Twilight Highlight

Not one for jumping on a bandwagon for latest trends and fads, I surprised myself a bit when I decided to start reading the TWILIGHT series. I gotta tell you, I'm SO glad I did. The first book took over my whole Saturday (I read it for seven hours straight.) Obviously, I have a lot of thoughts on the book and storyline, but overall, I give the author an A+ for both effort and execution. Stephanie Meyer has this innate ability to paint a clear picture of each and every setting she presents. Truly carrying out major plot lines with intense emotion, I was drawn right in by the 10th page, which by the way, is extremely important. If I don't like a book within the first 15 pages, I throw it out the window. True Story.

Even though the story is targeted as fiction for teenage girls, I think the ability to relate to the character, at any age, is obvious. I'm always eager to watch lame teeny-bopper flicks, but rarely waste my time on said genre for books. Twilight, to me, is different. As I said, it's extremely well-written and although it won't be supplanting Wuthering Heights in a Rutgers Expos class, the dialog, characters, pacing and prose is good enough to at least be considered. Ghosts, goblins, werewolves and duh, vampires - are no strangers to my ever-evolving interests. Watching a movie about these ghouls is one thing, reading a series of books consisting of over 2,000 pages...quite another.

For the most part, each sentence (or every now and again, anyway) sometimes makes you really THINK about your life and the way you live it. Deep thoughts, if you will. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain.
2. I felt a surge of pity, and relief. Pity because, as beautiful as they were, they were outsiders, clearly not accepted. Relief that I wasn’t the only newcomer here, and certainly not the most interesting by any standard.
3. It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn’t stop worrying that it was true.
4. When I came here as a child, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door. I guess he considered me old enough now not to shoot myself by accident, and not depressed enough to shoot myself on purpose.
5. In a lot of ways, living with Charlie was like having my own place, and I found myself reveling in the aloneness instead of being lonely.
6. I tried to think of a logical solution that could explain what I had just seen — a solution that excluded the assumption that I was insane.
7. No blood, no foul.
8. I couldn’t allow him to have this level of influence over me. It was pathetic. More than pathetic, it was unhealthy.
9. I should be afraid — I knew I should be, but I couldn’t feel the right kind of fear
10. It was very… hard — you can’t imagine how hard — for me to simply take you away, and leave them… alive.
11. I didn’t want to leave, but it was necessary. It’s a bit easier to be around you when I’m not thirsty.
12. About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn’t know how potent that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
13. It’s the safest time of day for us. The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way… the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don’t you think?
14. I infuriate myself. The way I can’t seem to keep from putting you in danger. My very existence puts you at risk. Sometimes I truly hate myself.

Currently, I'm reading the New Moon and obviously I hate the first 20 pages. Not because it's poorly written. No, no -- I just really miss Edward Cullen.