Twilight-Crazed

I didn’t mean for it to happen. I had no intention of becoming obsessed with another book series, but I was captivated from the first scene of the movie Twilight. I rented it one night, watched it once and promptly ran to Wal-mart to purchase a copy the next day because I knew I needed to add it to my collection. And that brief introduction to this fiction series has led me straight into my comfy chair reading the books well into the wee hours of the morning for several days straight this past week.

Don’t grimace, groan or roll your eyes. Yes, I’ve crossed over and gone to the dark side, but this is nothing new really. Those who know me well knew that I already had a vampire fetish. Have had one since I was a kid really. Vampires, werewolves, magic, superheroes, immortals -- it all fascinates me. Always has.

Stephenie Meyer's teen fiction series wasn't quite what I was expecting. A friend suggested I try the first book, and so I picked it up months ago and left it there on my bookshelf collecting dust until this week. I think I imagined that I'd make it through the first book, but I wouldn't need to read any further. I'd be bored or find the series mindless, but that wasn't the case at all. I found myself hooked by the passion, the love that existed between the 2 main characters, and I couldn't tear myself away from their hormonal angst. I had to see it through to the finale. [Spoiler Alert: OK, I knew they'd end up together, but still I had to make sure it all worked out.] I picked up book 2 the next day and less than 24 hours I was back in Books-A-Million plopping down over $40 for the final 2 books in the series, which are still only available in hardcover.

Stephenie Meyer is NOT Jane Austen, E. M. Forster, or Charlotte Bronte--3 of my favorites. She is also not Elizabeth Kostova who wrote The Historian (my favorite vampire book of all time), which is a compellingly deep novel that takes the reader on a swirling journey into mystery, history and legend. And just to be clear here, Stephenie Meyer is not really like J. K. Rowling either, to whom she is often compared. I'm a big fan of J. K. Rowling, who also lead me to the dark side on a previous spiral a few years ago. But while both series are character-driven, I see the 2 authors as quite distinct from each other. I like them both. Enough said.

The Twilight books have a certain amount of formulaic predictability to them but then again, not quite. The author misleads her readers quite often, and things don't always turn out the way you think they will. This reader was definitely caught off guard with book 4, and I appreciated those mental twists and turns. BRAVO!

The Twilight series is more than just a vampire blood lust story. Yes, it's passionate, maybe a bit too heated and steamy for the teenage audience it was supposedly written for although I guess you could technically describe it as an abstinence story, too, but I wouldn't advertise it that way. Still at the heart of the story is a tantalizing quest to pursue and settle for nothing less than the deepest love, to love another so much more than yourself that you are willing to give them up to keep them safe, to protect them from yourself if necessary. Maybe it's a bit twisted thrown in with the vampire and werewolf bit, but it's still a series with love at the core.

Funny, but Stephenie Meyer quotes Heathcliff and Cathy from Wuthering Heights several times in the books, but truthfully, I thought her characters reminded me more of Edward Fairfax Rochester [Edward] and Jane Eyre [Bella]. I bet Charlotte Bronte just rolled over in her grave. HA! Sorry, Charlotte! But perhaps, that is the appeal, the mysterious hold these books have on me. I'm still hung up on the Bronte sisters and their passionate pens. Yes, I'm a romantic sap...and somehow I still believe in true love even now.