Twilight

Warning: Spoilers alert

“It’s twilight,” Edward murmured, looking at the western horizon, obscured as it was with clouds. His voice was thoughtful, as if his mind were somewhere far away. I stared at him as he gazed unseeingly out the windshield.

I was still staring when his eyes suddenly shifted back to mine.

“It’s the safest time of day for us,” he said, answering the unspoken question in my eyes. “The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way . . . the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don’t you think?” He smiled wistfully.

“I like the night. Without the dark, we’d never see the stars,” I frowned. “Not that you see them here much.”

He laughed, and the mood abruptly lightened.

~ Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, pages 232 to 233

Yes, I got hooked. And I’ve already read it twice. And the sequel, New Moon, once.

I first heard about the Twilight series in Rhodora’s post when she mentioned how her teenage daughter was obsessing over Stephenie Meyer’s books, but I didn’t pay much attention then. I thought it was just a teenage craze. My 21-year old niece also told me that she has read the books. Then I heard about how Twilight was being made into a film. What really got me interested was finding out that Robert Pattinson (you know him as Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter movies) is playing Edward Cullen.

Edward is the main male character in the series and is the object of affection of Bella Swan, the 17-year old narrator of Twilight. Bella describes Edward as this beautiful boy who stands like a Greek god. He moves with grace and he looks like Adonis with his perfectly muscled chest. He has bronze-colored hair. He has a perfect face. He has long black lashes and when his eyes are not as dark as black coal, they are deep golden honey color. He has this scorching look that dazzles people and makes Bella hyperventilate. He has a perfect set of white teeth and a perfect crooked smile. His breath has this exquisite scent and he has this smoldering voice that makes Bella try hard to remember to breathe.

But these perfect and beautiful features are not what really make Edward and his family stand out from the rest. You see, everyone in his family is chalky pale and they have dark, purplish, bruise-like shadows under their eyes, as if they all suffer from sleepless nights.

And they do. The Cullens don’t sleep. Because they are vampires. Bella is in love with a vampire. But don’t you worry. The Cullens are a different kind of vampires. They don’t drink human blood. They hunt animals instead. But even so, Bella’s scent is so appealing to Edward and that is the conflict that he has to fight within himself so as not to hurt Bella.

I read in Wikipedia that the apple in the cover represents the forbidden fruit from the book of Genesis. It also represents the forbidden love between the human Bella and the vampire Edward.

I’ve also read that Twilight has been criticised as portraying sexual frustration accompanying adolescence. But isn’t that a good thing in some ways? Let’s say that it is mostly the adolescents and young adults who are reading this book, it’s sending them the message that yes, it is normal to feel the sexual frustration, and yes, it’s also okay to wait. Right?

But I have to admit, I like the way Meyer describes how Edward would brush his icy fingertips on Bella’s cheekbone or how he would brush his lips along her jaw, from her ear to chin, back and forth. I find it titillating. Okay, I’m going to stop there before I censor my own post. 🙂

I was disappointed when I found out that the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was delayed to July 2009. I was looking forward to seeing it this November. But Twilight moved in and is taking over that date. I think that is a very good replacement.

I saw this trailer of Twilight last week. Can’t wait to see it. I wonder if Robert will live up to the description of Edward in the book.

Updated December 2008:

Click here for my Twilight movie review