Twilight, New Moon,Eclipse

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2005.
Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2006.
Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York:Little, Brown, 2007.



In my Materials for Youth class we had to give a booktalk to the class. The booktalking assignment fell on the two weeks around Halloween and I think seven people chose vampires/horror books as their theme, and all of those people tied in Twilight. Which is the least horrific vampire novel ever written.
So for my valentine's day post I'm giving you a review of the most absurdly romantic books ever written. Talk about giving people unrealistic expectations about love! As a side note I'd like to say that I don't think erotic/romantic vampire stories should count as horror, as my friend Adrienne likes to point out (repeatedly), "Dude, It's all just a metaphor for sex!"
Yes, yes it is Adrienne. One big giant cautionary tale about waiting until you are ready for sex and then you will get eternal life, or you'll die early from hiv/aids, I mean, depending on how closely you look at the metaphor. Just as a warning though, I wouldn't look at it too closely, judging from Stephanie Meyer's writing style I'd say she just read one too many sexy Anne Rice novels, and a few more of Laurell K. Hamilton's later Anita Blake books, had typical romantic goth high school fantasies about the Toreador clan.
Anyway, the book starts off with the main vampy dude Edward, and all his pale brethren trying to fit in as a normal family "The Cullens" in a small Washington town. Our heroine, Bella, is an annoyingly self-deprecating waif with divorced parents. At the beginning of the tale she's just moved in to a different state and school with her dad after her mom has a new exciting beau she wants to get to know better or something. Edward pretends to hate Bella when they are lab partners because he looks 17 and being normal means going to high school. The tale gets complicated because both characters are extreme and stubborn and generally given to making problems because their lives are too easy and fun except when other vampires happen by and want to kill Bella. Oh, and Bella wants to be a vampire because Edward is going to be immortal without her (does this make her a bug chaser?) Edward doesn't want her to be a vampire (shock.) Three (soon to be four) books of this with more plot twists, like a hot best male friend for Bella, oh la la!
Anyway, the best part of these books are that they are huge, but a really smooth easy read. And I did find myself wanting to read more and immediately reserved the second two books after finishing Twilight.. They are fun, fast-paced, have a great setting and side characters and follow an entertaining formula once you get to parts where Bella quits feeling sorry for herself because she's a nerdy klutz and not preternaturally beautiful (I like Anita Blake's, "I'm cute, but I don't compare...whatevs!" attitude much better.)
I'm looking forward to book 4, and possibly renting the movies when they come out, and if you like a good romantic vampire story (and I do) please feel free to indulge in this guiltiest of Young Adult fiction pleasures. Just, don't go thinking the preternatural creatures in these books are going to scare you. Unless you are scared of self-induced drama queen vampires, then they might.