Vacuous Perfection
At the time of writing this review the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer already has 6,866,507 ratings and 136,936 reviews on Goodreads. First published in 2005, this book launched the Twilight phenomenon, selling millions of copies around the world and spawning a hugely successful movie series which made superstars of its young cast as well as Meyer in the literary world. My family were all huge fans, dragging me along to the cinema to see the movies but I ignored the book until now. I didn’t think it would be for me.
Now I’ve taken the plunge and read Twilight, is there much point writing a review? What more is there to be said that hasn’t already been covered in the thousands of reviews already posted and all the various articles written at the time? The series still has legions of fans as well as plenty of detractors and, frankly, whatever I write is unlikely to sway them one way or the other. Even so, I’m going to try and summarise this book. It can be interesting to look at a novel with the benefit of the passage of time, once all the hubbub and noise during its initial release and subsequent publicity has died down.
Almost twenty years on, this is inevitably a book of its time. However, aside from the technological references which are likely to leave younger readers baffled (CDs and modems – remember them?) I thought it had aged reasonably well. The reason for this is the central premise upon which the book is built remains timeless – girls always fall for the bad boy.
This is also a high school romance and we’ve all been there and can relate to those experiences. The nature of young romance and the feelings of what it is like in Bella’s case to be starting a new school are both captured with remarkable accuracy in the opening section of this book. Whilst high school relationships are certainly less serious when you are looking back on them as an adult, my daughter made the point that the success of the books was largely due to how they reflected the way those relationships feel life and death levels of serious to a high school aged reader. I think that assessment is spot on.
It’s not long before we encounter the mysterious and enigmatic Edward Cullen in class. Bella is immediately drawn to him, even though at first it seems Edward doesn’t like her. Bella’s inability to think about anything else other than Edward for the remainder of the novel is both a realistic depiction of young love and, frankly, interminable.
Edward is so handsome it must be mentioned on every page. In fact, why not every sentence? I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where the main character’s physical features are described so many times throughout. Edward’s physical perfection is the main reason for his existence. For a bit of variety we are constantly reminded about his crooked smile. In contrast, Bella is clumsy. This is mentioned in every chapter as well, just in case people forget.
After a bit of internet research Bella concludes Edward is a vampire (honestly, if this is a spoiler then where have you been for the past twenty years?). Bella asks, “Are you a vampire?” to which Edward replies, “Yes, I am a vampire.” He’s also hot and dangerous and romance develops between the pair. However, they’re unable to have sex because (i) Bella is only seventeen and (ii) Edward will lose control and likely kill her if they do. As a result there are lots of yearning looks and plenty of fingers gently brushing faces to make up for it.
There are some other characters (Alice is described as being almost as attractive as Edward) but they’re very much in the background. This is a story about two people who are utterly obsessed with each other. One thing Twilight does do well is depict what it is like to experience obsessive love, which ultimately drives out all other thoughts and considerations for the pair to the point of mindlessness. The plot is a secondary consideration, although Meyer does up the tension in the last quarter of the book. However, if you’re looking for action this is the wrong story for you.
This wasn’t my typical read and the fact I was outside my comfort zone is reflected in this review. Once I got past the subject matter of the novel the main thing which struck me was how readable Twilight is. This is light, undemanding fiction that offers escapism rooted in nostalgia which, if anything, grows more powerful with the passing years. I can’t deny I enjoyed the book, the pages and chapters easily slipping by. Clearly this novel struck a chord and, whilst I can’t pretend I was part of the intended target audience, I can understand why this book was so hugely successful.
Do I want to read the next book to find out what happens next? I must confess, a little bit of me does.
