Monday, July 20, 2009

Summer Reading - Twilight - Stehenie Meyer

It seems everyone these days is reading Twilight or one of its three sequels which are also now making it into the movie format. I had originally put off reading the series because of wide reports they are essentially Christian analogies for morality, sex and marriage. Which Twilight certainly is but it is also a lot more.

Bella is seventeen and has moved to live with her dad in the cloud covered, lush and rain sodden town of Forks. She very quickly falls for the god like Edward and a love affair unfolds. The problem being Edward is immortal and a vampire and also wants to eat her(cue analogies).

At over 400 pages this is written from Bella’s viewpoint and for almost 200 pages it is nothing other than charming. But then Edward and Bella realise their love and quite literally spend the rest of the book staring moodily into each others eyes or breathless waiting for the next time they will meet, while imagining moodily looking into each others eyes.

There are a few story points, a bit of backstory on the nature of these vampires (Edward lives with a family of vampires that have integrated with the local community and don’t eat humans and eat animals instead) and there is some attempt at drama towards the end, but it is glossed over as almost a second thought so we can get back to more staring moodily into each others eyes.

This story has a great concept with classic themes that women of all ages seem to love, although I should mention it is specifically marketed at young adults. The characters have a certain charm that lingers and as a bloke it is an interesting insight into what’s going through my wife’s mind when she looks at me doe eyed.

If you are female of any age then this is recommended reading, if you are male trying to work out the enigma of woman then this is definitely worth a read. If the enigma of woman is already known to you or you are not bothered then skip to the movie, it condenses the moody looking into each others eyes to a ten minute segment and adds drama and tension towards the end.

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