Review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Genre: young adult, paranormal romance
Grade: DNF
Summary: Bella moves from Phoenix and her flighty mom to Forks, Washington, where her dad’s the police chief. There she meets the mysterious and inegmatic Edward Cullen, who turns Bella’s life upside down.
My Thoughts: I’ve been trying to read this one for months. My sister introduced the book to me one day when we were hanging out, and we read the first couple of chapters together. From there I’m told she cloistered herself with the book and didn’t come out until she was done, whereupon her roommate at the time did the same. Me, I got to chapter 13, and then decided I couldn’t deal with it anymore.

The thing about this book that disappoints me is that I started out really loving Bella. She seemed smart, practical, maybe a trifle cynical. In other words, a teenager I could relate to. Then she met Edward, and the rest of the book promptly became all about Edward. She reminded me of the type of person I dislike IRL who has to have a man in her life in order to be validated, no matter how bad he is for her. In the end, I just couldn’t deal with the fact that everyone else in Bella’s life was incidental unless they impacted her relationship with Edward.

And Edward. I think I might have liked him a bit better had we seen him with his own POV. As it was, I found him insufferable. I mean, if I wanted to read about a high-handed jerk who is also a vampire, I’d read the next Christine Feehan book.

I think, to be fair to Meyer, that I probably would have finished the book if I weren’t just a little tired of reading about urban fantasy. I’ve kind of glutted myself on that type of book lately, and have decided I should try and read something else next.