“Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer

“Twilight” tells the story of seventeen year old Bella Swan, beginning with the day she leaves Pheonix, Arizona for Forks, Washington. It is evident from the beginning of the story that Bella sees no appeal in moving to Forks to live with her father, yet she hides this internal struggle from her parents as well as the friends she meets at school. While eating lunch, Bella notices a table of five wonderfully beautiful individuals, only to catch the attention of one of the brothers, Edward. She finds herself immediately drawn to him, and thus can not understand his anger upon their first interaction. In time, Edward becomes a mysterious fixture within Bella’s life. While she wishes to not think of him, her mind travels to him on several occasions. Within a rather short period of time, Bella begins to recognize that Edward is not normal, and she slowly unravels the truth that he is a vampire. While the premise is certainly different, “Twilight” proved to be a far more interesting book than anticipated.

I chose to read “Twilight” as my challenge book as I truly believed that I would have absolutely no interest in the novel, yet also felt that this was a valuable book to gain exposure to before teaching high school students. I procrastinated and chose to read this last as I did not believe I would like it, thus I waited until the week before finals to begin this book. Despite my initial resistance to the book, I soon found that I could not put it down. In the midst of projects and research papers, I was utterly drawn to “Twilight.” I would absolutely suggest this to my high school students, particularly the girls in my classes. While boys might find some interest in the novel, I think that this would be much more appealing to girls than boys. I would use this novel as either a small group read or as a suggested individual read, as I think that there is little of literary value to touch upon as a whole class.

I feel that the one downside of this novel is Bella’s dependence upon Edward. I had heard this many times from others who had read the book, yet I found her to be witty and self reliant until she truly began falling for Edward later in the novel. While many high school students might not pick up on this dependence, I do not know that I would want to pass on this message to my young students. However, every other aspect of this novel is intriguing and endearing to an extend.