Meghan's Review of "Twilight"

Overall I liked this book. I had read "The Host" first before any other Stephenie Meyer book so I think I was expecting a little more from "Twilight" than if I would've read this first. I thought Meyer did a good job of relating to any teenage girl- feeling like an outsider, self-esteem issues, and always thinking about boys. At least that's what I remember from being in high school (sad but true). I thought there was a good foundation to the relationship between Edward and Bella at the beginning, but their relationship changed too quickly for me once he realized she knew he was a vampire, although Meyer was going for the "Romeo and Juliet" type love, and those relationships always seems to be very dramatic. I liked the mystery that she tried to keep through the whole book about exactly what vampires are capable of and how you become a vampire. I didn't really like that most of the book was spent on developing all the relationships and then the last 1/4 of the book was the real action. I thought she could've come up with a better climax than just a random vampire wanting to kill Bella- something that maybe had more history to it, like if James and Edward had some encounter in the past. That would've seemed more reasonable to me and more intense. I did get a little tired at the end of the book with Bella always talking about how perfect Edward was and how he looks like an angel, and how every time he touched her, her heart stopped. I can understand all that at the beginning, but it's kind of like once you're with someone and you know they feel the same as you do, then you aren't constantly wondering how they feel about you and always feel like every touch is like the first touch. I'm hoping that aspect of Edward and Bella's relationship is a little toned down in "New Moon". For the most part, it was a fairly entertaining story, but I think it could've used some embellishments here and there, and Meyer could've helped the readers understand more why James acted the way he did or made it seem more urgent, if that makes sense. I will be very interested to see how the movie turns out. From the preview's I've seen, it looks like the vampires can fly rather than just run really fast. I also think the guy they cast as Jacob is more 'perfect' looking than Edward is, and from what I've seen of the girl they cast as Bella, she doesn't have any of the humor that Bella did in the book, which was one of the aspects of her and Edward's relationship that I liked. So, there's what I thought of "Twilight". It was good, but I thought "The Host" was far superior. Have you all read "The Host"? If not, I'll wait until you do to write what I thought about it- but I say it's definitely worth reading.