Mailyn says...
The Genre
Vampire fiction, Young Adults, Urban Fantasy, horror, romance
The Plot
From Amazon:
"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."The Review
Let me just start by saying that
Stephanie Meyers, I LOVE YOU!
I LUUUUUUUUV YOU!!!!!!
Now, be forewarned that I am still on a VERY
Twilight high so I a)may not be coherent much and b)can't come up for air long enough to form any coherent thoughts.
I barely slept last night because I wanted to get online NOW to find anything and everything I could on this series. Yes, it's a series. No, it's not a trilogy. If you go on the author's site you will see that she plans more books.
Why is this so good? A few things.
The vampires are different. TOTALLY different. They don't have fangs but very sharp teeth. They can go out during the day but don't do it when it's sunny. There is a good reason for this but I can't give it away or it will spoil some of the plot. They aren't house-broken. These vampires have trouble, let me rephrase that, they have TROUBLE when it comes to human blood. Although the good vamps don't drink humans it's like a drug to them. Meaning they could snap at any moment and start killing people. Think of the good guys as recovering alcoholics or recovering heroine addicts. The scent of human blood calls to them pretty much 24/7 so being around humans (since the ones that pass as teenagers do go to high school) is an everyday test of their self-control.
Some of them have gotten pretty good at keeping under control but, unfortunately for
Edward,
Bella's blood calls to him like nobody else's ever has.
That's one of the things that I loved about this book. The relationship between
Bella and
Edward isn't as "solid" or secure as most those you find in other vampire romance books. Unlike most vampire heroes,
Edward has to struggle (and believe me that isn't even a strong enough word) to keep from eating her. She could set him off at any moment by a simple gesture or whatnot so they really have to work at it and earn their peace together. Easier said than done.
The book DOES start of rather slow, at least for me, but I kept reminding myself there MUST be a pretty good reason why so many people loved it so I kept reading. I wasn't disappointed...much.
Bella truly is a TSTL heroine. I will say it again,
Bella is TSTL. the funny thing is, she doesn't get on your nerves much. I actually liked her for most of the novel. Even on her major TSTL moments I still didn't hate her as much as I should have considering my aversion to TSTL heroines. She didn't ruin the book for me and that speaks volumes for the vampires and the plot. Usually a TSTL heroine kills the book for me. The one exception to this rule was
Laura Kinsale's
Flowers From the Strom. Much like that book, the vampires, Edward and his love for Bella, and the plot carried this for me. They passed the test with flying colors. Honestly, I even liked Bella most of the time.
The Verdict
It should be obvious I love this book. Immediately after finishing it I called EVERY SINGLE
Barnes & Nobles within a 2-hour radius so I could go and pick up the book. It was 8 pm. I would have gone anywhere but nobody had the book. They were all out. I almost didn't go to sleep I was so frustrated so I went online to try and find out everything I could about the sequel New Moon. Apparently it doesn't disappoint [unless you are waiting for an all-out romance, but more on that in the Spoiler section below] and it seems this is turning out to be one helluva series.
It gets a 5 out of 5 in my book.
Kailana says...This month started out good, but I have gotten rather lax in my blogging. I have been lax in my reading too. I hardly read when I have time off work because there are so many other things I want to do. Anyways, I recently finished
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It is a young adult book that I know a lot of people in the blogger community have read at one point or time, and if they haven't, they should! I thought it was very enjoyable!
From the flap:
I'd never given much thought to how I would die- I'd had reason enought in the last few months - but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this... Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of something else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.
When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.
What Bella doesn't realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And, if might be too late to turn back...
Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight will have readers riveted right until the last page is turned.
I have been reading a lot of the vampireish novels this year. This is one of my favourites. It is a more natural setting to vampire life. The vampires live relatively like everyday people. At least this band of vampires do. Bella and Edward meet at school, it is a year where the eternal 17-year-old and his 4 brothers and sisters decide to go down the school route this year. They are outcast, both by choice and how the school responds to their eccentric natures. But Bella and Edward find themselves drawn to each other from the very start.
This is their story, and it is more than a vampire story. It is a story of adolescent life, where you are coming from two very different backgrounds and have to make things work. They a very interesting relationship from the start. I mean, it is hard to be a mortal with a vampire because, well, although these particular vampires try not to suck human blood, they can not help wanting to sometimes. It leads this story into interesting angles.
It is enjoyable to read, and I cannot wait until the sequel is released in a few weeks. It will be interesting to see where this story goes from here. I have also been told that if the story does well, it is going to be a series! I hope the sequels are as good as this first one!
4.5/5
