Ode to Twilight

One of my co-workers is reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and conversations with her remind me of my introduction to them. I have to credit my very good friend at work with first introducing me to Twilight - she was so insistent that I read it and, since I was #107 in the queue for it at the library, managed to get a copy for me from her sister.

First off, I was not too sure if I would like it as much as my friend did, but I decided to give it a read anyway - to make a long story short, I got it on a Friday, finished reading it that Saturday, got on Amazon and ordered the next 3 books in the series immediately - New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (in my hurry I ended up ordering the Spanish version of the third book Eclipse and was so disappointed that I had to wait some more to get a version I could actually read and comprehend).

Twilight and the related books are all about the intense love story between human Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen. There are other pivotal characters in the book like the werewolf Jacob who pines for Bella, Edward's vampire family with Carlisle and Esme Cullen at the helm and his 'siblings' and her father, Police Chief, Charlie Swan. The story draws you in with a first person narrative and progresses rapidly and the intensity is breath-taking - you cannot put down the book and want the next one and the next - you get my drift. I am glad that I was introduced to it this late in 2008 because I cannot imagine waiting for a few months to read the next sequel. Now I do want to point out that her writing style is not great - on any given page, the staple words you will find are 'grin', 'chuckle', and 'sigh' but as you move from book to book, you do get, dare I say it, a little bit obsessed with it (I admit it - for a few weeks I only had Twilight on my mind and youtubed every interview with Robert Pattinson and gang).

The movie version catapulted its stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson to overnight global fame and beat out James Bond in the opening weekend. The sequel to it is eagerly awaited this November. This book has spawned many obsessions (Twilight moms anyone?, warring teams of 'Team Edward' and 'Team Jacob' and stampedes everywhere the cast for the movie visited).

Every now and then, I will re-read a book in the series and am amazed at how it will still draw me in into this world of true but forbidden love and vampires. It doesn't matter what your age, but if you are a woman/girl and even if you don't really love to read, I highly recommend this book series. For the guys, not so much unless you are man enough to admit to liking "chick lit" - that you will go watch the movie when it releases for your wife is good enough :)