Twilight

I started out reading this book for a few reasons. First, I tend to be very ‘old school’ in my reading. When I find a book that I like, I tend to read it to pieces. For instance, I am on my fifth copy of Gone With the Wind, having read it for the first time when I was ten. I thought with the Twilight series I could launch myself into a fresh, new something that wasn’t terribly brain taxing. Another reason was to relate back to my students. As a 7th grade teacher, this is the only book, along with its successors, that my girls willingly open. Finally, I wanted something outside the box for me for my book review.

Honestly, I could hardly sit through it. I do not know if I started out with a mental block or if it is the material. I’ve never been into vampires but I had been told that the series doesn’t really pull it in that much until the later books, and it focuses on the love story. Well, there was more than enough of both for me.

Basically, this teenage girl, named Bella, moves from Arizona to live with her father in the rainiest city in the U.S., Forks, Washington. She wants to blend in, get through life, try not to be miserable…although that pretty much seems to be an oxymoron for her. Blending in doesn’t work so well because she meets this apparently fantastic, gorgeous, perfect teenage boy named Edward. But Edward is not exactly a teenager and he is far from normal. He is a vampire, as is his family, and they are basically what you would call ‘nice vampires’. They do not drink human blood. Edward and Bella become highly attracted to one another. It becomes a constant back and forth ‘I want to be with you, but not hurt you, get hurt, hurt someone else…’ ‘Oh, I long to become a vampire so we can be together forever.’ For me it is excruciatingly painful to go through this revolting love and pain relationship that the two have. It does knock some of the notions of vampires out of the park though…and the pun is intended. Vampires are supposed to be horrible, evil, vicious, bloodsucking creatures who want to drink the blood of every human being they see. Not Edward and the rest of the Cullen family. No, they are reasonably nice, polite, baseball playing vampires who drink the blood of camels. Probably the most refreshing part of it for me is that the vampires can do something so mortal and human as play baseball. They even have their very own vampire baseball league. Hysterical.

Can I say that I recommend it? Not really, but my opinion is pretty biased. However, I am glad to be able to use it as a relation tool with my students, which is really why I started the book in the first place. I don’t know if I’ll make it through the other three though.