Product Description

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. When she meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen--a vampire--her life takes a thrilling and terrifying romantic turn. Young Adult.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1808 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Headstrong, sun-loving, 17-year-old Bella declines her mom's invitation to move to Florida, and instead reluctantly opts to move to her dad's cabin in the dreary, rainy town of Forks, WA. She becomes intrigued with Edward Cullen, a distant, stylish, and disarmingly handsome senior, who is also a vampire. When he reveals that his specific clan hunts wildlife instead of humans, Bella deduces that she is safe from his blood-sucking instincts and therefore free to fall hopelessly in love with him. The feeling is mutual, and the resulting volatile romance smolders as they attempt to hide Edward's identity from her family and the rest of the school. Meyer adds an eerie new twist to the mismatched, star-crossed lovers theme: predator falls for prey, human falls for vampire. This tension strips away any pretense readers may have about the everyday teen romance novel, and kissing, touching, and talking take on an entirely new meaning when one small mistake could be life-threatening. Bella and Edward's struggle to make their relationship work becomes a struggle for survival, especially when vampires from an outside clan infiltrate the Cullen territory and head straight for her. As a result, the novel's danger-factor skyrockets as the excitement of secret love and hushed affection morphs into a terrifying race to stay alive. Realistic, subtle, succinct, and easy to follow, Twilight will have readers dying to sink their teeth into it.–Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library
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From AudioFile
Stephanie Meyer's teen-vampire romance offers an appealing heroine in Bella, transplanted from sunny Phoenix to the wet, dreary town of Forks, Washington, and the seductive, secretive object of her obsession, Edward, who may or may not be a vampire. Predictability doesn't keep this spine-tingling tale from being fun, but alas, Ilyana Kadushin's reading, does. Her speaking voice is thin and underdeveloped, and any sense of nuance is nonexistent. Kadushin doesn't try to give the characters personalities, so distinguishing between speakers is difficult. This is one of those rare times in audiobook listening when the writing exceeds the reader's capabilities. Still, the story is engrossing and the characters well drawn, ensuring that older teens will find much to enjoy. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. In the tradition of Anne Rice and YA titles such as Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (1999) comes this heady romance that intertwines Bella Swan's life with that of Edward, an alluring and tormented vampire. Bella's life changes when she moves to perpetually rain-soaked Forks, Washington. She is instantly drawn to a fellow student, Edward Cullen, beautiful beyond belief and angrily aloof. Bella senses there is more behind Edward's hostility, and in a plot that slowly and frighteningly unfolds, she learns that Edward and his family are vampires--though they do not hunt humans. Yet Edward cannot promise that his powerful attraction to Bella won't put in her in danger, or worse. Recklessly in love, Bella wants only to be with Edward, but when a vicious, blood-lusting predator complicates her world, Bella's peril is brutally revealed. This is a book of the senses: Edward is first attracted by Bella's scent; ironically, Bella is repelled when she sees blood. Their love is palpable, heightened by their touches, and teens will respond viscerally. There are some flaws here--a plot that could have been tightened, an overreliance on adjectives and adverbs to bolster dialogue--but this dark romance seeps into the soul. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Twinkling vampires galore
Stephanie Meyer writes vampire fiction as many teenage girls do -- overblown writing, sexy cold vampires, and a vacuously attractive heroine who serves as the readers' stand-in.

And so it's hardly surprising that her megahit debut "Twilight" is essentially a teenage fantasy about finding the Perfect Hot Immortal Coverboy Who Longs For You Alone. Innocuous sparkling vampires, buckets of pointless teenage angst and a plot tacked on at the last minute leave this one of the more bloodless examples of vampire romance.

Klutzy Bella Swan is oh-so-self-sacrificingly going to live with her small-town cop dad, and is appalled by the student body -- all the local boys decide that (ick!) they like her, and all the girls are shallow idiots compared to her.

Then she's struck by the ash-pale, vaguely incestuous Cullen family -- an especially by the Hawt and Brooding Edward Cullen. Edward doesn't seem to like her much, resulting in much Teen Angst. but when Bella is nearly killed by a runaway car, he somehow manages to zip across the parking lot and knock away the car. Bella eventually figures out that he's a vampire-- a "vegetarian vampire" with the power to read thoughts... except hers.

Despite his fears that he'll hurt her, their smoldering chemistry (and Bella's tantalizing smell) draws them into a relationship... at which point, since the plot has had zero non-teenybopper tension, three two-dimensionally evil vampires enter the scene, intent on hunting Bella. The Cullens whisk her away to keep her safe from this trio -- but their enemies have more than one way to find her.

The book "Twilight" is essentially the eroticized fantasies of a teenage girl, purple of prose and taking itself hilariously seriously. In fact, reading this novel feels suspiciously like eavesdropping on Stephanie Meyer's fantasies of having a hot, sparkle-skinned vampire stalking her on a nightly basis to show his undying love.

Unfortunately there's not much more to the plot than that -- most of it involves Bella and Edward smoldering at each other, and Bella's contemplation of Edward's "scintillating, incandescent" body and Greek-god hotness. Furthermore Meyer smears the entire book in wildly swinging emotions, tepid dialogue, and overly ornate, purple prose -- the descriptions of Edward's chest alone may induce choking and diabetic coma.

After a horrendously silly "meet the vampire family," Meyer belatedly realizes that the book needs more than angst and sparkles and Edward is constantly shying away from Bella's virginal neck (what does that imply about sucking blood from animals?). So she tacks in a contrived subplot about evil vampires who are hunting Bella. Just... because they want to.

And heroine Bella is truly an amazing character -- she manages to be a blank slate for mass fantasy projection, while also managing to be whiny, selfish, snobby and superhumanly shallow (since the only person she cares about is the Hawt Rich Guy). Edward is a suitable mate for her -- he broods, smolders and stalks her to show that he loves her eternally. After all, isn't a bipolar stalker watching you sleep the very image of true love?

As for the other characters... well, we have quirky vampire Alice to add some humor to the story. But otherwise, none of them really matter much except to reflect how awesome Edward and Bella are -- and the villains could not be any thinner if Meyer snipped them from sparkly incandescent skin.

Those who dream of eternal angsty love with an Immortal Hottie may find "Twilight" a delight, but it's no more than a thin, flat guilty pleasure at best.

Like a pine board - flat and sappy
After hearing so much about this book, I finally was persuaded to read it. What a disppointment! I can't believe this is being compared to the Harry Potter books, in fact, I'm surprized it got published at all. I would have to say I couldn't imagine what the attraction is, except that I remember being eleven and so 'in love' with Donny Osmond, it hurt.

If you are not a googly-eyed preteen, or at least have the same mentality, you will probably not enjoy this book. 90% of it is just endless descriptions of Edward's eyes, his hair, his chest, etc. etc, ad nauseum, complete with drawn out, boring descriptions of Bella's longings for him. Written in an erotic style, it feels like reading porn, except there's no porn.

The characters are two-dimensional and lacking motivation. What on earth would inspire a 100 year old 'man' to fall in love with an unnattractive, empty-headed, self-centered, 17 year old girl? Smell alone just doesn't cut it for me. I also couldn't stand Bella as the heroine. She is snooty, stuck up and shallow. I think Meyers tries to paint her as self sacrificing, but she just comes across as bitter. None of the humans, who actually seem like friendly people who treat her kindly, seem to be worthy of her attention. I found myself rooting for her death by the end.

Ah, the end - it came all too late for me. And could you BE more predictable? Not a plot twist to be seen anywhere.

This book could have easily been done as a Little Golden Book, and the audience would have been more appropriate.

One star too many.
I have read a lot of the reviews and although I am not surprised that it has been gobbled up by the masses I am disappointed. I was able to get through a quarter of the book before throwing it in the trash. It is plodding, poorly written, and immature. I read Dracula when I was twelve, and it is still the standard for the genre. It was intelligent, exciting, and scary. This is why it is a classic, and has never gone out of print in 112 years. I have read all of Anne Rices Vampire books, and Charlaine Harris as well. Charlaine Harris vampire books are not literature but she is a story teller in the best sense.
Some reviewers seem to be sidetracked by vampire lore. Vampires do not sparkle and sun kills them and such. Vampire lore is varied by culture and time. In Stokers Dracula sun does not kill him; it just weakens him. Anne Rices young vampires go poof in the light, but not old or particularly strong vampires they just get a nice tan. The lore is not what one should quibble about because everyone is right and everyone is wrong. On the HBO wiki site some were upset about the placement of teeth and the sound they made. Who cares as long as the story is great and well written which the Twilight books are not.