Below is a review I wrote for the first book of the series:
Twilight's a quick read, but it feels specifically calculated to make females lose their minds. It's no wonder this book is found in the hands of nearly every woman waiting to board their flights in airports around the world. It's a chick flick in novel form, multiplied by teenage angst, to the power of annoying redundancy. I mean, I GET IT, he's beautiful! Get on with it already. The references to the object of obsession’s beautiful features, his hard body, and his hypnotizing scent go on and on. They are squeezed into nearly every other paragraph in case the audience had a lapse of concentration the last time it was mentioned.
So, you ask, "Why is this book such a huge success?" There are bits of it that are appealing: the Romeo & Juliet-esque romance, the sexual tension, and it stirs the kind (or cruel, depending on your particular experience) memory of first love and/or lust. Girls are generally attracted to men that make them feel protected, men that are interested in who they are, men that only have eyes for one woman, men that smell good, and men that are "beautiful". The male character is all of those things, and women eat it up because he is crafted by the author as every woman's perfect man. It's genius on her part, and the millions she's raked in is obvious proof. (Grade: C)
OK, I gave it a terrible review, but the funny (or sad) part is that I continued with the second, third, and fourth book. If that were not enough, I bought the boxed set in secret because I knew I would be subject to ridicule if my boyfriend found out. Here, in an effort to redeem (or further embarrass) myself, are my reasons (aka excuses) for moving forward with the series:
1.) I saw the movie. It was far from great, but Robert Pattinson won me over with his face (bloke on the right).
2.) The chapters are titled obviously enough so that I knew which ones to skip over. Any chapters that didn't have vampires in them were skimmed, and any chapters that specifically concentrated on a werewolf named Jacob were entirely skipped over.
3.) I liked reading about what I call the "sexy wrong". She wants him even though she knows it's dangerous, and she pushes her boundaries to persuade him to get "intercoursical" with her. He responds with something like, "I want to but I can't because I might want you too much, and I may end up killing you." Now THAT is sexy wrong!
4.) I wanted to know if he would eventually do it with her.
5.) I was on winter break and I needed reading material to pass the time.
My recommendation:
Twilight would certainly not be the first book or series I would recommend to any female, teenage or otherwise, but if you have the time to read about vampire sexiness I do have a few recommendations.
Read the first book to understand what it's about, read the summaries for the 2nd and 3rd books because they're really not worth reading (but read the last 4 chapters of each), and read the 4th book because it is filled with vampire sexiness. If you're interested, I have the books on pdf. A sad revelation, but true none-the-less.
