Twilight Supplies

The #1 New York Times bestseller is available for the first time in a mass market paperback edition, featuring a striking movie tie-in cover.


Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

User Reviews about Twilight (The Twilight Saga)

T Twilight Saga series is one of the most amazing series for those who enjoy the paranormal fantasy. it's full of romance and adventure with lots of action and the author does an excellent job of letting us understand the character's feelings and backgrounds. I love this series, and frankly, I had never read any paranormal stuff before I got hooked on this series! -- Excellent

This book has serious problems, but it certainly achieves its goals of entertaining the female reader with an indulgent fantasy romance. I read all 4 books in 1 night. I was initially embarrassed to have enjoyed them so much but I have to accept that I am also victim of being a girl so here's me embracing it.

Why it's good:
1) Stephanie Meyers may secretly be a genius, but from the way the book takes itself so seriously I think she doesn't even know she's doing it, and by it I mean she's got her teeth sunk into the neck of the secret ultimate fantasy of every teenage girl in the universe.

Exhibit A:
Hot, 100-year-old virgin Edward Cullen is what girls secretly long for: a rich (obscenely rich), physically beautiful (poorly written, repetitive descriptions of Edward's hotness literally accompany every mention of the guy), physically strong (strength emphasized by him saving her life all the time and by the narrator constantly claiming to be clumsy and otherwise even more physically impaired than the average human), morally upright (Bella often swoons and marvels over Edward's self control and moral compass, ie. his ability to not rape/destroy her even though he easily could and sort of wants to and she loves that he wants to and loves even more that he doesn't), old fashioned gentleman (super protective and jealous provider who wants to take care of her so she doesn't need to do anything), respectful (lets Bella do what she wants most of the time even if that means making out with other guys), and obsessed in love with his girl (their declarations of love are over the top and they would literally rather die than live without each other).
This last obsessed love thing is a key element to a good love story. Because I think teenagers most feel this level of single minded infatuation with strangers and girls especially have an egotistical fantasy that they are the Only One for their dream man- that even though he's a super hot guy he's a 100 year old virgin because he's waiting for YOU, that none of the other fine ladies were right for him and yet YOU inexplicably ARE. Through the twisted logic of romance, the inexplicable-ness somehow means more fated and enduring than something that actually made sense, which is why in the world of this fantasy their intense relationship that occurs after a few sidelong glances is actually not only reasonable but the best possible scenario. You're somehow the one super special thing for this dude (and in fact every male in this series of books), and vice versa (except you also make out with one of the other many guys who love you). Which brings us to:

Exhibit B:
Hot, 16-year-old virgin Jacob Black is also totally convinced Bella is also his One. Oh yeah, did I mention that the other part of the ultimate girl fantasy is that she also has to choose between several super hot guys? Every male in the Twilight world is inexplicably in love with Bella but Jacob is especially significant because he's the other one with super powers. He also falls into the romance category of 'guy-who-always-loved-you-but-who-you-didn't-like-at-first-but-later-come-to-like.'

2) The conflict between wanting to have sex but not being able to (because the sex will be so good the vampire in him will freak out and kill you? Maybe it's a metaphor for religion or something) appeals to girls because young girls are often afraid of sex but are also curious about it, so the kissing and the closeness is a nice alternative. In addition it's part of the fantasy to be a girl who's causing men so much strife that it's this epic battle to abstain from tearing your clothes off.

3) She takes a lesson (or twenty) from the master bard Shakespeare and the plots of the books are pretty good as a result. The plots are the same as the greatest romances of all time, with her own supernatural twist on it.

Aside from the shame of having such ridiculous fantasies, here's reasons I am embarrassed to like it, accompanied by rationalizations for why these reasons are immaterial:

1) Meyers is not a good writer. Her word choice is unoriginal, often cliche, sometimes cringe-worthy, and I think it could've just been fixed by a good editor but I guess they skipped this because it's irrelevant to this book's appeal to readers. Cross section of her language: "my stomach was already full- of butterflies!" Sounds straight from the page of a teen diary. Much of the writing is equally bad and she especially belabors how rightfully obsessed Bella is with Edward. But maybe that's part of the appeal to some audiences, and I think it is also true to how girls often feel about boys- if a girl becomes obsessed with a guy she goes crazy and just does not stop thinking about him. Thus every mention of Edward has to be accompanied by a little reminder of how awesome he is, because that is what Bella is actually thinking. Meyers is actually prodigiously in touch with the female mind.

2) The characters are totally fake and dead, especially the protagonist. Bella unfortunately has no discernible personality, although as the books continue Meyers does get better at fleshing out these people. The book would be a less embarrassing read if the heroine was not an empty shell who had no reason for living aside from her dude and no skills whatsoever. There are some weak attempts at character building which seem formulaic and forced. For example Meyers makes it a point to assert that Bella's key character traits are clumsiness and an ability to cook. Not only is this offensive from a literature perspective, the flatness of the female lead is offensive from a human perspective and I worry about what message this may be sending to people. Again, I think Meyers possibly doesn't know she's doing this (although her ignorance seems almost impossible), but, if the book has a message, the message can be interpreted as extremely demeaning to women: Bella is literally nothing until she marries Edward and becomes a vampire, at which point she gains all these powers and becomes awesome. Disturbing, but hopefully people do not see the book as having any kind of message at all, aside from perhaps something about the power of love.

In conclusion, read this book if you want a love story that shamelessly gratuitously caters to your impossible romantic fantasies. This book satisfies that sweet tooth wonderfully; it's like drinking chocolate from a fire hose. Do not read this if you expect literature. -- For what it offers, it delivers in droves

I really enjoyed reading this book. It reaches teens and adults too.

Thanks.

-- Fantastic on all age levels!