I had just finished Atlas Shrugged and I was looking for something light to read, something that I could just read for pure pleasure, mindless thrillers, fantasy fiction…anything. I first heard of Twilight from a friend, as a mushy high school romantic story on vampires. I have never been fond of mushy over the top romantic books, even in high school I stayed away from Mills and Boons and likes of Barbara Cartland, but the worldwide craze about the book got me curious. Thus (with a hint of embarrassment) I picked up my copy of Twilight from the young adult fiction section of a bookstore.
The book is written from the perspective of a 17 year old Bella Swan who has to leave the sunny city of Phoenix and her mom and move to the wet, gloomy small town of Forks with her dad. The story continues to be about the thought and issues of a normal teenager who has to move to a new high school in a small town with a dad whom she is used to meeting only once in a year. The characters she meets in early in the book are what you would find in any teenage Hollywood flick, this is until we meet the Cullens, a dropdead gorgeous group, who also happen to be vampires. The picture of a vampire in my imagination was that of an ugly, dark creature with fangs and blood dripping out of the corner of their lips, Stephenie Myer replaced that picture with pale faced, golden eyed, runway models. The Cullen family consists of Dr Cullen, who practices in the hospital of Forks, Esme his wife and their adopted children Rosalie, Emmet, Alice, Jasper and Edward Cullen. The few chapters are dedicated about creating mystery around Edward Cullen and here she briefly introduces Jacob Black, the character who would be almost as important as Edward and Bella in the sequels. Twilight, however concentrates on how Bella gets attracted towards Edward, finds out the truth about him and still hopelessly falls in love with something that has been ingrained in our beliefs as mythical.
The author paints all her characters (even the minor ones) very well and although the key storyline is the intense romance there are other emotions and relationships that she plays on. The story moves fast and it is written in a very simple, easy, effortless way but with such intensity in the characters. Twilight has such a mass appeal because it is an escape to a fantasy world and appeals to anyone who is romantic and maybe has a 16 year old subdued in some corner of the heart. Edward Cullen is good looking, sensitive, protective, smart, rich, mysterious…in short every single thing every woman’s dream guy is, and being a vampire just adds to the already perfect image. No wonder women from the age of 16 to 60 are crazy about him.
Okay it might not be a great literary piece, completely original, very well written but Twilight is very entertaining. To me that’s what a good fiction should be, gripping, thoroughly entertaining and characters that I would remember long after I have read the book.