The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

[Maggie]

I just finished the fourth book, and although I 'loved' the first three, I hated Breaking Dawn.

But I do want to read Midnight Sun, when she finally finishes and releases it and The Host.

[diamondlil]

I didn't hate Breaking Dawn, but I only liked it a bit. I had some serious issues with some of the content on this one!

[LCW]

I stayed up until 1 am to finish Twilight. It was a good book, definitely held my attention. I was wondering how I'd respond to a novel that wasn't HF but I really did like it. It was a nice change for me and a nice fun light read. I didn't think it had a lot of depth to it but maybe because it's a YA novel. Either way it was good! I'd give it four stars.

[EC2]

I stayed up until 1 am to finish Twilight. It was a good book, definitely held my attention. I was wondering how I'd respond to a novel that wasn't HF but I really did like it. It was a nice change for me and a nice fun light read. I didn't think it had a lot of depth to it but maybe because it's a YA novel. Either way it was good! I'd give it four stars.

That's exactly how I felt LCW. I could see there were a few flaws but it didn't matter. It still suckered me in. I think it definitely catches those first feelings of adolescent yearning in a very powerful way, and that is part of its success.

[LCW]

I think it definitely catches those first feelings of adolescent yearning in a very powerful way, and that is part of its success.

I agree, which is why it didn't bother that she went on and on about how perfect and gorgeous Edward was. I'm sure we all remember how it feels to love completely, without any caution and be swept up in a kind of love that completely envelopes you where you eat, sleep, and breathe it. Of course, this is before you've ever had your heart broken or know what it's like to be dissapointed by love!! The novel was about a teenage girl falling in love for the very first time so I thought her gushing over Edward was entirely appropriate.

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

Just finished this one, and to my surprise, I enjoyed it. I'm getting very hard to please as I get older, and I had the usual problems with suspending disbelief. But Twilight had enough going for it that it kept me turning the pages anyway -- much as the Harry Potter series did -- by the strength of the storytelling. You really were curious to see what happened next, and the ending had you on the edge of your seat.

The perfection of Edward's looks was actually part of the plot (although I don't think it needed to be harped on QUITE so often) in that vampires are supposed to be attractive to their prey. And I could see the rationale for why a 17 year-old girl would attract a being with 100 years of life experience, once it was explained what was uniquely fascinating about her one anomaly. I wasn't totally convinced, but I was grateful that the author didn't just ignore that issue.

[EC2]

Glad you enjoyed it MLE. I felt the same way that you did. LCW also makes a good point about the repetition and gushing all being part of how it feels to be a teenager in love. If you read it in that kind of mindset you can see just why it's become so huge. For me it certainly recaptured those heady feelings, and for girls just going through those first crush phases, this book must be dynamite.
I am definitely going to catch the film!

[Volgadon]

I've recently been exposed to some bits of the book, being a 25 year old guy I'll probably be the dissenting voice here, though it did feel like it was written by a teenaged girl version of Walpole.

[Eyza]

EC:

I'd probably have read it, and loved it, the way I loved Harry Potter. But I didn't. If you want to know why, I just got really "bummed out" on the theme of vampires. I seem to have come across so many of them lately. But some of my young relatives are reading it, and they kive it! So what can I say? Nothing whatsoever!
Anne G

I read the first one way ahead of the hype several years ago, and I loved it - really loved it. My publishers bought it for the UK before it broke big and when I was visiting them in London, I grabbed it off their new release shelf, said 'Hey, I've read this. It is going to be HUGE and it will sell in its millions.' They were hoping it would do well but at the time the buzz had yet to gather and they hadn't a clue how well. So now, very smugly, I can say 'Told ya so, nyaaa.'

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

All right, I must admit that I just read the entire four-book series. It isn't great literature, more what my daughter refers to as 'brain candy' but it go me through a winter cold in good spirits.

Books two and three were starting to feel a little repetitive, writing-wise, so imagine my astonishment when Ms Myers re-invents her style in book four with the first-person voice of Jacob, the smart-ass adolescent poor-boy-off-the-reservation who has to deal with being part wolf and having to share the 'pack mind'. In spite of my sneezing and runny nose, his narration kept cracking me up; it was fresh, honest, and acted perfectly to give a better picture of the Vampire family as they must have seemed to outsiders: too rich, too good looking, and too cold. And the gender business with the female werewolf was a really good twist.

I was sorry to leave Jacob's head to go back to the POV of Ms. always-guilty, never-good-enough Bella, (who reads a lot more like the product of an abusive home instead of the daughter of a loving but harebrained mother) except that the action of the ending was compelling enough to keep the pages turning.

Good job, all in all. My dh is amazed that I've actually been engrossed in a teenage vampire romance. Go figure.