Customer Reviews

Twilight (Twilight Saga)

5 star:		(746)
4 star:		(90)
3 star:		(62)
2 star:		(52)
1 star:		(120)

 

 

This is YA fiction and I'm not even close to the target audience. It's been a lot of years since I belonged in the 'teen' category BUT... despite that, I loved this book! I think it might be because the 17 year old that I once was is still fresh in my mind, and if I squint when I look in the mirror I can still see her (she just got better looking over the last couple of decades *grin*).

A five star book for me is one that I have to tear myself away from and this has to be one of the better 5 star books I've read recently. I could not put it down, regardless of whether I fit in the target deomographic or not. I have no idea why I was so enamoured with this particular story but it just grabbed me, literally from the first chapter. It has it's flaws, and at times those flaws tried to pull me away from the pages while I wrestled with my beliefs but never did I feel like I couldn't go on. I'm actually mystified why this is such a great book, I wish I could put my finger on it but it escapes me. I am fond of a bit of vampire lit, it's true, but this goes beyond that....I think. I can't say the writing is superlative so it's not that.....but what is it? I wish I knew. Answers on a postcard, please.

Bella is a complete feminists' nightmare and I can see why that would put a lot of people off of her, but at 17 love is blind so I'm willing to forgive Bella on that score. Edward is so uber male that he fairly reeks testosterone and again, that may grate on some readers but lets put things in perspective, he's the ultimate predator and has had nearly a century of dominating his prey so on that score I'm willing to forgive him his overly masculine nature for now, this nurture/love thing is new for him too.....he'll get it right eventually I expect.

Ultimitely, lets not forget that this is a tale of vampire love which is aimed at teens/young adults and the usual complexities and concerns that come with real life won't apply here. I for one am glad to slip into Bella and Edward's world and remember what it was to be young and in the throes of first love. If you have an imagination and are willing to suspend your disbelief then you might enjoy this story. It's an enjoyable bit of fulff to while away a few hours/days but if your usual reading material tends to be the classics and nothing more, then you probably will feel the need to return here with you own 1 or 2 star review.

I have books 2, 3 and 4 lined up here, ready to devour and if they go as quickly as Twilight then I'll have completed all 4 in about 3 more days. I want to tell everyone to read this as I loved it so much, but I realise that everyone has different tastes so all I can recommend is that you read the reviews and make your own mind up from there.

When I was a kid there were kids and adults - 'young adults' didn't exist. And there were kids' books and adult books with nothing inbetween. Times have changed, and I think on the whole for the better, in that we now acknowledge that there is a transition period between childhood and adulthood, so it seems only fair that these young adults get their own books - and that the rest of us should be allowed to read them too.

I picked up Twilight partly to see what all the fuss was about, not having seen the movies, and partly to find out what young adult literature was like, and I'm happy to admit that I enjoyed it. Yes, Bella can be a whiney little so-and-so, and when she gets older she should read Women Who Love Too Much, but I remember being an angst-ridden seventeen year old myself so I could relate to her. And much as I cringe at the idea of Edward having spent the last century or so as an arrogant teenage prat, there's no denying he's just the kind of arrogant prat that many angst-ridden girls go for - so many of us were stupid enough to always go for the out-of-the-ordinary type, because nice, everyday boys were so 'boring'.

I never expected the book to be really great literature, and I think you're bound to be disappointed if you look at Twilight with too adult eyes, but it was an engaging, fun read. I'll take off one star because the long stretches of dialogue between Bella and Edward did get a bit tedious, but the story held my interest to the end - which many more literary books fail to do.

A great thing about getting older is that you can like what you like and not care what anyone else thinks of you because of it, so I'm happy to repeat that I enjoyed Twilight and plan the read the rest of the series. Congratulations to Stephenie Meyer; as other reviewers have said, she pulled it off and laughed all the way to the bank. Good for her!

Utterly captivating. Very well written (i usually read modern classics). Couldn't put it down until i finished it, within 24 hours. Brilliant.

If you like this, I'd recommend Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

ok, so im not what you would call the average reader of this kind of genre, ive certainly never read anything like it before! but i loved this book.
ok, i will admit i watch the movie before i read the books, total sin, i know! but i would never heard about twilight otherwise.
This story has many core themes running through it, love, good v evil the struggle between head and heart and many of the usual themes these "teenage books" often have, acceptance to fit in, first love, finding friends and the akward "coming of age" feelings.
However i would not simply class this as a book for teens, im an adult and i enjoyed this book immensely, bella's feelings are something we can all relate too and i dont think this book should be classed as anything to do with age.
ok, i will admit the writting isnt great, but i dont think that matters here, nobody is claiming meyer is the new austen or bronte, but unless you are reading this book from an academic perspective it makes little difference.
Meyer represents the average teen girls feelings of awkwardness and embarressment very well, and often Bella's feelings towards Edward can be a little overbearing, but isnt everyone a little over the top with their first love? as for Edward, well as a woman, need i say more? i think anyone would happily swap places with Bella here.
In summary, i loved this book, it kept me locked away for hours until i read it all, i literally couldnt put it down and i would recommend it to anyone, especially if it isnt usually your "type" of book.

One of the most engaging books I've read in a while. I saw the film first and fell in love with Edward and Bella, I immediately bought the book and couldn't put it down. I was completely absorbed in their story. Stephenie Meyer has created a brilliant world and characters you can really fall in love with and care for. Once I'd read the first book I bought the rest in the series and read them all in a weekend, I couldn't get enough of the characters. Meyers writing is brilliantly descriptive and the story just flows though the pages. I've already recommended this book to most of my friends! I also recommend it to you.

I've now read the whole collection and I've done it in less then a week, the books are the most .... well Sexyest thing I've read in ages the movie just proves the point the realtionship between Edward and Bella is one I hope to see move of in other romance... and I'm 24, LOVED IT

Stephanie Meyer writes vampire fiction as many teenage girls do -- overblown writing, sexy cold vampires, and a vacuously attractive heroine who serves as the readers' stand-in.

And so it's hardly surprising that her megahit debut "Twilight" is essentially a teenage fantasy about finding the Perfect Hot Immortal Coverboy Who Longs For You Alone. Innocuous sparkling vampires, buckets of pointless teenage angst and a plot tacked on at the last minute leave this one of the more bloodless examples of vampire romance.

Klutzy Bella Swan is oh-so-self-sacrificingly going to live with her small-town cop dad, and is appalled by the student body -- all the local boys decide that (ick!) they like her, and all the girls are shallow idiots compared to her.

Then she's struck by the ash-pale, vaguely incestuous Cullen family -- an especially by the Hawt and Brooding Edward Cullen. Edward doesn't seem to like her much, resulting in much Teen Angst. but when Bella is nearly killed by a runaway car, he somehow manages to zip across the parking lot and knock away the car. Bella eventually figures out that he's a vampire-- a "vegetarian vampire" with the power to read thoughts... except hers.

Despite his fears that he'll hurt her, their smoldering chemistry (and Bella's tantalizing smell) draws them into a relationship... at which point, since the plot has had zero non-teenybopper tension, three two-dimensionally evil vampires enter the scene, intent on hunting Bella. The Cullens whisk her away to keep her safe from this trio -- but their enemies have more than one way to find her.

The book "Twilight" is essentially the eroticized fantasies of a teenage girl, purple of prose and taking itself hilariously seriously. In fact, reading this novel feels suspiciously like eavesdropping on Stephanie Meyer's fantasies of having a hot, sparkle-skinned vampire stalking her on a nightly basis to show his undying love.

Unfortunately there's not much more to the plot than that -- most of it involves Bella and Edward smoldering at each other, and Bella's contemplation of Edward's "scintillating, incandescent" body and Greek-god hotness. Furthermore Meyer smears the entire book in wildly swinging emotions, tepid dialogue, and overly ornate, purple prose -- the descriptions of Edward's chest alone may induce choking and diabetic coma.

After a horrendously silly "meet the vampire family," Meyer belatedly realizes that the book needs more than angst and sparkles and Edward is constantly shying away from Bella's virginal neck (what does that imply about sucking blood from animals?). So she tacks in a contrived subplot about evil vampires who are hunting Bella. Just... because they want to.

And heroine Bella is truly an amazing character -- she manages to be a blank slate for mass fantasy projection, while also managing to be whiny, selfish, snobby and superhumanly shallow (since the only person she cares about is the Hawt Rich Guy). Edward is a suitable mate for her -- he broods, smolders and stalks her to show that he loves her eternally. After all, isn't a bipolar stalker watching you sleep the very image of true love?

As for the other characters... well, we have quirky vampire Alice to add some humor to the story. But otherwise, none of them really matter much except to reflect how awesome Edward and Bella are -- and the villains could not be any thinner if Meyer snipped them from sparkly incandescent skin.

Those who dream of eternal angsty love with an Immortal Hottie may find "Twilight" a delight, but it's no more than a thin, flat guilty pleasure at best.

I am reading the first book, out of sheer curiosity, after reading so much about the "phenomenon", and after reading that the books "were so much better than the movies".

So far (I am at chapter 18 of the first book) I am really gobsmacked: how could Stephenie Meyers have been published in the first place?

Nothing happens. We are informed over and over again that Edward's face is god-like, that he's stunningly handsome and that she is so in love with him. There's a quick, passing reference that her love was not only about his looks, there was so much more to Edward. Wow, I feel much better now, because I really thought it was all about mere sexual attraction. And since I am touching the sex argument (no pun intended), what about the weird, sterile, yet sexual charged scenes? I felt really uncomfortable reading them, because, even though nothing happened (no french kiss, only a lot of sniffing) it felt very intrusive. When she is not writing about his oh so gorgeous face, she goes on and on about his shiny volvo and great fashion sense. C'mon!!! You can't write a book with such premises. Or can you?

There is no plot, no confrontation. She doesn't get through any hardship, not even a scratch, therefore there is no growth of the character. How the hell is Bella supposed to learn if things are done for her?

She's supposed to be an average looking girl, yet all the school's male population seem wanting to go out with her, and there she, is turning everybody down but Perfect Edward: and why? She is clumsy, she has a special talent in getting herself in dangerous situations -which makes her cumbersome, she doesn't deal with her problems, she is the typical damsel in distress waiting for the prince charming. No redeeming features. At least the medioeval damsels were stunnigly beautiful, which gave the prince an excuse to run and save them. This was in the middle ages, a period that is very famous for the misogynistic mentality. This book has been written by a modern-time woman, I would have hoped some respect for the imagine women have fought so hard to earn.

Presently, I am reading how the Cullens are bending backward to help Bella escape the bad vampires, and the way Meyers portraits Bella in this scene is appalling: Bella is a rag doll. She is thrown over one of the good vampire's shoulder, she's thrown in the car, they buckle the security belt for her, for god's sake, she's even undressed and dressed by the vampire mum! How can a heroine of a book be so helpless: Snow White is much more proactive than Bella, because at least she engracied herself to the dwarves by cleaning the house for them; Bella just appears and everybody loves her!

The book should not have been about her, but about the Cullens dealing with a total idiot.

And about the bad vampires: they appear out of nowhere, not even a little hint about them at the beginning of the book.

This book is a blatant example of how not to write. Nonetheless it's been published and is a best seller. Meyers must have done something right, but I really struggle to see it

I read Twilight both at my friend's enthusiastic recommendation and because of my own curiosity over the barrage of bad reviews it had. My reaction to it was a sort of horrified fascination, coupled with a strong desire to jab the protagonist, the utterly unlikeable Bella Swan, with a sharp stick.

For some reason that is never quite explained (not to my satisfaction, at least), Bella Swan moves to the town of Forks, a place she loathes with a passion, to live with her dad, a man she doesn't feel even warrants the name "Dad", and leaving her mom, a woman she claims to be closer to than anyone else on the planet but whom she actually ignores for most of the book. On her first day at her new school, which she also hates despite pretty much the entire student population - the male half in particular - making every effort to be perfectly lovely to her, she encounters a group of insanely beautiful students who ignore everyone; among them is Edward Cullen, who she freaks out over because it seems he might not love her like everyone else. Then he becomes passably friendly, and Bella is smitten. Bella is smitten. Bella is smitten. Bella finds out Edward and his insanely beautiful family are vampires. Bella is smitten. Bella is smitten. In fact, Bella is smitten for three-hundred-and-thirty-three pages of this four-hundred-and-thirty-four page novel before anything resembling a plot actually happens, and then not even particularly good plot.

Oh, don't worry, it's not one-sided at all - Edward is smitten too. Edward is so smitten that he sneaks into Bella's house and watches her sleep without her knowledge. If Stephenie Meyer had put in a twist in which Bella gets a restraining order slapped on him as a normal person would, that might have saved the book. However, Edward is, as I said, insanely gorgeous, and so on the contrary, she finds his stalker antics flattering. And isn't it alarming that so many young girls describe Edward as their "dream guy" or look to Bella as a role model?

On the back of the book, I am told that it "...encapsulates perfectly the teenage feeling of sexual tension and alienation." I can only imagine that the reviewer from The Times has long forgotten their teenage years, because I don't think that Meyer spoke to a single seventeen-year-old before writing this book. For the record, none of us feel any need to comment repeatedly on the godlike good looks of people we date. Some of us even look for something beyond godlike good looks in the people we date, but such a concept is apparently lost on Meyer and thus on Bella. And I like to think that if anyone behaved as creepily towards most seventeen-year-old girls as Edward behaves towards Bella, the alarm bells would start ringing pretty fast. The book encapsulates many things, such as pancake flat characters and How Romance Doesn't Happen, but it is certainly not something that I, as a seventeen-year-old girl, can possibly relate to. I find it quite laughable that Meyer claims she gave Bella the "vague" physical description of "slim" with "long mahogany hair" and "wide chocolate brown eyes" in order for readers to find it easier to 'step into her shoes'. I would prefer a complete profile of a character who was written in a believable way to a spineless Mary Sue who could possibly look like me, if I want to imagine her in such a way (which I really don't, thanks).

In short, don't waste your money. This is not a good book.

I was reading some fanfiction a while ago and came across an authors note that said something along the lines of, "I got some of the ideas for my vampires from Twilight, which is a great book." Of course, thinking that these were probably some of the better things about her vampires (it turns out this is not the case) I went and looked at a few reviews of the book. They seemed good enough so the next day I bought it. Bad idea.

The characters are ENTIRELY two dimensional and Bella Swan (I mean, seriously, if I saw that name in a description of a fanfiction I would never even bother reading it) is most definitely a Mary-Sue (She believes she is terrible looking and yet all the boys love her and all the evil people focus on her (Yes, there would be even LESS plot if it weren't for that but there should be at least SOME other people being targeted by vampires). She also has special powers). It seems Meyer realized this and tried to create a flaw (notice I use a singular noun). Yes. Just one flaw. She's clumsy. That's all.

The plot... is practically nonexistent. It seems just as SMeyer was getting to the end of her rather long drabblefic (to use fanfiction terms) she realised she needed a plot so she tacked one on the end.

I was left feeling very disapointed and feel that me, a pre-teen, could do better. I warn you, DO NOT waste your money on it.