Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

I wanted to review two different popular series today and show the difference in what I thought of them. I'm going to try and be as neutral as possible about this book because I'm very opinionated about it but I might not be able to do. I had decided to read these books because I noticed the popularity of them at my previous job. After reading the entire series, I first wanted to say that Stephanie Meyer did not seem to have the right grip on her characters and they drastically changed in the fourth book. Bella Swan never truly seemed happy about the situations she was in and once she finally got what she wanted, she still seemed miserable. Edward seemed far too angsty for my tastes and too overprotective. I do not know what girl would actually enjoy being followed all the time, being watched while sleeping, and having their property damaged so they could not go out. Jacob had a very egotistical personality that frustrated and annoyed me every time he was in the book. Bella's father did not seem to have a lot of say in what his daughter did nor did he seem to have very much control. Stephanie Meyer's writing could use a serious amount of improvement and I felt like there was no editor in the book writing process. it felt extremely amateurish and I honestly felt like I was reading glorified fanfiction. Very little actually happened for most of the first book which I found to be really boring. Stephanie Meyer seemed to be depending on the reader connecting with Edward and Bella instead of actually bringing the plot forward. It was only when she could not find anymore adjectives to describe how beautiful Edward was that she introduced the conflict. Having read the back story behind how she came up with the idea to write Twilight made me seem a bit uncomfortable. The way she writes Edward seems like she is trying to idolize and turn him into some type of God. Even when he does unexcusable things to Bella, Bella still finds the heart to forgive him and turn the blame on herself. Stephanie Meyer does not paint a strong image for growing girls at all which I find very disheartening. There was no character that I could really relate to properly or even favor. I cannot and do not recommend this book to tweens who ask for books to read because I don't see a positive message being portrayed.