“Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer

For the last year and a half, my book club students have insisted that I read the hottest tome on the market today … Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight”. While the young folk have been downright fanatical about anything coming from the pen of Ms. Meyer, the adult reception has been, by and large, cool. With the summer came time to peruse this 498 page book, and I now have to say I am firmly on the fence. On one hand, I find it the fluffiest of fluffy reads, on the other hand, I do understand the teen fascination. “Twilight” is yet another vampire tale (no complaints here, I love my bloodsuckers). This time the story takes place in rural Washington state. There is Bella, a 17 year-old angst-filled teen and recent transplant, then there is the pretty Edward Cullen and his beautiful family – a group of pale-skinned young folk with a noted lack of appetite … for cafeteria food, anyway. The predictable happens and anti-social Bella falls for anti-social Edward. Secrets are revealed and longing is had. Ms. Myers uses up her thesaurus with synonyms for “perfect” as Bella thinks about (almost) every part of Edward’s anatomy, while simultaneously wallowing in her own tremendous lack of self-esteem. Edward rescues his damsel in distress over and over again with the caveat that while he “really really loves her” he can never be “with” her because he is, at heart, a bad boy who will hurt her. And herein lies the symbolism that makes vampire tales, particularly with “good” vampires, so attractive. You have the whole blood thing, which acknowledges the maturation of young women, and is, at its core, about sex. Then there is the full-fledged adult man (vampires having lived a while regardless of their looks) who are desired but also scary. The good vampire is ideal – the lusty female protagonists can acknowledge their feelings but remain in a safe place. “Twilight” manages to capture a lot of this, although it is badly in need of an editor and the main character, Bella, could use some of Buffy’s sense of self. In fact, much of the first book in this series feels like an overwrought and less clever version of the Buffy/Angel tale. Bottom line is that it was a fun, and surprisingly fast, read, but I’m not running out to get the sequel, “New Moon”. In a rare moment, I’ll say this is a great book for the young, but readers over 21 might prefer Anne Rice’s moody, conflicted vamps to the G-rated folks in these books … unless you are looking for something mindless on a warm summer night to make you go “ahhhh”.