Twilight, the first book of a fantasy saga written by Stephanie Meyer, is one of the most influential vampire and werewolf books to be written.
It is a story of a young, average teenage girl, Bella Swan, who moves to her dad’s town mid-year: the bleak, dreary town of Forks, where rain seems to be the only type of weather. Bella is already unsure about herself upon entering the new environment, especially school. However, she finds herself enchanted by one of the school-famous Cullen siblings, Edward. Despite her best efforts at being friendly, Edward shuns her and explicitly avoids her, and when she is near him, acts strangely and disappears.
Bella assumes it is just sheer hate and moves on, but when Edward saves her from a car at superhuman speed, all of her suspicions peak. Yet, he walks off as if nothing happened. Bella does not stay idle this time, and is determined to pursue Edward until he gives her an explanation, which he so carefully tries to avoid telling her.
While many find Twilight generic or “cringey,” it is one of the most elaborate and detailed sagas, with swoon-worthy scenes and characters. Every scene in the book is written with depth and emotion, especially with dialogue and thoughts that truly make the book authentic and seem real. What was especially enjoyable about the book was how relatable the characters were, despite being either vampires or werewolves. Each had their unique factors, yet behaved and acted like everyday teenagers. This exact fact is what draws in the reader, as readers can relate to such appealing and charismatic characters, which forces them to engage and invest more into the book.
Additionally, Stephanie Meyer includes many moments where the standard of a relationship is solidified: whether it be keeping emotions in check or communicating, she makes it vibrantly clear as to what a good, solid relationship is. Many adolescents need to set this standard for themselves at a young age for a successful relationship in the future.
While I truly enjoyed reading this book, there were some parts I questioned the importance of. The overall story arc and character development were sublime. However, there were many scenes I thought could be taken out without impacting the story. Details were not lacking whatsoever in Twilight, rather, sometimes too many details were given, and every now and then clouded the purpose of the given segment. There were many descriptions found to be repetitive and wildly slow, thus ruining the intensity of passion of specific scenes. Additionally, every now and then a character would enter and contribute absolutely nothing to the plot. He or she was just there, and sometimes caused confusion with certain characters’ motives or purposes. While these dilemmas are not anything major, they would either contribute nothing to the plot or simply cause confusion whilst reading.
All in all, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight is a classic and most successful teen vampire romance to ever be written. Unlike many other books and novels, this saga is original and creative, truly uninspired, and coming from the mind of an imagineer.
This indirectly displays to readers the beauty of creative writing and the importance of originality. Especially nowadays, where the culture of ChatGPT and AI writes young adolescents essays and writing pieces, creative writing has become generic and monotonous. Twilight, despite all the negative media surrounding it, is an original and raw creative piece, as vampire romance was seemingly unheard of during the time. This saga is an artifact of what is left of innovative and imaginative writing, which will hopefully inspire future generations to continue this dying trend.
