Book Review: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

by - March 01, 2015

I.                    Title: Twilight
Author: Stephanie Meyer – She got the inspiration of writing twilight, quote; “In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately. For what is essentially a transcript of my dream, please see Chapter 13 ("Confessions") of the book.” With Meyer’s busy schedule as a mom and wife, she still pursued writing Twilight and created a story from her own very dream.
II.                  Setting:
Forks – It is a place surrounded by wild life and forest. It usually rains and the sun shines rarely, perfect for vampires.
III.                Characters:
a.       Major Characters
Bella Swan – she is the narrator of the story
Edward Cullen – Bella’s mysterious lover. He can’t stop smelling Bella’s scent of blood which he avoids Bella in some scenes.
Jacob Black – One of the werewolf pack sons. He tries to drag Bella away from the Cullen family.
James – a tracker specialist vampire and is also attracted to Bella’s scent of blood.
b.      Minor Characters
Charlie Swan – Bella’s biological father.
Carlisle Cullen – adaptive father of Edward Cullen
Victoria and Laurent – both helped James’ in hunt for Bella and are part of the vampire coven of James.
c.       Dynamic
Bella Swan – She became interested being immortal but Edward doesn’t like it for her.
Edward Cullen – He avoided Bella for him not to eat her but he couldn’t, he simply instead resist the smell.
d.      Static
Charlie Swan – He remained unaware about the Cullen’s true identities.
e.      Round
Bella Swan – Her choice of avoiding the Cullen family or not.
Jacob Black – Conflicted with Bella.
f.        Flat
Bella’s friends in school – They all have the welcoming spirit towards Bella and they are all friendly to her.
g.       Stock
Charlie Swan – Loving dad.
Edward Cullen – the lover boy that’s typical mysterious at first stereo type

h.      Protagonist
Bella Swan – narrator of the story
Edward Cullen – the sparkling vampires that Bella falls in love with.
The Cullen family – they protected Bella from James.
i.         Antagonist
James – he is a vampire tracker that threatens Bella’s life.
Victoria – part of James’ coven
Laurent – part of James’ coven
j.        Anti – Hero
Bella Swan – She struggles with investigating vampires, instead of living a normal life like the rest.
Edward Cullen – A vampire that fell in love with a scented blood human.
k.       FOIL
Rosalie Cullen – she hated Bella for some reason though everyone else adores her
l.         Symbolic
Carlisle Cullen – He symbolizes a person in a society that tried to fit in –so he wouldn’t be recognized that he is a vampire by the public, like a person tries not to be in trouble in a good way.

IV.                PLOT
Beginning:
Isabella Swan or people call her Bella, is an accident prone girl that choose to live with her father in Forks, Washington. Bella’s parents are separated which then Renee is re-marrying a man named Phil Dwyer, who makes her mother very happy.  Bella feels that it would make her mother more comfortable with Phil's traveling job if she were living with her father Charlie Swan, who is the sheriff of the small town. Growing up in Phoenix most of her life, she is not found of rainy and bleak weather of Forks. Eventually she attends the local high school and makes some friends.  In the first week of school she was introduced about the Cullen family that adopted 5 children which 2 pairs were in love with each other, except one, Edward. As Bella attends classes, she finds the youngest looking Cullen, Edward Cullen, is in her biology class, then they got partnered up together which he reacts poorly to her, acting as if he found her repulsive and he belives she is attractive in a seductive way but the adience is not aware of it yet.

However, as time goes by Edward warms up to her a bit, whenever Bella enters the room he no longer glares and he doesn’t ignore her anymore throughout the class.  On the day when Edward is absent in biology class, Bella was horrified that the next topic of the class is about blood types, which upon seeing blood, she becomes woosy. Mike Newton – that has a crush on Bella obviously – immediately volunteers to bring Bella to the nurse.  They bumped towards Edward, who has arrived just as class is ending , Bella has fallen sickly to the ground, and Mike is patheticallly unable to move her. Upon being told what's wrong, Edward chuckles, and scoops her up to frustrated Mike's protests. He takes her to the nurse, mocking her for her intolerance for so little blood. Angrily, Bella defends herself by explaining that it's the smell of blood that gets her. Shocked, Edward says "People can't smell blood". "I can" she replied.

As Bella and Edward spend more time together, they become closer, even beginning to sit together at lunch on occasion –But still, he remains mysterious– then she notices that his eyes change color, sometimes golden, sometimes eerily black. One day, while Bella is in the parking lot at school, she is nearly crushed by a van that is spinning out of control. But then she was saved by Edward. In the ER, Bella is examined by Dr. Carlisle Cullen - Edward's father which is a well-loved doctor in this local hospital. Edward is there as well, and she finds that he is not hurt at all. This (along with the fact that she saw him stop a full-size van) peaks her curiosity, but Edward is quick to avoid the topic, telling her she hit her head pretty hard on the concrete. Back at school, they resume their odd friendship, and she asks him at lunch what he is exactly. He smirks and asks her what her theories are. He dismisses her cliche superhero-like guesses with humor, but then seriously asks "What if I'm not the hero, what if I'm the monster?", making her all the more curious about him.

Over a weekend, several of Bella's friends decide to have a bonfire on a beach at La Push, the Quiluete Native American reservation. Bella invites Edward to come, but he declines, telling her that he and his family are not welcome at the reservation. He will not say why. At the bonfire, Bella meets the son of an old friend of her father's - named Jacob Black. Bella becomes intrigued at Jacob's knowledge of the Cullen family. Getting him alone, she figured out of  him into telling Quiluete legends until he gets to the one that Jacob's father –Bella's father's friend Billy Black– claims is about the Cullen family. According to the stories, they are "Cold Ones", or vampires. Jacob scoffs at the stories, saying his father is a crazy old man. But to Bella, the pieces begin to fit and she puts it all together.

Bella goes out one weekend with Angela and Jessica to Port Angelos, a nearby city. She splits off from the other two to look for a specific store, Bella gets lost in the darkening town. Creepy men intentionally followed Bella for their own planned pleasure, Bella tried to get far away from them but at the last possible moment, a shiny Volvo –Edward Cullen's car– screeches to a stop and he throws the door open ordering her to get in. Gratefully she does so, and they speed away. Edward snaps at Bella, asking her why in the world she had been so foolish, and asking her to distract him by babbling on about some boring subject, so that he could calm down. After Bella fails ease his temper by much, Edward suggests he take her to dinner as a distraction. On their way into the restaurant they run into Angela and Jessica, who head home without Bella to leave the two alone together.

The two had dinner –except that Edward didn’t ate at all– Bella opens up what she learned from Jacob and Edward opened up doubly that  he is a vampire and the Cullen family as well and that he can read minds except for Bella’s. Bella asks more about Edward’s mysteriousness and she learns more about the Cullen family, and Edward neglected that vampires don’t sleep in coffins and they don’t get hurt or burn, instead they sparkle. This made Bella more comfortable with Edward with all his honesty. They eventually develop feelings for each other –but they never touch hands.
One day Edward invited Bella over the mountains and she agrees and has faith within Edward but Bella told her father that she and her friends are going to the mall in Seattle. As they drove to there and as she trusted Edward’s company even he said it clear that he does not trust himself to not harm her, Bella has faith with him. There they saw the meadows; Bella saw the most beautiful meadows she had ever seen.  There Edward show off his body, embedded with looking shattered diamonds and he explains what is it like to be around her, that he always wanted to kill her –because of his senses, even though he loves her. And he says the iconic line: "You are exactly my brand of heroin", and lies his head on her chest, listening to her heart. They lied on top of the meadows together, holding hands and all sweet –still Edward tries to have some distance and they kissed passionately.

Rising Action:
The next day, Bella was invited to Edward’s home, for her to be introduced to his family. Everybody welcomes her delightfully except for Rosalie –one was happy that finally Edward brought someone to introduce. Edward gives Bella a short tour of the house, stopping by Carlisle's room (more of an office since he doesn't sleep). On the walls are many pictures from all different time periods. Edward asks Carlisle to tell his history, and Carlisle tells Edward to tell it, since he knows it as well as he. Pointing to a painting of old London, Edward tells of how Carlisle lived in the 1600s in England, the son of a very self-righteous religious leader that busied himself hunting down "evil". Carlisle was a disapointment because he was slow to accuse people without solid proof. One night while hunting down vampires that were actually real for once, he was cornered and attacked. However, the vampire being weak nearly to the point of being crippled, it couldn't finish the job before slinking away. Carlisle managed to hide from those who would have killed him upon finding he had been bitten. When the change was complete, he wandered the countryside, refusing his thirst out of the pure goodness of his heart. However, one day he realized he could feed on animals, and had been ever since. Next, Edward pointed to a painting of Renaissance Italy. There were four figures, all looking like Gods, one very much like Carlisle. He explains that Carlisle stayed with these patrons of the arts for a while: Marcus, Caius, and Aros. (These characters are intoduced in the next book in the series). However, he left them because he couldn't stand their blood-soaked and ruthless lifestyles. Eventually, Carlisle ended up in America, and discovered his talent for being a doctor. Becoming extremely lonely over the years, he had been contemplating creating a companion. During the Spanish Influenza epidemic in the 1910s, Carlisle came across a dying 17 yr. old boy, past any hope of recovery, his mother, also dying suddenly gripped Carlisle, and begged Carlisle to save her son - inexplicably insinuating that she knew what Carlisle could really do. When she died, Carlisle wheeled Edward to the morgue, and bit him. From then on, Edward had been his son and closest friend.

Alice announces that there will be a thunderstorm that evening, so the Cullens would be able to play baseball without the sound of their equally thunderous batting drawing attention. Bella tags along. They take Emmett's jeep up a road until it ends, then the vampires run. Left behind by the others, Edward tells Bella to get on his back, but remembering how sick she felt last time, she refuses. Leaning her agaisnt the jeep he kisses her softly until she agrees, then kisses her hard once, and like their first kiss he has to stave her off. Making it clear that he is far from completely mastering his self-control around her, he exclaims she'll be the death of him, then slings her up, and they run to join the others in another clearing.

Bella and Esme (as referee) watch the others play baseball, and all is well until suddenly Alice halts the game, warning that other vampires are on their way...the bad kind. Three vampire nomads - Laurent, James, and Victoria - enter the clearing and are intrigued by the gathering. Zeroing in on Bella, they ask if the Cullens will share their "snack". When Edward moves protectively to sheild Bella, James, the Tracker, notices. Now it is too late, this is what James loves: a challenge.

Climax:
To save Bella, the Cullens split up. Jasper and Alice will take Bella to Phoenix (the idea being that James would not expect her to go where she said she was going), Esme changes clothes with Bella and along with Rosalie will try to draw James off, and Emmett, Edward, and Carlisle will hunt James down - though Carlisle abhors violence he sees no other way. Bella stops by home, Edward telling her she only has moments to grab some things, and make an excuse to Charlie why she must leave so that he won't worry and search for her. It breaks her heart, but she must break his heart. She shreiks at him that she hates it here, and is going back to her true home, even throwing in the last words her mother had said to him before he left him. Sobbing on Alice's shoulder, she falls asleep as Jasper drives the three of them to Pheonix.

Jasper, Alice, and Bella are stuck in a hotel room together. Bella feels awful - guilty and frightened. Jasper begins to use his ability to calm her. Talking with Alice while Jasper is out, Bella learns that usually people die when bitten by a vampire because like a shark, they go into a feeding frenzy. In order for someone to become one of the undead, they must be bitten but not drained, and that takes more self-control than most have. The vampire venom works in them then, for three days of unimaginably excruciating pain, one of the many reasons Alice says Edward refuses to change Bella. Later, Alice has a vision of a dark room with mirrors, and she cries out "Bella!" before coming to. Jasper is concerned for her, and sits with her while she draws the room from her vision. Bella looks over her shoulder, and recognizes it as the ballet studio she went to as a child. This worries the two Cullens even more. The cell rings, and Bella answers in hopes that it's Edward. It's James. In the background Bella hears her distressed mother. James says he will let Renee go if Bella meets him in the ballet studio. He gives her until noon to break away from her protectors, which seems impossible to Bella.

The three head to the Phoenix airport, where Bella and Edward will meet up and fly somewhere safe. However, worried sick about her mom, Bella goes to a bathroom that she knows has two exits, and runs out the far side, just barely managing to get away from Jasper, and jumping into a nearby cab. Arriving at the ballet studio, James is waiting for her. She is releaved to find that he had been playing a home video from her house in the background of the phonecall to trick her into thinking that he had her mom. James sets up a camcorder so that Edward can watch him kill Bella later. He sniffs her, mocks her, trips her as she tries to flee, breaks her leg, and throws her into the mirrored wall. She lies bleeding to death amid shards of glass on the floor, and James goes in for the kill, biting her wrist.

Falling Action:
Just then the Cullens rush in, and drag James off of her. Three of them: Edward, Alice, and Carlisle kneel over Bella. Alice braces Bella's head as Carlisle works on her leg. Edward holds her hand and begs her to live. Bella's whimpers turn to screams as the place where James bit her wrist begins to burn. Carlisle (who was the one to change the others) realizes what is happening, and tells Edward he will have to suck out the venom or she will become a vampire. Terrified, he proclaims he can't, that he'll be unable to stop himself from draining her dry. But Carlisle urges that he must because the only other person that could is himself, and her leg must be tended to immediately. Steeling himself, Edward sucks on her wrist, which initially makes Bella hurt worse, and Alice has to brace her harder, but then after awhile she starts to feel sleepy and the pain numbs. All that is left to be seen is if Edward can stop himself before killing her...and he does, triumphantly proclaiming "Her blood tastes clean". By this time James is dead (having been ripped to shreds and set on fire - that's how you kill a vampire) and the ballet studido is burning down. Edward picks her up, and Bella loses conciousness as he carries her.

Resolution:
Waking up days later in the hospital, Bella finds herself hooked up to various machines, sporting casts, an IV in her arm, a bandaged hand, and Edward at her bedside. He tells her that Alice had seen the videotape that James was making in a vison. To add to the insult, James had told that he knew where Alice came from. He even knew her last name. The reason she couldn't remember anything was because she had been locked away in a dark cold hole of an insane asylum because of her visions. Her unfeeling family had faked her death and sent her there to rot. James found her and wanted to make her his, but an older vampire beat him to it, and he had wanted vengeance ever since. After Bella is through absorbing this story, Renee comes into the room, Carlisle having called her (Alice had too much fun fabricating an "accident" at a hotel), and Edward pretends to be asleep. To please her mom, she proclaims Edward to be just a crush, and her mom leaves. Edward then tells Bella that he really is just a crush, and she can't believe he could think that! Bella demands Edward to promise to never ever leave her. He feels that all this is his fault, and will only agree to promise not to leave her so long as she needs him. He kisses her softly and the heart monitor goes wild.

Conclusion:
Disappointing her mom, Bella says she wishes to continue living with her dad, and goes with the Cullens back to Forks, where she apologizes profusely to Charlie. Months later, the delighted Alice gets Bella all dolled up – who is not sure why. Edward comes and picks her up, in a tux, and she is horrified that he takes her to the prom. However, Edward is suave enough that despite the fact that her leg is still in a cast, she has a good time. At the prom, Jacob shows up and says that his dad payed him in car parts (he loves to fix up old cars) to come tell her to beware of Edward. Embarrased, he shrugs and leaves. Edward and Bella exit the dance to sit outside. He asks her what she thought they were going to do if not prom (still frustrated by the fact that he can't read her mind). She tells him she was hoping he would make her a vampire. He is angry and sad because he has already tried to convince her that's not what she wants. Perking up, he mischeiviously asks if now is a good time, and puts his mouth on her neck. Bella gets scared but excited...and he turns it into a kiss, saying "Did you really think I'd give in that easily?" Our story ends with Bella on Edwdard's lap, the two of them looking out at the Twilight, and with a sigh Edward comments on how there's always another ending.

V.                  VOCABULARY WORDS

1.       Outdoorsy - of, associated with, or fond of the outdoors.
2.       Raucous – harsh and loud noise
3.       Saturating – a change of tone
4.       Yank - to suddenly pull (something) in a quick, forceful way
5.       Smugly - contentedly confident of one's ability, superiority, or correctness; complacent.
6.       Fidget - to move about restlessly, nervously, or impatiently.
7.       Gratuitous - being without apparent reason, cause, or justification
8.       Chuckled – to laugh softly or amusedly, usually with satisfaction
9.       Impish - maliciously or playfully annoying.
10.   Faint - lacking brightness, vividness

VI.                THEMES
1.       Love and Romance  is the first major theme of the book, as the main action hinges on Bella and Edward uniting and the adventures resulting from this union. Bella and Edward are the ideal couple in some ways - thematically, they represent a balance between vampiric passion and human intellect --but also fatally flawed in that they can also be predator and prey, which would happen if the balance is lost. The vampire-human bond brings out an image of the victim being ravished - that is, being taken in hungrily by the predatory nature of the vampire. However, that ravishing is also balanced in order to preserve the love, as Edward reins in his instinct constantly and Bella - in her kisses and forward behavior - gives in to her own instinct and becomes quite passionate and even aggressive with Edward.

2.       Change and Risk, for his part, Edward changes his attitude towards humans, bringing Bella closer than any before, and in doing so places himself and his family at risk. However, the opportunity this affords him - the chance of true love, even with someone who could just as easily be his meal - is too great a reward for him to resist. Carlisle is changed into a vampire in the 1600s, but uses that as an opportunity to study medicine and eventually tame his vampiric impulses. In contrast, the refusal to change results in stultification, in following a single path which limits opportunity: Charlie stays in Forks and becomes police chief, but is alienated from his daughter until the novel; Billy Black has fixed opinions on the Cullens based on past interactions between the vampires and the Quileute werewolves; Mike is so focused on Bella that she must force him to consider Jessica before he can find some dating happiness.

3.       Humanity and Mortality is the next major theme of the novel, which encompasses the motif of vampirism since vampires as a species are traditionally positioned as being both "above" and "against" humans by being immortal and preying on human blood. In Twilight humans in general represent intellect and reason, but also a limited perspective on the world due to both limited senses and a limited lifespan.

4.       Family is the last major theme of the book. It's worth noting right off the bat the three major families in the novel - the Swans / Dwyers, the Blacks, and the Cullens - are not typical "nuclear" families. Bella's parents divorced and her mother remarried; Billy Black is a widower; and the Cullen children are "adopted" through vampirism.

5.       Popularity is a minor theme in the book, explored through intertwining subplots: Bella is the new girl at Forks High School, earning the attention of several boys who wish to date her; meanwhile, the Cullen children are a clique unto themselves, beautiful but aloof from the rest of the school. Bella does not like the popularity she experiences, not having stood out in Forks, and manages to even out her popularity by becoming a part of the Cullen clique. At the end of the novel, she attends the prom with the Cullen clique, but feels herself perfectly at home among the humans as well. Popularity is thus developed as something not worth pursuing - that it is actually a source of weakness in bringing undue attention to oneself.






VII.              EVALUATION

If you are looking for an exciting vampire romance novel to read, I’m sure you will be captivated by Twilight. It is not only a successful book read but also a successful series all throughout; it even has a remake movie and some merchandise and was published around the year of 2005 by Stephanie Meyer. Following the success of Twilight, Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). The conclusions of this book certainly stirred up a firestorm of fans and a great number of critical reviews.

Besides this particular tale regarding love, the twilight series critiques also have acquired in regards to the many different ways the tale showcases frequent teenage difficulties — though it may be a fantasy switching about vampires! In the start we have seen the way Bella carries a stretched relationship along with her daddy, combined with struggle she faces within starting a fresh university, trying to find her spot and her real personality.

People would enjoy this book because of its appropriate irony. It has good irony because there was not too much of it making the book not fun to read. Plus I noticed on how every character and setting is described as if I can imagine what he/she or it looks like as if I am directly looking at it or her/him; “His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, sparkled like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.”

In addition, how Meyer wrote every dialogue within the book is incredibly believable because it is so great in this story that it makes the reader feel like they were talking directly to you. Readers who take pleasure in vampire romance novels would be delighted with Twilight because of its all throughout characteristics. The dialogue is so remarkable in this book because of how it makes the reader feel like a character within the book. So next time you want to find a great love story to be captivated by, pick Twilight and I’m sure once you start, you won’t be able to stop –and yes just like the famous chips Pringles motto.


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