Twilight: an unbiased account

Well, there's been so much hype around this book (and movies- you can't seem to get away from the "based on" hysteria at present) I though that this would be a book (note in point: book, not series) that would draw interest and may benefit from an UNBIASED opinion. Taking the plunge...

Twilight
Stephanie Meyer

The basic plot outline is as  follows: A clumsy teenage girl moves back with her Father in the beige town of Forks (American...). She meets "the guy" (aloof, apparently unattainable, gorgeous, mysterious etc) and subsequently a romance begins. One more catch: he's a vampire. But he's actually a GOOD vampire who won't suck out your blood, set fire to your home, and generally run amok in your village (slightly off track...). Bella (our female heroine) finds out the secret, makes waves in the small town, falls in love (and gets fallen in love with) the vampire, and things are good. Until the twist. Evil vampires pay a visit, start sucking blood and running amok in the village (no fires though, darn it) and they decide Bella will make a tasty snack. The boyfriend and family stand their ground and use their special powers (did I forget to mention the special powers? mind reading, emotion control, future telling, and super-compassion...) to exterminate the threat and then they live happily ever after (until the next book that is...)

Now, onto the writing style and so forth. The story is told by Bella and is all about teenage angst and forbidden love (yes, it is essentially a romance novel). Now here's the catch: apparently this story is written at a 6th grade reading level (year 5 for us- which is 9 years old) but it's interspersed with a whole lot of "big" words that generally students aren't comfortably familiar with until at least year 10 (4th form), "permanence" and "verbose" anybody? (pages 4 and 5). After having a conversation with an adolescent (year 7), and coincidentally the one who convinced me to go out and read the series) about this, her comment was that she would just read on (aha! good teaching there) but she wouldn't actually attempt to understand the unfamiliar words. So a recommended reading level would actually be higher teens, say 16, which is around the same age as the main character so that connection is solid at least.

Relatabilty to the target audience is fine (if we say the target audience is an average 16 year old girl) as the main character is bland enough for the reader to step into their shoes. She's insecure, physically average, clumsy, unsporty, and is helplessly in love with what she can't have (until she gets it!!!) So there's enough yes boxes for most girls to tick (HUGE generalisation, I know. So no complaints. Please.) However, the person who I borrowed the books off before I went out and bought them (what can I say, they're easy to read) was an 18 year old soccer-playing male.

So the surprising thing about this book is that ANYONE can pick it up and read it. There's a bit of blood involved for the boys to stay engaged, and enough romance for the girls. For the adults, it's a trip down memory lane to the teenage years. And for the sceptics, there's plenty of ammunition to use against the twi-hards if you read the book as well as seeing the movie.

Also pay a visit to this website if you want to view how hardcore some people can be: www.mylifeistwilight.com

Enjoy!

Genre: [Fantasy] [Romance] [Action]
Meyer, S. (2005) Twilight. Australia: Griffin Press.