Review of Twillight, by Stephanie Meyer

When Bella Swan moves to the tiny town of Forks, Washington, to live with her father, she falls head-over-heels in love with vampire Edward Cullen. Socializing with a family of vampires is obviously very dangerous, and the book becomes very suspenseful as we wonder whether Bella will survive even one year.

Bella is a well-developed character who doesn't have much trouble making you sympathize with her, even though you don't empathize. She has seemingly endless bad luck, but Edward always saves her just in time. However, sometimes you do get annoyed at her complete lack of self-confidence (she thinks she's ugly even though most of the boys at Forks High School want to date her).

Edward is like the complete opposite of Bella. Being a vampire, he is super strong, fast, smart, rich, and beautiful, and he knows it. He clearly makes other boys (possibly including male readers) jealous, though he doesn't socialize much with anyone except Bella and his vampire family.
Unfortunately, reading about Edward's actions can actually make you hate him sometimes. He's a very stubborn person, and although he always does what he believes is best for Bella, that's often not what Bella wants for herself. Feminists will definitely be irritated by the extent to which Bella lets Edward control her after they start dating.

Overall, this book is not a traditional vampire story. It puts much more focus on Bella's love for Edward rather than fighting vampires. So, if you are interested in reading a decently-written novel about young-adult love (or just fantasize about extremely hot boyfriends), you will love this book. However, toward the end there is a bit of exciting action and a few good surprises.

Scores:
for stereotypical teen girls:   5 / 5
for people looking for a good YA novel:  3.5 / 5
for serious feminists:  1 / 5

~ Reviewed by an HHS junior