The Official Site of Twilight

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I was drawn to this book. I can’t describe the attraction. I would pass the stacks of Twilight novels in the store and they would call to me, like a dark force whispering in my ear to come closer. A seductive voice saying… “This movie is goona be freaking huge… you should probably be up to speed on it.�

It may be the wrong reason to start reading the book but when people are clamoring that it’s going to be the next Harry Potter and that it’s already sold more tickets than Bond it seems dense to just write the book off as some silly teen fiction series. Similar clamoring that it was actually good didn’t hurt either.

For a few weeks I circled the book, talking myself in and then out of buying it, eventually deciding that I don’t read enough and a light love story might be just what I needed. Too bad the damn thing is 500 pages long with a story perfectly content in dragging its ass and wasting my time.

Before I go any further, I just want to point out that I have not yet finished the book. I’m about 150 pages in right now, right around the point where Bella, a young girl in a new town trying to deal with an estranged parent, a series of unwanted crushes, and life in perpetual shade (thanks to the doom and gloom of the upper north west), starts to put the pieces together of the mysterious beautiful stranger across the cafeteria. And what a relief! Bella spends so much time trying to figure out what’s so alluring about the super powered, cold as ice, wishy-washy lab partner, completely infatuated with him but never making it past a guess that he might be Spider-man. Seriously? SPIDER-MAN!?

Perhaps the book would have read better if I were asking the same questions she were but I struggled through the first few chapters chipping away 20 pages at a time only to end up screaming “He’s a VAMPIRE� at the pages in my hand before retreating to bed every night.

It would be one thing if the book were poorly written. It’s slow, without a doubt, but the characters and dialogue especially are very true. This is how teenagers act. This is how teenagers speak. Twilight has to take its time setting up the world just so the characters feel real. In the long run it’s worth it but Twilight isn’t exactly what you would call a page-turner. At least not the first 150 pages.

The majority of this first third of the book features conversations between Bella and Edward (that mysterious stranger). Even though one of the kids is a monster, these conversations feel as genuine as any I remember from those days of my life. Edward and Bella have an odd relationship but author Stephanie Meyers is able perfectly capture the awkwardness of what it’s like to be in love and not be sure how the other person feels. It’s something uniquely specific to being a teenager encountering that first love. And all of it, the excitement, the nervousness, the hope that that person will be there the next day, is all right there on the page.

While I previously had been only able to stomach 20 pages at a time, I forced myself the other night to really spend some time with the book. I got comfortable, unplugged the phone, turned off the TV, turned off the light, turned ON the light and really dug in to the book. It wasn’t effortless but it became easier to get through once stuff was actually happening, once Edward was starting to admit to Bella that there was something going on.

Right now I’m looking forward to something the trailer promises – the hunt. The trailer for Twilight is shrewdly cut into two sections – the romance and the hunt. Two people falling in love and one forced into protecting the others from the creatures of the night. The hunt looks fantastic in the previews and I can’t wait to see how it affects the characters in the novel. I’m just not there yet.

My hope is to finish things up before the film comes out so I can make a true comparison. I also hope that the story fills out a little so that I’ll be encouraged to check out the sequels. The series has a loyal following and I’d like to be one of them, but this first book (at least so far) is not helping me out at all.

I’m going to make Twilight an official member of the JLCM Book club. For those of you interested in discussing the book, the movie and the comparison of both, please feel free to post your thoughts in this thread here. Please though try to keep it spoiler free until the movie’s release next weekend.

I have no doubt in my mind that this is exactly how Steve would react to me reading Twilight in front of him. There would be at least 10 minutes of good-natured ribbing where he questioned my sexuality, sexual preferences and everything in between. Then I would mention how he never comes out on Tuesdays so that he can get home in time to see One Tee Hill and the conversation would come to an end.

I bet OTH is actually a pretty good show though. I liked it enough the first season before I had to drop it because of scheduling conflict. I’d always intended to go back and check it out but then, while flipping through the guide, I saw that it was on the Soap Opera Network. There is no better way to scare a guy away from watching a show then by describing it to him as a “soap opera�. We understand that all our favorite drams are just less frequently produced versions of what our grandmothers watch in the middle of the afternoon, but let us watch in ignorance.

Nothing fancy to say down here other than thanks for reading. See you later!