BUT I COULDN’T HELP IT, I GOTSICKED IN TO IT. I THOUGHT IT WASLIKETHISFAD W/ ALLTHEBACKSTREETBOYS OR WHATEVER. MANWAS I WRONG. I READALLTHEBOOKS IN 3 WEEKS. I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN. I LIKED IT A LOT!!!!!!! I REALLY DON’T READFORENJOYMENT. ONCE IN A GREATWHILE I’LL FINDSOMETHINGWORTHREADING. NOW I HOPE TO FINDSOMETHINGTHATCATCHES MU INTERESTAGAIN. MORE OF THEWHOLELOVETHING. ANYSUGGESTIONS?

Oh, the shame! I just couldn’t resist the tide of popular opinion…

I just can’t get that into it!! I’m going to keep trying!

Edit: I finally finished this book today. The writing was pretty bad in the beginning but it did get better. It really helped to watch the movie, got me to finish the book.

Watched the film the night before; read the book the next day. Book’s definately better than the movie (although I kind of like the film’s adaptation of Bella.)

I’ve read this book three times now, and it just gets better and better each time. You’d be amazed how much foreshadowing there is that you didn’t notice the first (and even second!) time you read it. Still one of my favorite books, its absolutely amazing, and it never fails to put me in the best mood for the two or three days it takes me to read.

Warning: may contain spoilers

Have I missed something? Because I feel as though I’m the only person on the surface of the earth who thoroughly disliked this book. I will admit that I read it in 4 days and, as such, it is an easy read but an easy read does not a good book make.

There are a couple of good points: I could relate to Bella’s initial feelings of infatuation with Edward, and I think that was captured quite well. And the book picked up somewhat when Bella was being hunted but a book shouldn’t start to get interesting when there’s only a hundred or so pages left.

I felt that Meyer’s writing was rather poor, to start with, and it seemed as though she had written it in Word and used the thesaurus function to replace one word for another. It was also a little…clunky and hard to read to begin with. Again, her writing style picked up and started to flow better 100 or maybe 200 pages in, in my rather humble opinion.

The story, itself, is rather unoriginal – it’s basically the same story that’s been told many times before but replacing a human boy with a vampire. I think Edward’s vampirism and the danger it presents to Bella can be seen as a metaphor for how many parents would probably feel about their teenage daughters dating a teenage boy and how daunting and scary a first romance could feel for those involved.

I suppose it doesn’t help that I don’t like love stories in books. I love romantic films but can’t stand reading about romance (unless it’s the Romantic movement style of romance or the Gothic romance and not the love-story kind of Romance, if that makes sense).

At any rate, I suppose in some ways it was worth reading this book because now I know how I feel about it. Some people have commented on hating this book/series but have never read it and that’s not something I wanted to do.

I’d also like to add that, as a rule, I love vampires and that’s not what put me off at all.

Okay; I admit it. I have never liked vampires. From a very young age, I have been really very scared of them.

So when the Twilight books came out, I was reluctant to take them on. Sure, Harry Potter had his Dementors, but you could be pretty sure Harry would come out okay. With vampires, though, you never know.

But folks kept requesting the books, and other adults were telling me how good they were. So, as if drawn by the proverbial apple on the cover, I bit.

This is a well-written book for teens that has some appeal for adults as well. Bella is the quintessential misfit, the new girl at school. When she sees Edward, she is instantly enthralled by him, as are most of the other girls. That Edward and his family have a somewhat “unconventional” lifestyle doesn’t seem to bother Bella. How the vampires cope in the human world, as well as with other supernatural beings, kept me reading on, and also sets the stage for other books in the Twilight series.

I’m glad, ultimately, that I read Twilight. The author has a very lyrical style, and seems to deal with the supernatural in ways that people can relate to – it’s not gory or sensational. And, setting aside my cynical-adult hat for a moment, I have to say that the misfit teen/grand, eternal passion theme had a familiar, wistful resonance for me, as well.

I had to retrain my reading, and remind myself that this is a Teen Lit/Young Adult book. The plot was a bit thin, and a little predictable. Any other author could have fit it into a neat little package of about 50 pages or so…but wait, this isn’t a negative review. What makes this book stand out and apart from the classic vampire mythos are the emotional descriptions of a dangerous, hesitant, and young love. It more than adequately captures the tension inherent in the first stages of any relationship, human or not. (In fact, it had me blushing and remembering more than a few distant and tense crushes.) That said, it is not without its share of action sequences, but they are overshadowed a bit by the interplay between Edward and Bella. It’s easy to sympathize with lesser characters as well, because they are all familiar faces when compared with our own experiences. It was a quick, yet satisfying read. I’m interested in checking out the rest of the series, now.