am responsible for at least 100 (not even kidding) people reading this book.  Once upon a time I loved it, was completely Team Edward (before there was a Team Jacob), and was vaguely embarrassed that I read and enjoyed a book about, of all things, vampires.

Then everything exploded.  That idiotic movie came out with Robert Pattinson playing Edward and suddenly I wondered if I had ever really liked Twilight at all.  Surely I was not one of THOSE fans.  And so many of my peers who wrote were bashing on Stephenie Meyer and her writing ability.  I kept my now-floundering opinions to myself, but I stopped recommending the book, and didn't touch it again.

Until this last week.

I had to see why I had loved the book so much that I had recommended it to so many people.  I had to remember why I had gushed and begged my sisters to read it.  I had to remember why I had loved getting a Team Edward shirt from one of my sisters for Christmas.  What was all the fuss about?  Surely it hadn't really been that good.  I must have just been in a reading dry spell to latch on to this book so much.

So I read it again.

And I loved it again.  The first time I read it as a reader.  This time I read it as a writer.  And while I'm the first to admit that there's at least 20 pages toward the beginning that could be deleted without any harm to the story, I still felt like it was an amazing book for a first-time author.  I fell in love with the characters again.  The Edward in my head was my original imaginary Edward and not that awfully-make-upped Robert Pattinson.  I had forgotten certain parts and enjoyed discovering them again, as if it were the first time.  I even became slightly obsessed again, staying up early into the morning to read the partial copy of Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer's website.  It's Twilight from Edward's point of view, and I actually prefer his voice to Bella's in some ways.  I hope she'll finish the book because I would definitely buy it.

Now this does not mean that I encourage or condone the reading of any other books in the series.  I have read them all and decided (back before the explosion) that I preferred the story as it is contained in the first book.  I have no use for half-human/half-vampire babies, werewolves, or any other thing mentioned in the other books.  (Although, to be fair, I was fairly suicidal when I read New Moon, so that could have influenced my reading of that book.)

In conclusion, you should read Twilight if you haven't.  Just ignore the hype.  And never, under any circumstances watch the movie.  You can, however, watch the New Moon movie.  But don't read the book.  That is all.