Overview:

Alright, we had a complaint a while ago about not having a lot of literature. Well I took one for the team (call me gay, but you wouldn’t be the first) and read Twilight. I didn’t have a problem reading it, though. It was actually a pretty good book and a twist on what people used to call horror (Vampires). Now that the movie is out everyone is pretty aware about what this book has to do with although there are minor differences as with any book to movie.

Story:

Now as this is our first book review I don’t like telling people many things that have to do with the end of the story due to how much of a pet peeve it is of mine if someone tells me, I like to find out on my own and get surprised or see if I guessed right. So I will try to make this as much of a basic summary as I can with out spoiling the end although the cat’s out of the bag with Twilight but the same goes for New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn or any other book I review for that matter.

This story, like all others in the beginning of a saga, is the boring one that introduces you to the characters and their personalities which means instead of building a climax you get to meet everyone first. Isabella Swan, our main character, seems to be the legit boring girl that moves to a small school from a large one. I mean I can relate (about moving but not being a girl) as I’ve done the same numerous times. She moves in with her father because her mom and step dad are busy trying to get him signed into the minor leagues of baseball. So she decides to move in with her dad in the small town of Forks, Washington where the sun doesn’t shine. Well she signs up for school and everything goes as it should when going to a new school. She meets new friends, gets her classes, and has a near death experience. These so-called kids that she sees across the lunch table are very interesting. Pale white, beautiful, and they are all in the same family and seem to be dating. But there is kind of a fifth wheel among them, Edward Cullen who catches Bella’s eyes. Turns out later she has a class with him, but he runs out of class the first time they meet and she finds him trying to switch classes. Then he misses multiple days of school when he can’t get out of biology with her. She gets so irritated with this that it’s on her mind all the time. Why is he so annoyed with me?

Other things are going on that aren’t really worth mentioning, just fillers. She goes to La Push, the indian reservation down the highway with some friends and sees an old friend Jacob Black, hes kind of a young’n, but she tries to seduce information out of him about the Cullens. He tells some of what he thinks is superstition about them being vampires and so on. Later on she almost gets hit by a car, but amazingly Edward saves her. Awesome. Well too bad for him because now Bella tries to weasel out his secret. Eventually they start hanging out more often and all they ever talk about is vampire shit or something called love, whatever that is. It’s kind of like when you’re at work. All you do is talk about work and your co-workers. Bella meets the vampire family which is actually pretty interesting. They go out to play baseball which is kind of cool how they cover up the loud noise of the bat and baseball by the sound of thunder. Some new vampires come on the scene though and start some shit and they aren’t the so called vegetarians that the Cullen family claims to be. They want to play baseball, but once Bella moves they are definitely aware that she is human and want a snack. I will go this far because this is actually where some climactic action begins and I don’t want to spoil anything further.

Characters:

I am only hitting the more main characters that tend to be in more than one book because they are somewhat more important.

• Isabella Swan – Normal teenage virgin.
• Charlie – Bella’s father, police chief extraordinaire but he doesn’t add to much of the story in this book, he is what he is, the father.
• Renee – Bella’s mother, currently her best friend and tries to get a hold of her and make sure Bella is okay, but Bella is too lazy to use the dial up and contact her back. She gets overly worried a lot.
• Edward Cullen – A vampire who is posing as a student at a high school because he has nothing else to do with his power, money, and immortality. Falls in love with Bella pretty quick after seeing her. He sneaks into her room, that kind of thing. Can read minds.
• Dr. Carlisle Cullen – A vampire who is a doctor, and a nice guy. Supposedly Edward’s dad. He turned most of the Cullen’s to vampires, with the exception of Alice and Jasper.
• Alice Cullen – Can see the future, likes Bella and is glad that she is dating Edward. She becomes good friends with Bella.
• Jasper Cullen – Alice’s significant other, can manipulate the emotions of the people around him.
• Rosalie Cullen – Edward’s sister, she does not really seem to like Bella and she is supposedly extremely beautiful and the movie didn’t do a good job portraying her.
• Emmett Cullen – Big muscular dude who is Rosalie’s significant other and thinks Bella is funny because she is clumsy.
• Esme Cullen – Supposedly Edward’s mother, is a very caring person and that’s about it.
• James – Vampire who wants to track Bella and drain her.
• Victoria – James’ significant other who comes with him.
• Laurent – An older vampire who is currently with James’ coven and is just traveling with them.

Final Words:

The book does a lot to introduce a series although my only complaint with the book is that its pretty darn boring once you start reading the following installments. But I guess you could expect something like that when it comes to any series such as Harry Potter and Eragon. Its purpose is to introduce you to the story with a bumpy ride of explanation along the way, oh and to make you excited for the next book. Considering that I am a guy and I read a girl’s book, I wasn’t disappointed with the story. But I did get made fun of a lot.

Score:

Overall: 7.5/10

Story: 8.0/10
Characters: 8.5/10
Entertainment Value: 7.0/10 (Is not that great after you read the sequels)