Fighting Fate: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

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To be honest, I didn’t expect to like Twilight. It’s not because I am dismissive of the vampire romance or young adult genre; it had more to do with how hurt I was when Buffy and Angel broke up. Besides, I had thought that I had outgrown such moony fangirling and adolescent angst. I’m an adult now and, therefore, above such petty pursuits. Why, then, did Twilight have me swooning like a lovesick cow?

The story is told from the point-of-view of Bella Swan, an awkward and angsty teenager who has taken a self-imposed exile in Forks, a cloudy, sleepy town where everyone knows everyone else – certainly a far cry from the heat and tumult of Phoenix. Of course, Forks has a lot more to offer than Bella thinks, because it is also home to a coven (or family, depending on who’s speaking) of “vegetarian” vampires, i.e., vampires who don’t feed on tasty humans. Though they live peacefully with humans, the Cullens, naturally, keep to themselves, until, that is, Bella comes along and provokes a stirring in Edward, who is, of course, described as mysterious and staggeringly beautiful. Their relationship suffers a lot of stops and starts, but it is only a matter of time before Edward and Bella realize that, despite their better judgment (mostly Edward’s) and disapproval from humans and vampires alike, they are unwilling to be parted from each other. Bella is welcomed into the Cullen fold, but Edward’s choice to embrace what he feels for her comes back to haunt him when Bella’s life is threatened by James, a decidedly carnivorous vampire.

We can all guess how Twilight will end, especially since it is the first novel of a series of books featuring the same protagonists. Just the blurb on the back cover is enough to let the reader know how the story will progress:

About three things I was absolutely positive.
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

That blurb is also indicative of the tone of the book. There is something rough and amateurish about the writing; there are parts of the novel that read like the overearnest diary entries of a morose teenager. Declarations of love and breathless descriptions of Edward’s beauty abound (he does seem impossibly sexy), but the writing is so sincere that I find myself glossing over those passages. Besides, Ms. Meyer is not doing anything here except giving me exactly what I expect and exactly what I want. There is a lot of husky whispering between Bella and Edward, a lot of stolen glances and hesitant touches, and a lot of melodramatic yearning as they discover the depth of their feelings for each other. The book rarely strays from this focus, to the extent that the other characters feel rather one-note, but, somehow, the uneven character development didn’t matter to me as much as it should.

This is because of Twilight’s idiot-proof formula. Bella is, of course, the Everygirl, that awkward, misunderstood little waif that we have, at times, identified with. Edward is the epitome of wish-fulfillment fantasies: the unattainable superhuman who not only notices her, but loves her unconditionally. That premise, for me and, I’m sure, legions of geeky girls out there, is damn near impossible to resist and it’s enough to keep me reading. The romance between Bella and Edward is the real star here – it is grand and all-encompassing and, despite the novel’s flaws, I cannot wait to see where their love takes them.

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Filed under Debuts, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Literature

Tags: America, fantasy, horror, Stephenie Meyer, supernatural fiction, Twilight