Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Shruthi | Holmdel High School, Grade 11

Rating: *

Twilight is about a girl named Bella Swan who moves to her father’s house for a little bit. Her father lives in a rainy town named Forks, and it seems as though the only interesting thing in Forks, or at least the only thing she finds interesting, is a creepy dude named Edward who clearly doesn’t like her. As the story progresses and Bella starts to get to know Edward better, after he stops avoiding her like the plague, a series of mishaps ensue that cause Bella to fear for her life.

I read this book because of the huge hype behind it, and frankly, I’m not impressed. I’ve read a lot of fantasy novels, and I’m a fantasy author myself. So, believe me when I say I know what makes a fantasy novel good: the plot needs to be strong, the fantasy part of the story should be believable, and the characters need to be human. Twilight didn’t have any of these factors. Humans are…well, human, and Bella felt like a stick figure. She had three emotions: being mad at Forks for its weather, being scared, and being obsessed with Edward beyond all reason. Aside from this, she didn’t develop as a character. She was very two-dimensional. The plot came rather late in the story, which is excusable, but I wish Bella did something, anything. Instead, she just played damsel in distress the entire time. The resolution was so boring, and made me wonder why Edward wasn’t the main character: he did all the work. Lastly, fantasy novels need to make sense, even if they aren’t practical, and Twilight didn’t. Bella just kind of guessed that Edward was a vampire, and he didn’t give her the remotest bit of explanation. No hate, but this was not a good read.

Kaitlyn | Eisenhower Middle School, Grade 8

Rating: *****

Twilight is a book about a 17 year old girl named Isabella “Bella” Swan. She was born in a small town, Forks, Washington but raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She moved to Phoenix when her mother didn’t want to live the life they had in Forks. Bella went to Forks every year for summer until she was 14 and she’d had enough, she hated every second she’d spent there, like mother like daughter. When her mother, Rénee gets remarried, Bella decides that it’s time to revisit her father in Forks. Once she gets to Forks, her father gets her a car that she loves, she goes to school, makes a bunch of friends and admirers, when suddenly the Cullen family catches her eye, Roselie, Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, Esme, and Alice They looked so weird in the cafeteria and Edward Cullen acted even more strangely toward her. He ignored her, shifted his chair so that he was as far away from her as possible, tried to transfer out of the only class he had with her at the end of her first day, and didn’t come to school until a week had passed. Bella becomes very suspicious of the Cullen family when Edward stops a car from crushing Bella with his bare hands when he was across the parking lot, his eye color changing, their unusual beautiful faces, their gratefulness, and their abnormally cold skin. Eventually she learns their secret only to become endangered by something relevant to their secret. I found this book very intriguing. I’ve always loved fantasy books and movies. It was a little slow in the beginning but I couldn’t put the book down toward the end.