The Online Reflector

By Staci Reafsnyder, Sports Editor

Around the country and the world, “Twilight,” written by Stephenie Meyer, has become a sensation among readers looking for a thriller/romance to sit down to. Meyer’s story was brought to life when she had a dream about two star-crossed lovers that she couldn’t get out of her head. Upon the completion of the first draft, Meyer was convinced to publish her writings.
The book hit the shelves in 2005, becoming a New York Times bestseller.

In the story, 17-year-old Isabella (“Bella”) Swan finds herself moving to the one place she dreaded all of her life: Forks, Wash. a rainy, dismal place located near the Olympic Mountains that is nothing like her home in Phoenix, Ariz. Bella’s move to Forks comes when her stepfather is recruited to Florida to play for a minor league baseball team in hopes of making the majors.

On Bella’s first day at Forks High School, she learns of a family that the whole school gossips about. The adopted children of Carlisle and Esme Cullen are five mysterious and strikingly beautiful people who look as if they have come straight out of a fashion magazine.

Bella soon finds herself partnered in biology class with one of the Cullens, Edward. Her first impressions lead her to think that Edward doesn’t like her, especially when he disappears for a week.

Her thoughts change toward Edward when he saves her life from an accident, giving light to a secret that all of the Cullens have tried to keep hidden for ages. The Cullen family is a coven of vampires – creatures doomed to eternal damnation who feast on the blood of humans.

Unlike ordinary vampires, the Cullen family members have all sworn off the blood of humans and only prey on animals. As Bella learns this secret, she discovers that the scent of her blood makes Edward thirst for it, unlike anything he has ever experienced, and he duels between the urge to follow his instincts or to refrain from them.

The lives of these two teenagers become intertwined, and they fall in love with each other. Bella is left to choose between life and eternal damnation. Through the eyes of Bella Swan, the story gives the reader a one-on-one view of this overly clumsy girl falling into a world she had never known existed. One of the chapters that stands out is one that takes place in Edward’s special place, a meadow outside of Forks, the place he takes Bella one day to prove that vampires don’t poof into thin air when the sun is shining. In this chapter, the reader finds the true feelings of Edward and the battle raging within him.

Meyer’s well-thought-out research into the history of vampires reveals itself through the pages of “Twilight,” steering away from the traditional stereotypes of what society knows as a vampire. Her attention to detail plays into the plot as the reader is told many stories of the Cullen family.

Reviewers have compared “Twilight” to books such as “Gossip Girl” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” saying that it is a story that will appeal to readers who enjoy a more realistic fictional story. This love story between a creature doomed to eternal damnation and a young girl just beginning her life will grab the reader and pull him or her into an unbelievable world.

It is a book that any reader could enjoy. Although the first few chapters of the book start out slow, setting the scene for this unusual love story, it picks up the pace as the reader is engrossed in this tale. With the plot twisting at each turn of the page, Meyer’s “Twilight” keeps the reader in suspence and ready for more.

Meyer’s New York Times bestseller “Twilight” will soon come to life with the release of “Twilight” the movie, on Dec. 12, 2008.