Description[]
Twilight is a fantasy-romance novel written by Stephenie Meyer, and published in 2005. Twilight became an instant bestseller when it was published, making it all the way to #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. The novel is followed by three more books: New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. A film adaptation of Twilight was released in 2008.
Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother, Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella's attention.
When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella upon his return...
Awards and honors[]
- New York Times Editor's Choice
- One of Publishers Weekly's "Best Children's Books of 2005
- Publishers Weekly "Best Book of the Year"
- One of the American Library Association's "Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults" and "Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers"
- One of School Library Journal's "Best Books of 2005
- Amazon.com's "Best Book of the Decade...So Far"
Reader's Reviews[]
An Opinion[]
I have not read the Twilight series, and I do not intend to read them. At this point, I imagine Twilight fans are going "He's mad", but in this review I'll make my reasons clear for not reading them. I am not a person who believes all fantasy is wrong – I have read The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, the Redwall series, etc.
Vampires are bad. They have always been portrayed as evil, dark, morbid, “un-dead”, blood-sucking beings. Is it healthy to have a book about a human girl falling in love with one? Okay, Edward and company are “vegetarian”, not drinking human’s blood, but, err... they’re still vampires! It is not at all healthy for a creature that has been a character of evil for hundreds of years turned into an “acceptable” being. Vampires’ lust for blood is also evil. Cultures nearly always see the sanctity of blood, as the life of any creature – most pagan sacrifices appease their gods, who are extremely blood-thirsty. The Bible clearly states that “blood is life” – therefore, the vampire is an extremely unhealthy being for people to take as a “good” creature.
I would also avoid the books at all costs because of the sexual scenes. Edward avoids actually having sex with Bella – but not on moral grounds. Rather, because he’s afraid of accidentally eating her. Slightly unhealthy? The author's official website describes the series as “passionate”,[1] and this sort of writing is very unhealthy for teenagers.
However, the worst part of these books is their exploration of eternal life. Edward believes he is excluded from eternal life in Heaven because of being a vampire – in other words, he’s eternally damned. However, Bella doesn’t care: she wants to be a vampire so she can be with Edward, and she’s happy to give up her soul (or spirit) to do this; even though Edward tells her about his belief that vampires cannot got to Heaven. This feeling is portrayed as right in the books, and this is truly awful. Jesus died for Bella, as well as you – but if you don’t trust Jesus, you’ll still live forever, in Hell. Edward was right about this, and the way that the series portrays the belief in eternal life as incorrect is very, very dangerous. If Bella knew, there is no way she would give up her eternal life in Heaven for, in comparison, a tiny portion of her life on Earth.
For these reasons, I would strongly recommend keeping well away from the series. If you have comments about this review, please leave them on the talk page.
2[]
Although a lot of people really don't like this book or believe that they give teenagers bad moral ideas, I would recommend this book for those who love suspense and a bit of adventure. There are no sexual scenes in the series and the romance (although some may disagree) is somewhat limited. The book is really about an average girl who falls in love and goes on a mission to save herself and her love from disaster. It's similar to a lot of other books that teens read, but it has been given a lot of negative feedback because of the movies and the teenagers that take the books way to seriously.There are also some people who believe that the books give the impression that there is no life after this one. This is not true. There is a discussion about Edward not believing in this, but this is only for himself. He believes that vampires will never go to heaven, but other people will. This is why he does not want Bella to turn into a vampire. He is the only who believes this. His father and Bella and most of the other characters believe that there is another life and everyone will some day go there. I am seventeen and am not obsessed about the book, but think that it's a great read and very well written. I do recommend this book for the adventurer who does not take the books too seriously.
3[]
I seriously despise this book. I seriously wish this was never written, it's a waste of money. I disagree with the above review, it is not very well written at all. 0/10
4[]
The greatest thing about the first book in the series, Twilight, is that it shows men what it's like for girls to have a crush on a guy. Not many books show the obsessive quality that girls can have when it comes to crushes, and this was the first book that I have read that did this. The other great thing about Twilight was the upfront-ness of it. It wouldn't leave you hanging for pages and pages to know what would happen, it was all coming at you so fast, that you weren't wondering about one thing very long. As soon as you found out what you wanted to know, you would be presented with another question. I found out about this book the year it was published, which was 2005. No one knew about it then, so it was amazing. When I went to the Twilight movie premiere there were only about 25 people in the theatre. Literally, no one knew about it. I got to see the metamorphosis from being this simple book to being a huge megamillion dollar making franchise. I'm a little sad to see it end. Anyways, the book is good. There's a little action, a little romance, a little drama and comedy. I know guys that love this book. They are closet twilighters. They just don't admit it to anyone. If the only reason you aren't reading it is because everyone is like overdramatic about hating it, most of those people haven't read it, and they really don't know what it's like. The movies kind of ruin the books too. The books were so much better. Twilight and Breaking Dawn are my favorite books from the series. User:Thepoodlechef 22:24, September 13, 2012 (UTC)
Parental Guidance[]
- Reading Age: 14+
- Reading Aloud Age: 14+
The main character, 17-year-old Bella Swan, falls in love with a vampire.
There are adult themes and violence. There are not sex scenes in this series.
The series may discuss the fact that there may not be an afterlife for people after they get turned into a vampire. The more common belief is that yes there is. A logical thought about afterlife would be that as soon as you die/turn into a vampire, your soul goes to heaven and your body is cursed with a demon.
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