[personal profile] quippe
The Blurb On The Back:

"About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."


When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelin skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistable and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.

What Bella doesn't realize is that the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself at risk. And it might be too late to turn back ...




Whether you like this book is going to depend on two things:

1. that you prefer character/relationship development over a lot of plot; and

2. that you like the central characters of Bella and Edward.

Neither appealed to me. But before I explain why, I want to make clear that I can see why this book is popular - Meyer taps into the intense emotions that surround first love and first crushes and I understand why that appeals. But it didn't work for me.

I prefer plot-driven fiction and whilst the opening chapter is a great set-up for Bella being in danger, we then get 300 pages of her meeting and becoming infatuated by the cold and emotionally distant Edward, winning him over, working out what he is, and the endless conversations about how dangerous their relationship is. Meyer makes this an easy read and includes a lot of background on the Cullen family and in establishing her vampire mythology but it's still noticeable how little is actually happening to either hero or heroine and I became frustrated waiting for something more interesting to happen.

My biggest problem however, was with the character of Edward. Meyer appears to have drawn inspiration from gothic creations such as Heathcliff and Mr Rochester and if you like those characters, you'll probably like Edward. However, I found the constant references to his beauty and his golden eyes repetitive and boring and his behaviour verges on creepy. In particular, he is very controlling, paying little attention to Bella's wishes (and often she is shown begging him to stay with her) and most of the decisions in this book are made by him for his own reasons (although he tells Bella it's for her benefit).

As a character, Bella starts off quite strongly - it's her decision to move to Forks and she works to fit in with the people in her new school, perhaps a little unbelievably so, given the interest she attracts from the boys in her class. Love/obsession however makes her weak and desperate and it's a little disturbing to see how much she indulges her need for Edward, particularly given that there is no one in the book who is able to give her a much needed reality check. A lot is also made of the way she smells and the point is made that she's the only human whose thoughts Edward can't hear, which takes her to M-S territory. The action in the final quarter of the book revolves around Bella having been placed in peril by drawing the attention of a small group of human hunting vampires and it's disappointing that Bella is essentially at the mercy of the vampires protecting her as much as of the vampires hunting her and when she does strike out on her own, it's not thought through in the slightest (with the denouement being particularly obvious).

For a romance, it's interesting how all the kisses between Edward and Bella are all close-mouthed and the violence happens mostly off-page. The side characters have potential to be interesting - Alice and Carlisle in particular are vampires with some background to them, which I hope will be drawn out in future books, and Jacob Black, a well-meaning boy who is interested in Bella is a welcome contrast to the icy Edward.

There's a surprising lot of repetition of description in the book - Edward is always referred to as cold and many of the characters snicker or gasp or wink. However, Bella's given a strong (albeit sometimes whiny) voice and the central dilemmas going forward in the series are clearly going to be whether Edward's nature will let them stay together and whether he will acede to her request to make her a vampire. In terms of the vampire mythology that Meyer employs, I'm not quite sure of the logic of having her vampires sparkle in sunlight - it's visually strong, but it creates logic issues as you think about it (i.e. how sunny/overcast does it have to be for them to stay in) and the fact that some of them have special gifts could stray into contrivance if she's not careful.

However, whilst this wasn't my cup of tea, given the popularity of the books I'm interested in seeing how it develops going forward and in particular, whether Meyers will bring more action into the story.

The Verdict:

If you like fiction with plenty of action, you won't really like this book. For this reason, it didn't work for me, but I'm also deeply disturbed by the tone of Bella and Edward's relationship. Far from finding Edward romantic, I find him bordering on a stalker and his need to constantly be in control of Bella is disturbing. It's also depressing how Bella's need to be with Edward seems to over-ride any feelings of self-respect and it might have been an idea to put someone in the book who can give a common sense view of her sometimes self-indulgent behaviour. I'll probably read on to see where the series goes and if it improves, but I suspect that this is one series that I'll find totally resistable.
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quippe

July 2025

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