And now it's Twilight.

OK. so I finally finished that blasted Twilight book super early this morning. If you were wondering what I thought of it well... here we go!

Let's start off with my trip to the library to check out the book in the first place. I obviously knew where to find it, in the Young Adults sections. There were only two copies, a hard cover and a paperback. I picked up the paperback and I put it back because I was afraid I would do some damage to the book, and they would make me replace it, so I picked up the hard copy. I knew this was a thick book, but MY GOD! I flipped to the last page... 295. Yes. That's right there are 295 pages of pure awful. I held the book between my thumb and forefinger with my arm stretched out as far a i could possibly get it. I walk up to the check out counter and i practically dropped the book on the counter. The guy checking me out looked at me, my face a look of disgust. Then he asks, "Is it overdue?" Are you serious? I don't think I have ever had an overdue book, let alone, checked out Twilight before. He didn't know that, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But then I thought to myself, are kids really keeping it well over the due date to read this? Is it that hard of a book to read that it takes the usual, what, like 2 weeks to read this? Then he printed out my due date slip and handed it to me saying, "This is due back February 2ND." I looked at him, then looked at the slip. It was right. The slip said February 02, 2010. HOLY JUNK! They give you 3 MONTHS to read this book. I thought to myself, well maybe the policy has changed and that's for every book, but I checked a book out a few weeks ago and it was still the same 2 week policy.

Then it hit me. Kids are reading, rereading then re-rereading this book, and then turning it in overdue! It may be a very long book, but it was definitely not a hard read. Most kids read it in a day. It only took me 3 days because I was busy with other stuff. If I had a full day to just sit and read, I probably could have finished it. I would never plan on opening it up again and rereading it. It wasn't that good.

The story line for the book was an ordinary girl, Bella, who moves from Phoenix, AZ to a small town in Washington State called Forks. She starts school and there's this family of "good" vampires and she attracts one of them, Edward, the youngest of them. Blah, blah, blah. She falls in love with him, he falls in love with her, it's a forbidden love because she's human, and he's well.. a vampire. For most of the middle of the book it's kinda like a warped romantic novel. Talking about what they do together and how much they love each other. I found myself rolling my eyes a lot, or feeling like I was going to throw up. It's like "Oh, I love you" "You are my whole life now" "You are my kind of heroine" I was ready to stab both of them. And then a group of "bad" vampires come and find that Edward and his family have been hanging out with this human and they start to track her down and she ends back in Phoenix hiding and Edward has to come save her like he always does.

That's another thing. Bella. She is portrayed in the book as this ordinary clumsy girl and Edward is always saving her from the trouble she gets in. The typical damsel in distress, and knight in shining armor... or well... sparkly vampire, that's not very typical.

These Vampires are not stereotypical vampires we are so accustom to in other books and movies. When you think of vampires you think nocturnal, sleep in coffins, turn into bats, repelled by garlic and crucifixes and drink people's blood. Well. These vampires can walk around during the day, but only if there is no sun, hence why they live in Washington State, its always cloudy and raining, if they are in the sun their skin sparkles like if they were tosses into a tank of glitter... kinda drag-queenish if you ask me. They don't sleep in coffins let alone sleep at all, and the don't turn into bats, but they can run at super high speeds. And the Cullens don't drink people's blood, and they don't kill just anybody. They hunt animals, and only predators that are overpopulated in certain regions like bears and mountain lions. This get their "thirst" for humans off edge. And some of them have sixth senses. Edward can read minds, another can see the future. They also enjoy playing baseball... but only when there's a thunderstorm... vampire baseball gets really nosy I guess.

I feel like the first three quarters of the book were really slow, and focused solely on Bella and Edward and nothing else. It was like it's own little book in itself. the rest of the book took off after they meet up with the "bad" vampires and I feel that this is when I started to enjoy it more. There was more action and more suspense. I knew the whole time Edward was a vampire, there was no surprise there for me. It even says he was on the back of the book. And to be honest I knew what happened in the end, I saw the terrible movie that came from this. But it was way more interesting to read about the vampire fights and stuff than reading about how Bella and Edward cuddled with each other in the grass and told each other how much they loved each other and how they never wanted to live with out the other. *gag*

It's obvious why girls love this book though. I can understand that. Edward is this good looking perfect guy who takes interest in Bella this clumsy ordinary girl. He's always described as this smoldering beautiful being with these gorgeous amber eyes, and his smile is just so perfect, and his voice is oh so velvety smooth. Every time Bella describes Edward in this fashion I had to keep myself from throwing up a little bit. Then I had to think about how young girls look at this. This is what they are going to look for in guys, and it's nothing far from the truth for most guys. And he's always saving Bella, no matter where she is, and he's always telling her he will always be with her forever, no matter what blah blah blah... Girls get this unrealistic image of guys in their heads because they have fallen in love with a fictitious vampire!

I had a hard time wanting to enjoy it because I felt like I was giving in. Giving in on the cult. I feel like I drank the Kool-Aid. Because I did enjoy reading it. I liked the storyline and I liked the development of the relationship of the characters, and I did like the characters, there was not one I absolutely did not like.

But here's the deal. I am still not a FAN of the saga of books, or the movie. I do not plan on rereading this book, or reading the other two. I have seen previews for the next movie, and although it looks 100x better than the first one, I still have no interest in seeing it. I am not completely obsessed. I have no interest in flying out to Washington State to visit Forks, it's sounds like an awful place to visit. And I still think that the guy who plays Edward in the movie is a total creepoid. I am not in love with him and I feel awful that he has to be in the situation he is in. Sucks for him.

The only thing I can say about young people reading this book along with the other two books that come after it is that I am glad that they are reading at all. In a world full of video games and the internet and everything else that we have, they still pick up a book for the fun of it and read. That's all that matters to me. Reading is EVERYTHING!!

fin. = )