book review for twilight

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Twilight: the twilight saga, book 1, common sense media reviewers.

Obsessive vampire romance is absorbing and fun.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Bella studies vampire lore from around the world i

On the plus side, loyalty to family and friends an

Bella is quiet, studious, and accident-prone and i

The fangs don't come out until the end, when injur

Some passionate kissing and flirting.

Versions of "damn" and "hell" a few times.

Edward's family loves their cars, especially the V

Bella takes cold medicine to fall asleep the night

Parents need to know that Twilight is the first book of a series that brought the vampire-romance genre back from the undead in 2005. Movies starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, fan groups (Twihards), and a whole lot of merchandise followed. The forbidden, obsessive romance in Twilight …

Educational Value

Bella studies vampire lore from around the world in a series of web searches. Readers can compare the various myths to the author's interpretation. Mentions of classical music pieces and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

Positive Messages

On the plus side, loyalty to family and friends and self-sacrifice. On the minus side, depicts a possessive relationship with some stalking behavior that's not called out.

Positive Role Models

Bella is quiet, studious, and accident-prone and is often being saved by Edward. By the end of the book she says he shouldn't be doing all the saving -- she'd rather be his equal and not Lois Lane. Edward angers easily, is possessive, and sometimes stalks Bella and watches her sleep -- to make sure she's safe, he says. He mellows out a bit, but maintains that uncomfortable air of authority over someone he loves. Some Native American characters, and when White students go to beach near a reservation, White and Native American teens mingle harmoniously.

Violence & Scariness

The fangs don't come out until the end, when injuries are blood loss, a broken leg, and a cracked skull. There's only a mention that the bad guy is ripped up and burned by other vampires. Plus a car accident with minor injuries and men threaten the main character in an alley. Mentions of how vampires turned years before: in an attack, after nearly dying in a suicide attempt, and in the 1918 flu pandemic.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Edward's family loves their cars, especially the Volvo, BMW, and Jeep.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Bella takes cold medicine to fall asleep the night before her big date.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Twilight is the first book of a series that brought the vampire-romance genre back from the undead in 2005. Movies starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson , fan groups (Twihards), and a whole lot of merchandise followed. The forbidden, obsessive romance in Twilight attracted many fans and worried more than a few parents of teen girls -- still does. Edward the vampire is possessive, angers easily, and stalks Bella, his human love interest. He even sneaks into her house to watch her sleep before they start dating. After one date he says to her, "You are my life now." By the end of Twilight, Bella professes that she's sick of being the weak one who always needs to be saved, and would like the relationship to be more equal, but Edward still has power over her because of what he is. For a romance, the sexual content is mild -- just kissing. And for all the talk of the killer instinct of vampires, there are only a few harrowing scenes with injuries including blood loss, broken bones, and a cracked skull.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (132)
• Kids say (598)

Based on 132 parent reviews

It's fine for kids!

Bella's just like us ....human, what's the story.

In TWILIGHT, Bella thinks she made a huge mistake when she moves back in with her dad in Forks, Washington. She misses her mom and sunny Phoenix, her dad can't cook, and she has a rough time on her first few days in a much smaller high school. Most of the kids are nice, sure, but her new lab partner in biology, Edward, looks like he wants to kill her. In the school office she even overhears him try to switch out of her class. This makes his actions even stranger in the school parking lot on an icy morning. When a car swerves toward Bella, Edward rushes over with impossible speed, puts a dent in the oncoming car with his bare hand, and saves her life. At the hospital, Edward tries to keep her quiet about the superhuman details of the accident. Bella says nothing, but can't quell her curiosity about him now. What exactly is he? And why can't she stop thinking about him?

Is It Any Good?

Fans of obsessive and impossible romances swoon over this hot-vampire story despite its length and some excessive moony-ness. Moony-ness as in the million ways love-struck Bella describes Edward as perfect. Here's one: "I couldn't imagine how an angel could be any more glorious. There was nothing about him that could be improved upon." Really, Bella? He gets angry awfully easily and he watches you sleep. Still, with the world of teen romance so hard to navigate, there's something about having your love life all figured out in one date. And author Stephenie Meyer may not write with economy or brilliant turns of phrase, but she builds up the romantic tension successfully.

Meyer is also successful at building her curious world of vampires. It's clear she's carefully considered each of her minor characters. Their origin stories of how each turned and joined the coven add an extra layer to this fantasy world. The setting in small-town Washington also adds appeal. The rain-soaked green and aliveness of Forks make the presence of deathly pale vampires in the town even more surreal. But readers will mostly sink their fangs into Twilight for the dramatic romance, and there's plenty of that here and in the rest of the series.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Bella and Edward's relationship in Twilight . Is it a healthy one? If Edward were a regular guy and not a vampire and he snuck into your house to watch you sleep, what would you think?

What books that you've read depict a healthier relationship than Bella and Edward's? Are they as fun to read?

How into the series are you? Will you read all the books? Watch all the movies? Demand a family trip to Washington state for a Twilight -themed tour of Forks? What do you think turns a reader into a mega-fan?

Book Details

• Author : Stephenie Meyer
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , High School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date : October 1, 2005
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 12 - 12
• Number of pages : 498
• Last updated : July 12, 2017

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Book Review

Twilight — “twilight” series.

• Stephenie Meyer
• Fantasy , Paranormal , Romance

Readability Age Range

• Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group
• ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2006; ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2006; Amazon.com Best of the Decade…So Far (Teens), 2010

Year Published

This romantic vampire fantasy is the first book in the ” Twilight ” series by Stephenie Meyer and is published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group.

Twilight is written for kids ages 9 and up. The age range reflects readability and not necessarily content appropriateness.

Plot Summary

When 17-year-old Bella Swan moves to her dad’s home in perpetually-cloudy Forks, Wash., she has little hope of enjoying her new life. Her father, Charlie, is the small town’s police chief. He lives as a resigned bachelor in the same house he owned during his brief marriage to Bella’s mom. Bella enrolls in the high school and makes some new acquaintances. While sitting with them in the cafeteria, she spots a group of five strange and incredibly beautiful people and learns that they are the Cullens. Two sets of them (Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie) are couples, but they’re all in the same family, adopted by the town’s young doctor. They keep to themselves. Bella later shares a lab table with the fifth member of the group, named Edward. She’s taken aback by his hostile behavior toward her. He sits far away from her and casts searing glances in her direction. She later sees him in the office trying to change his schedule to avoid her. She wonders what could make him hate her so much.

When icy weather hits, Bella’s truck and another student’s car collide in the school parking lot. Edward, whom Bella had seen standing far away, is suddenly at her side and saves her life by holding back the other car. She’s perplexed by the deep hand indentions he’s left in the vehicle. He’s reticent when she asks how he got to her so fast and had the strength to save her. He does, however, begin to act more friendly toward her at school. Through their cryptic banter in class, Bella becomes more and more attracted to the pale, gorgeous boy whose eyes “smolder” and drive her wild.

On a day trip with other school friends, Bella runs into an old acquaintance who lives on the Indian reservation. Jacob Black, a few years younger than Bella, is eager to impress and reveals classified information about the Cullens when Bella prods him. Jacob explains that the ancestors of his tribe have a territorial agreement with the Cullens, as the Cullens and other “cold ones” are their mortal enemies. Back home on the Internet, Bella further investigates Jacob’s claims and discovers Edward’s chilling secret: He and his family are vampires.

Bella knows she should be more fearful, but Edward’s increasing attention, protective nature and passionate gazes have left her entranced. Bella travels to a larger city with two girls from school to help them shop for prom dresses. When she gets separated from her friends, a group of four men surround her in a dark alley. Just in time, Edward appears and saves her. She’s stunned by his intense anger and often witnesses it in the days thereafter. He takes her to dinner and calms down before driving her back to Forks.

Edward warns her that he’s dangerous and that she should stay away from him. Thoroughly smitten, Bella repeatedly tells him (and herself) she doesn’t care what happens to her. No fate could be worse than being separated from him. Edward takes Bella to a remote area in the forest, allowing her to see how his skin glows in the sunlight. The glow is just one of the reasons Edward and his “family” (the others in his vampire coven) must stay in places like Forks where there’s significant cloud cover. Edward explains that his family attempts to be civilized, eating only animals and not people (though it is like subsisting on a diet of tofu and soy milk). Bella’s scent is so tantalizing to Edward, he says she’s like a drug to him. The same urges that cause him to want to devour her (literally) also drive him to protect and love her. He’s tormented, knowing he should stay away from her for her own safety but feeling he can’t bear to be without her.

Edward takes Bella home to meet his family. Most of the clan welcomes her, though Rosalie feels Bella is a threat to their life in Forks. Alice foresees a thunderstorm, and the vampires make a plan to play baseball high in the forest. When Bella joins them, she understands why loud peals of thunder are necessary to cover up their powerful hits. In mid-game, the family catches the scent of other vampires. There isn’t time to get Bella out of the area, so they try their best to cover her scent as they talk to the new vampires Laurent, James and James’ mate, Victoria. But James, a tracker, quickly picks up Bella’s scent. When the two vampire clans part ways, Edward tells Bella he’s read James’ thoughts. James will stop at nothing to devour her.

Alice and Jasper go with Bella to her home, where she quickly packs and lies to her dad, telling him she can no longer live in Forks. They drive her to Phoenix while Edward and the others protect her father and track James. Alice, Jasper and Bella hole up in a Phoenix hotel and wait for directions from the others. One morning, Bella receives a call. James is on the other end of the line, telling her he has her mother. He orders her to pretend she’s talking to her mom so the vampires won’t catch on. James directs Bella to lose Alice and Jasper. She gets away from them in the airport where they’re supposed to pick up Edward. James directs her to the dance studio she attended as a child. When she arrives, she realized James has tricked her. Her mother’s voice on the phone was from an old videotape. James brutally attacks Bella. When she’s nearly lost consciousness, she hears Edward’s voice. He and the rest of his family have arrived to kill James. It’s up to Edward to suck the poison out of Bella’s blood without killing her or turning her into a vampire. Though it takes every ounce of self-control he has, Edward manages to save Bella’s life.

The Cullens help Bella make up a detailed story to calm her parents. She returns to Forks to recover. Edward tricks her into getting dressed up, leg cast and all, to go with him to the prom. She begs him to change her into a vampire so they can always be together, but he refuses.

Christian Beliefs

Carlisle, head of the Cullen clan, keeps a cross from the 1600s in their home. It was carved by his father and hung on the wall of the vicarage where he (the father) preached. Carlisle’s father was intolerant of Roman Catholics and other religions, and he led witch hunts in which many innocent people were burned based on accusations of practicing black magic or being werewolves and vampires. On one such raid, a real vampire attacked Carlisle and changed him.

Edward says it’s hard for him to believe that the world could have been created all on its own.

Other Belief Systems

Bella learns about vampire lore on the Internet, though Edward later dispels some misconceptions. In addition to their regular vampire qualities, which include incredible speed and strength, several of the Cullens have unique abilities. Edward can hear people’s thoughts, Alice can see the future, and Jasper has the ability to manipulate people’s emotional states.

Bella wonders if by saving her from the van, Edward was tampering with her fate. She says good luck avoids her and suggests at another time that luck or good odds were on her side. Edward gives in to his love for Bella because he says he’s decided if he’s going to hell, he might as well do it thoroughly. James says he has a sixth sense when he’s hunting.

Jacob tells Bella about Quileute Indian legends dating back to the time of Noah and the flood. The Indians supposedly survived by tying their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees. Another legend suggests the Quileutes descended from wolves.

When Bella hears Edward’s voice after James’ violent attack, she says she hears the sound of an angel calling her name, calling her to the only heaven she wants. Later, she says Edward is her life, and he’s the only thing it would hurt her to lose.

Authority Roles

Bella’s dad, Charlie, is a bachelor who spends most of his time fishing, watching sports or working. Unused to having parental responsibilities, he makes weak efforts to monitor Bella’s activities. Bella appears much smarter than her father since her frequent lies keep him thoroughly in the dark. At the outset, she “lets him know” where she’s going because she feels asking permission sets a bad precedent. Charlie imposes some rules and curfews after Bella’s attack, but he still has no idea what kind of boy his daughter is dating. Before Bella’s mom, Renee, remarried, Bella was in charge. She was the one making sure the bills were paid and that she and her “erratic, harebrained” mom had food on the table.

Profanity & Violence

The words d–n, h— and butt each appears a few times. Bella endures a violent attack by a vampire. He strikes her in the chest, throws her into mirrors and crushes her leg by stepping on it. Glass cuts into her scalp and she begins to bleed profusely before she blacks out.

Sexual Content

Edward and Bella engage in a good deal of kissing and sensual (not overtly sexual) caressing, primarily of the face and neck. “Smoldering” glances, passionate whispers and purposeful breathing of one another’s scents heighten their emotions. They are careful not to act too intensely on their passion for fear that Edward will lose control and bite Bella.

Though Edward is attracted to Bella physically to some degree, her scent is her most tantalizing attribute to him. His primary desire as a vampire is to devour her and taste her blood. Edward sometimes stays all night in Bella’s room to watch her sleep. Edward asks a suggestive question about Bella’s sexual history, and she indicates she is a virgin since she’s never felt about anyone like she does about him.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Anger: Edward longs to be with Bella, yet he knows his bloodlust puts her in mortal danger. He’s tormented and angered by the decisions he must make and by the intensity of effort required to maintain control when he’s with her. He never physically hurts Bella, but he often lashes out in ways that frighten her. He sometimes demonstrates “righteous indignation” toward evil people or other vampires. Still, his fierce temper and the magnitude of his fury produce fear and anxiety in Bella.

Lying: Bella frequently lies to her parents about her activities or relationships, even when she knows the lies put her in dangerous situations. She lies to her friends to get out of things. She often lies to Edward, telling him she’s not afraid or conflicted. After she is attacked by another vampire, the Cullen family helps her concoct an elaborate lie about why she left Forks and how she got hurt.

Substances: Bella admits to “gratuitously” taking cold medicine on one occasion to help her sleep. Edward compares the scent of blood to a drug or alcohol addiction. He says Bella’s scent is like his “exact brand of heroine.”

Theft: Edward steals a car in his effort to get to Bella before James devours her.

Suicide: Before her vampire days, Esme lost a baby. She jumped off a cliff in her grief.

PluggedIn.com , an entertainment and media ministry of Focus on the Family, has written an article that offers an overview of the whole “Twilight” series: Darkness Falls After Twilight .

Producers often use a book as a springboard for a movie idea or to earn a specific rating. Because of this, a movie may differ from the novel. To better understand how this book and movie differ, compare the book review with Plugged In’s movie review.

Book reviews cover the content, themes and world-views of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. A book’s inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Saga: Book 1)

After seeing and enjoying the movie Twilight , I had to get the book.  If I was less of a glutton for punishment I probably would have heeded the warning signs. Every teenage girl I knew of swooning over the book and the Romeo of the story, Edward Cullen. I even had a 24 year old friend update her status with something along the lines of “After Edward Cullen I can never again want a human male.”

Also, I know I can be obsessive and with the exception of a small few, once I read the first book in a series, I have to read the whole series whether I really want to or not. I don’t like unfinished stories. Did I really want to subject myself to at least 4 (which was the length of the saga when I bought Twilight and I hadn’t researched whether or not it would get longer) teen love books? I didn’t do much thinking when I spotted the book for £4, knowing how much I enjoyed the movie; I willingly handed over my money in order to be Bella and Edwards’s voyeur.

The book begins with Isabella “Bella” Swann moving from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to live with her dad, the local police Chief, Charlie Swann, in wet and dismal Forks, Washington. Almost immediately, it is obvious that Bella wishes she still had an option to live in Phoenix, which only increases when she meets Edward Cullen in class. Edward looks at and treats Bella as if she is something dark and sticky on the underside of his shoe, with a hostility Bella has never felt before.

“The class seemed to drag on longer than the others. Was it because the day was finally coming to a close, or because I was waiting for his tight fist to loosen? It never did; he continued to sit so still it looked like he wasn't breathing. What was wrong with him? Was this his normal behavior? I questioned my judgment on Jessica's bitterness at lunch today. Maybe she was not as resentful as I'd thought. It couldn't have anything to do with me. He didn't know me from Eve. I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through my mind.” An extract from Twilight

Edward continues to treat Bella this way until she is almost killed by a car in the school car park. One of her fellow students comes careening towards Bella after losing control of his car and is almost about to sandwich Bella between it and Bella’s 1950’s truck. In steps Edward Cullen from the other side of the school car park to stop the car from almost certainly killing the girl he has so openly disliked.

So begins Bella and Edwards forbidden romance, with revelations aplenty coming out about Edward until Jacob Black, the son of Chief Swann’s best friend, tells Bella about the ancient legends surrounding his tribe including those of “the cold ones.” Bella finds out about the true nature of the Cullen’s being vampires. A romance book which ends with a fantastic, high-octane finale, I’m sure most readers will find something they like about Stephenie Meyer’s first novel.

One of the influences that Meyer lists for her writing is Romeo and Juliet . This is clearly evident throughout the book as hardly anyone believes they should be together, Bella’s friends obviously don’t agree with it, and Rosie Cullen seems to hate Bella with the hate she believed Edward once had for her.

The book is full of romance, but is padded with enough action and vampirism to keep most fantasy readers from putting the book down. A kind of Harry Potter meets Shakespeare , the book is a fine read with plenty of talking points that I’d better leave out of the review for fear of ruining the twists and turns for would-be readers of the book.

Overall, I believe Twilight deserves a 7.5/10. A Shakespearean love story with monsters and myth.

8/10 A Shakespearean love story with monsters and myth.

• Buy on Amazon

Review by Stephen Messham

10 positive reader review(s) for Twilight

Stephenie Meyer biography

Clementine from Australia

The book Twilight is about a seventeen year old girl named Bella who moves to a small rainy town called Forks, to live with her dad. Bella’s life is pretty ordinary, gloomy, but still ordinary, until she meets a strange boy named Edward. Later in the book she creates a theory that Edward is a vampire, which turns out to be true. Soon she finds out that there’s a dangerous side of her discovery. I particularly like the plot line in the story, because the author, Stephenie Meyer uses several writing techniques to build up suspense and tension along the plot line, I also find the plot line unpredictable. The only fault I find with Twilight is that at the beginning and several parts during the book may be slightly disengaging for readers as there is no action for some time and many people would stop reading. Twilight is categoriesed as a romance fantasy book. Which is rated for 13+ by parents and 11+ by children and teens. I would rate the first book of Twilight for 11+ however, it also depends on how mature the reader is. I give the book 9 stars because the plot is very intriguing, even though it has faults.

Rachel from United states

The book Twilight was about Bella moving away from Phoenix to go live with her dad for a while because her mom wanted to travel with phil. As soon as she got to forks Washington she got a truck from her dad who got it from Billy Black. She got to meet Jacob Black and was a werewolf. When she got to school she made some friends and met the Cullen Family. She fell in love with Edward the first time she saw him. Over time she got closer and closer to Edward's big secret of being a vampire. The time when she found out she was not afraid of him she was afraid of losing him. I would love to have a love connection like they do but I think Bella made a big mistake for falling in love with Edward. I am a Jacob fan myself and I always wanted to see what they would do about the whole Vampire war problem. I absolutly loved this book but if she fell in love with Jacob it would be even better.

Anindita from India

This book is the best... I love it

Kaya from Morocco

I completely love the book how's it's full of love and romance something that we don't see these days some people saying that bella is an independent figure i completely disagree with them bella was depending on Edward because what she been through wasn't human it was supernatural what are you expecting to throw her life to a complete end that's such a rubbish i love the sweetness of the story it's kinda better sweet it might get slightly boring in the middle but it gets better and in my opinion i think that the book is better than the movie i think that Emma Stewart isn't good for bella's swan character while Robert Pattinson was perfect for the role in few words twilight is a delightful book can't wait to read the rest

Kelli from United States

THE BEST BOOK EVER

Lauren from United States

Reasons to read this book: 1) you are newcomer to vampires or 2) are between the ages of 12-17. Twilight is to vampire lore as fairytales are to Grimm's tales. Far from the real, abet mythological, truth. This is a land not far away from our reality, where vampire's roam about not dying in the sun, but sparkle like a diamond. They live among us hiding in plain sight, avoiding bright spots? The main protagonists of the books are smitten in awkward teenage love. One confused about the other's strange behavior. The other worried about prohibited interspecies co-mingling and associated other issues. This book devolves into an emotionally abusive rollercoaster. Unless you really like drama, the following books are better for newcomers to vampire lore: Robin McKinley's Sunshine, PC Cast's Marked, or Darren Shaw's Cirque de Freak. Overall, when I was a teenager, I read this and never thought about it again. I'll give it a 6 for some creativity about the lore, but only a 6 because of the plot line.

Blah balh from Heaven

This is a really good book u should read it I m waiting for another series.

Hayley from New Jersey

I love this book

Sarah from USA

I love this book.

Taniya from India

Stephenie Meyer, India wants to read beyond Breaking Dawn part 2... we are crazy about the story... it's the single story which we think should never stop... plzzzzzzzz, we the readers want more series of Twilight... just break all the barriers of Twilight and go on writing about the mesmerizing love story of Bella and Edward... waitng for another series of Twilight...

Holly from England

SERIOUSLY GOOD BOOK, it's got so much detail and is very romantic, but I love the way at every moment there relationship was hanging on an edge. I was always turning the page expecting to find out if their fragile relationship would survive but I never got an answer, all the haters have just got to stop being so rude, and I know everyone's entitled to there own opinion but at least try to say it nicely. People keep saying it gives young girls the wrong message, but as I young girl myself it honestly doesn't and I know that having a boyfriend isn't the most important thing, and so many adults think us young girls believe that the way Bella stays with Edward even though he could hurt her and is dangerous makes us believe that abuse is alright but it's nothing like that and we are not that stupid to think that it is ok. Plus Edward hardly abuses Bella and when he does hurt her he doesn't mean to and when he stops her going places it's only because he is so worried about losing her. Anyway,I loved the book and how it made me feel excited and anxious. So I recommend it to years 12 plus.

Kirti from India

I just love it .

Andy from Reading

The books are reasonably well written given that they are for teenagers, New Moon was extremely whiny though. These are overall enjoyable books and I would recommend them to any teenager. I particularly enjoyed Breaking Dawn after Bella was turned as there is more humour and fun involved.

Britt from Georgia

THE best book.

9.2 /10 from 15 reviews

All Stephenie Meyer Reviews

• Twilight Saga (Twilight Saga)
• Twilight (Twilight Saga: Book 1)
• New Moon (Twilight Saga: Book 2)
• Eclipse (Twilight Saga: Book 3)
• Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga: Book 4)

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From the Twilight series , Vol. 1

by Stephenie Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2005

Sun-loving Bella meets her demon lover in a vampire tale strongly reminiscent of Robin McKinley’s Sunshine . When Bella moves to rainy Forks, Wash., to live with her father, she just wants to fit in without drawing any attention. Unfortunately, she’s drawn the eye of aloof, gorgeous and wealthy classmate Edward. His behavior toward Bella wavers wildly between apparent distaste and seductive flirtation. Bella learns Edward’s appalling (and appealing) secret: He and his family are vampires. Though Edward nobly warns Bella away, she ignores the human boys who court her and chooses her vampiric suitor. An all-vampire baseball game in a late-night thunderstorm—an amusing gothic take on American family togetherness that balances some of the tale’s romantic excesses—draws Bella and her loved ones into terrible danger. This is far from perfect: Edward’s portrayal as monstrous tragic hero is overly Byronic, and Bella’s appeal is based on magic rather than character. Nonetheless, the portrayal of dangerous lovers hits the spot; fans of dark romance will find it hard to resist. (Fantasy. YA)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-316-16017-2

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCHOOL & FRIENDSHIP

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SEEN & HEARD

THE CHANGING MAN

by Tomi Oyemakinde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023

A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.

After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.

Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023

ISBN: 9781250868138

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT MYSTERY & THRILLER | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL

THE ONLY GIRL IN TOWN

by Ally Condie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 19, 2023

A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.

A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.

One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.

Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023

ISBN: 9780593327173

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCHOOL & FRIENDSHIP

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by Ally Condie ; illustrated by Jaime Kim

by Ally Condie & Brendan Reichs

by Ally Condie

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Book Review – Twilight

Twilight is a phenomenon; or that is what I hear. I began to receive emails about it a short time ago and the requests for a review have increased as the release of the Twilight movie has approached. Strangely, I get more requests to review teenage fiction than any other genre. I usually reply with an apologetic email saying that I do not review such titles. But because of the popularity of this series I decided to make an exception. With great trepidation and with eyes fixed firmly on the floor, I went to a local store and purchased the whole series–four books. I read the first volume, which I will review today, and left it to Aileen (the fiction expert in our home) to read the rest of the series.

Admittedly, this is my first foray into fiction written for teen girls. Actually, it is one of my first ventures into teen literature at all. When I was young I read books for children, but largely skipped over teen fiction, opting instead to dive straight into the history books. So I admit to being largely ignorant when it comes to this kind of book.

I found Twilight surprisingly well-written, at least for the genre. This is not to say it will be supplanting Jane Austen in the university lecture hall, but merely that it is readable and reasonably good as fiction. The dialog, the characters, the pacing, the prose–all of it, at the very least, is good enough that it does not detract from the story. This is more than I can say for many novels.

The book begins with seventeen year-old Bella Swan moving from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington, so she can live with her father, Charlie. Her mother, meanwhile, is traveling with her boyfriend Phil, a minor league baseball player. A too-typical teenage girl, Bella is convinced she is an ugly duckling when in reality she is a swan (the inspiration for her last name, perhaps?). Where in Phoenix she had been a social outcast, in Forks she is immediately popular and she catches the eye of several boys.

I’ll continue this plot summary by (lazily) quoting from Wikipedia: “When Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He even attempts to change his schedule to avoid her, leaving Bella completely puzzled about his attitude towards her. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires. Although she was inexplicably attracted to him even when she thought Edward drank human blood, she is much relieved to learn that the Cullens choose to abstain from drinking human blood, and drink animal blood instead. Edward reveals that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was so desirable. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.” Without spoiling the plot, the book concludes with some page-turning action involving a vampire tracker (which, for those who are as ignorant as myself, is a vampire who tracks humans, not a human who tracks vampires) who seeks to hunt Bella as a sick kind of sport.

I am sure that the subject matter will immediately convince some parents that the book is unsuitable for their girls. This was my initial reaction–why would I allow my daughter to read a book about vampires? But I know there are some, perhaps myself included, who may allow an older teenager to read it. It is primarily to assist such parents that I write this review.

The book is relatively clean. That is to say that there is little explicit violence and no overt sexual activity. However, I think this bears some further discussion. While there is no sexual activity portrayed in the book, it really does ooze with a kind of teen or tween sexuality. The book is, at its heart, the story of a young girl’s sexual awakening. It may be that the tween reader will be sufficiently young and innocent that this is lost on her, but I’m convinced the older teenage girl will find it in the story. The most explicit sexuality is found in a brief discussion between Edward and Bella where they talk about whether they desire one another in that way and whether Bella has ever been with another boy. Edward declares that he may be a vampire, but he is still a man. The quiet sensuality is far more pervasive and, I would suggest, far more powerful. There is scene after scene where Edward and Bella gently stroke one another, softly and slowly running their hands over each other’s bodies, exploring, pressing their heads against each other’s chests to hear their hearts pounding, feeling electric shocks as their fingers touch flesh, twisting and cavorting with their lips on one another’s faces and necks. Bella is inflamed by Edward and, while there may be no explicit mention of sexuality, it is clear that she desires Edward– all of Edward.

Edward, meanwhile, has a creepy kind of love for Bella. As a vampire he cannot sleep, so he spends his nights sneaking into Bella’s room to watch her sleep (as if this is sweet, not perverse) and often follows her unnoticed as she goes about her business. He reveals that her scent–the scent of her blood–drives him wild. His overwhelming love for her is sometimes nearly indistinguishable from revulsion or hatred. There is part of him that wishes to hold her, to make love to her, and another part that wants to attack her and to drink her blood. In one scene she has been bitten and Edward needs to suck some poison from her if he is to save her life. After he does so he discusses both her taste and her smell and how enchanting it is to him. Is this love or is this perverse obsession?

While the love between the two of them is meant to be real, it also has a strange, unearthly quality to it. It also has an obsessive, idolatrous quality. Perhaps this is true of any love story, but I wonder whether girls are well-served by reading of a young woman who is so utterly consumed with her boyfriend that she seeks and desires and thinks of nothing else. She lies, she disobeys her parents, she does whatever is necessary to be with him. She is convinced that in this boy she will find her all-in-all. All she desires–to the point of wanting him to drink her blood so she, too, can be a vampire–is to be with him forever. She would rather be undead eternally than live without him.

I just don’t know that young girls will derive any benefit from spending hours reading and thinking about such an unrealistic, unobtainable, perverse kind of love. It glories in love that is forbidden, dangerous and just plain weird. The fact that the story involves vampires may be beside the point. My primary concern with Twilight , as I consider handing it to a girl of thirteen or fifteen or seventeen, is its sensuous quality. The lack of overt sexuality means that it is not an erotic book, but it is very nearly so. It oozes sensuality even without an act of consummation.

It is not insignificant that on the cover of Twilight is the simple image of hands–female hands–holding out an apple. This clearly evokes the forbidden fruit of Genesis 2:17, verses that are quoted at the beginning of the book. This represents not only the forbidden love between a human and a vampire, but Edward himself as Bella considers partaking of him . My suggestion to parents would be to leave this book on the shelf instead of handing it to your teenage girl (and especially your young teenage girl). At the very least, read it yourself and see if your conscience is clear before you hand it to her.

Postscript: Aileen read this book and promptly read the other three volumes in the series. Her assessment of the sensuality and the violence in Twilight : “that’s nothing compared to the other three books.” It should be noted, however, that Edward and Bella marry in book four and that they do so as virgins.

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Stephenie Meyer

Published 2005        434 Pages

When seventeen year-old Bella Swan leaves sunny Arizona to live with her father in the small and gloomy Pacific North-West town of Forks she doesn’t expect to like it.  After all she has made excuses not to go there enough times over the past few years.  If living in Forks, with its constant mist and rain, wasn’t bad enough she will have to make a whole new set of friends and settle into a new school.

Bella soon makes some new friends at school but when she sees a boy called Edward Cullen sitting with his brothers and sisters in the cafeteria she is instantly intrigued.  Edward is stunningly attractive, almost inhumanly beautiful, and yet he is an outsider too.  Although Edward and his family have lived in Forks for two years they have never really been accepted by the townsfolk. 

At first Edward is aloof, sometimes it almost seems like he can’t stand to be in the same room as her, but eventually they strike up an unlikely friendship.  Even as Bella falls hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Edward, she still can’t work out exactly what makes him so different to everyone else.

On a trip to the beach, Bella is told of the local legend about the “cold ones”, a group of blood drinkers who have sworn off hunting humans but are still not welcome on Indian land because vampires are not to be trusted.  Realising Edward is vampire changes nothing for Bella, she knows that she still loves him even if he’s not human.

Edward and his whole family are vampires.  Edward himself was made a vampire when he was seventeen years-old, although that was at the end of World War I.  For Edward his love for Bella is both a delight and a torment.  A delight because she is the first person he has loved since he was made a vampire.  A torment because although he has sworn off human blood and only hunts animals the craving for human blood never truly leaves him and the very scent of her also stirs his hunger for blood….

Twilight is the story of Edward and Bella’s romance.  Forget any vampire romance you have read before, Twilight is so unique it is almost like it’s in its own genre.  The book is marketed at Young Adult readers but it has the ability to cross age barriers and will satisfy both teenagers and adults alike.

The story is told in first person from the perspective of Bella, so the reader only ever know what she knows, making Edward and his family a mystery that is slowly unravelled through out the book.  Even by the end of the book I was still thirsting for more of the Cullen family back story - hopefully their characters might be developed further in future books.  Bella herself is a well written and realistic character, shy and lacking in confidence, her sarcastic inner voice narrates the story for the reader.

Twilight is simply and yet beautifully written.  The descriptions of Forks leave you feeling like you can almost smell the damp air and hear the rain falling on the roof. 

The romance between Edward and Bella is both touching and compelling.  There is a melancholic feel to their impossible love, yet at the same time they both are unwilling to give up hope that their relationship is not doomed.  The book reaches a fever pitch of excitement as the romance between Bella and Edward turns into a frantic race to stay alive. 

I have heard Twilight described as “a vampire story for people who don’t like vampire stories” and I think I would agree with that.  This book really has something for everyone.  Young adult readers, vampire fans or romance readers will all find Twilight to be an appealing story.

For a Young Adult novel the book is quite long but don’t let that put you off reading it because each page is to be savoured.  Believe me, this is one book that you won’t want to end.

LoveVampires Review Rating:

Twilight Audio CD

Twilight is also available in audio CD format too.  Narrated by Ilyana Kadushin the novel is completely unabridged and is nearly 13 hours long (that’s 11 compact discs.)

Audio is obviously a convenient format, you can listen to a novel just about anywhere and anytime.  Twilight was the first novel that I ever listened to in audio format and it was a strangely enjoyable experience.  The story is unabridged so the listener doesn’t miss a single word, although this does make for a long listening experience!

Ilyana does a good job of narrating the story and manages to illustrate the story will with just her voice, although her rendition of Edward’s speech does take a little getting used to.  She uses an odd deep, soft, breathy voice whenever Edward speaks and this was a little off-putting at first but all in all Twilight in audio format is a great way to get another shot of Forks goodness.

Twilight audio sample

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You can find out more about Stephenie Meyer and read an excerpt from this book by visiting her web site.  Visit Stephenie’s site.

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Book Review of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

By Novelicious

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Rachel Guzman’s book review of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

About three things I was absolutely positive: First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him–and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be–that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him. Isabella 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, Isabella’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 Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife — between desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

I finally decided to read this series after hearing from everyone who had read it that I will become instantly obsessed, knowing it was considered an 8th grade reading level I figured it would be a fun easy read and that’s that.  Well it was a quick read but only because I was so drawn into this fantasy romance that I couldn’t put the book down.

Continue Reading Review – Twilight by Stephenie Meyer!

Stephenie has a way of describing every aspect of a character and their surroundings, that they feel more like someone you know rather than just a person you’ve met on paper.  You want to be friends with Alice, somehow save Bella from her clutzy self and definitely get a little bite or two from Edward.  Even the town of Forks, which has become a huge tourist attraction since the book’s release, sounds like a dream world right down to every last moss-covered tree even though I am generally against rain and all things humid. Definitely go into the series with an open mind for love, blood and a tolerance for murmuring cause it’s apparently a favorite thing for vampires and a favorite word of Stephanie’s and she uses it very often.  Also since it’s for the ages of 12 and up don’t expect anything R rated in this book but that’s what makes this story so unique and what makes Edward so romantic because it’s not all about sex.  If you allow yourself to be pulled into this world then you will definitely become obsessed like so many of us have already!  Enjoy! 

Rating 4/5  

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Book Review: Twilight

Title: Twilight

Author: Stephenie Meyer

(this is one of the prettiest covers I have ever seen)

Review Number: 11

Genre: Paranormal/Young Adult/Romance

Stand alone or series: The first in a series. Followed so far by New Moon and Eclipse. Breaking the Dawn is in the works.

Summary: Amazon.co.uk says When 17 year old Isabella Swan moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father she expects that her new life will be as dull as the town. But in spite of her awkward manner and low expectations, she finds that her new classmates are drawn to this pale, dark-haired new girl in town. But not, it seems, the Cullen family. These five adopted brothers and sisters obviously prefer their own company and will make no exception for Bella. Bella is convinced that Edward Cullen in particular hates her, but she feels a strange attraction to him, although his hostility makes her feel almost physically ill. He seems determined to push her away until, that is, he saves her life from an out of control car. Bella will soon discover that there is a very good reason for Edward’s coldness. He, and his family, are vampires and he knows how dangerous it is for others to get too close.

Why did I read the book: Thea has been trying to get me to read this series for months now.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with my brain when I am clearly controlled by my heart – and other parts of my body as well.

My brain tells me that this is a Young Adult book and therefore deals with stuff way behind the level of maturity I should be reading; that I shouldn’t relate to any of the characters at all as they are so much younger than me; and most of all it tells me that the story is not even a very original story. I mean, if you look at the basics – teenage girl who moves to a small town to live with one parent and falls in love with a vampire who is bad-good and doesn’t drink from humans and muchos angst ensues. I’ve seen that before and it was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Well, it turns out that all it takes to shut my brain down is a clever writer who comes up with a narrative that captivates, a heroine who is a clever analytical, down to earth human being and a man/boy who is everything any girl or should I say, any woman would want. So, there I was, reading page after page, convulsively, without being able to put the book down. Completely sucked in and thinking of excuses not to go to work so I could finish the story:

Bella Swan moves in with her father in small town Forks where she must go to high school. There she meets this guy, Edward Cullen, who is gorgeous and mysterious and seems to dislike her at first sight. She doesn’t understand why until his attitude towards her starts to change and he gets a bit friendlier. One day, he saves her from being crushed by a car in a way that makes her think that he is not a normal human – he moves way too fast and as he shields her with his back, a dent is left in the car. She starts to wonder what he could possibly be. One day she is at the beach with her friends and a guy named Jacob Black ( I need to mention him here because it seems his role in the sequels is quite big) who belongs to a native American tribe tells her a legend about Vampires and mentions Edward and his family, who seem to be vampires that do not drink blood from humans.

By this point, feelings have evolved quite a bit between Bella and Edward. He is always around now trying to keep her safe, as clumsy Bella is prone to accidents. And she realises that it doesn’t matter to her what he is. In a chapter that I particularly found amazing, Bella goes through her mind and her feelings and ANALYSES them in a very grown up way. She is in other words, a teenager who is very tuned with what she wants and why. Edward tries to keep her away for he thinks he is dangerous to her but he fails. He is completely attracted to her in different ways. He wants her as a man, but also the scent of her blood is the most alluring thing that he has ever come across in his century old life, which means that they can never share more than a few kisses. He cannot take the chance of losing control.

We only know this when he tells her, though, (in a much-expected conversation) for Bella narrates the story and everything is from her point of view. That worked really really well for me. There is not an omnipresent narrator, which would allow us to see everyone’s point of view; we are stuck with Bella. So we must follow her, and discover along with her all the mystery concerning Edward and the rules that he lives by – is he really that fast and strong? How come he walks in the sun? Where does he sleep? -, learn with her about his family and how each of them has a different skill. Edward for instance, can read minds – but not hers, which is also another thing that fascinates him about her.

And fascinating is the key word here. You go along the book, feeling Bella’s embarrassment at her clumsy ways, her surprise at the new discoveries, and the fascination that she feels for Edward. Most of the book is about their relationship – this is a love story at its purest form, of two people that are so in love and in need of each other than I can’t help being fascinated by them.

There are also other things which underline their relationship that I am hoping will be explored in the sequels: Are they really meant to be together? Is it their destiny or their future can be changed based on their choices? If they are supposed to be together, what does it mean for them?

I am interested in seeing what will Stephenie Meyer’s choice be in her next books – their love story can not work as it is – there is no future for a human and a vampire. It is an impossible situation, as Bella will grow old and Edward will be stuck in his 17 self. Plus it is potentially a very dangerous situation for Bella to be surrounded by people who would love to drink her. And a very important question: what is the point of having such a godlike, gorgeous creature for a boyfriend if you can barely touch him?

I loved this book with all my heart. I am completely in love with Edward and I really wish they could work things out. Although, there is this tiny bit of brain that is left working and it keeps screaming at me that such obsessive relationships are not healthy, that they should not be so useless without each other, life MUST exist outside the boundaries of Edward and Bella. But my heart just yells “ Shut up brain! Let me just enjoy this.” And then the other parts jump at the convo “Oy, you two! Edward is talking in his musical voice and telling Bella that she is his life now and he is freaking all kinds of awesome” And I realise that I am most grateful at this point that there is no sex in this book . If it had I am pretty sure I would be a puddle of drool in my study now.

In the end, I could resist this book no more than Bella could resist falling in love with Edward. It was unavoidable. I will certainly read the sequels but I must take a break from such intense reading for now.

Notable quotes/parts: The book is mostly about Bella and Edward’s love story but there are some action sequences toward the end and I thought they were good too. A group of Vampires who do drink blood from humans come to Forks and one of them has his eye on Bella. The Cullens come up with a strategy to save her and I was enthralled. At first , I was a bit put out, I couldn’t believe that Bella was such a magnet for all vampires in the world but it was later explained that the whole hunt had nothing to do with Bella at all and that was a VERY good twist which also explained more about Alice’s (Edward’s “sister”) background.

Additional thoughts: What is it that attracts me so much to vampire stories? I remember being 15 and being completely in love Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles (the first three ones, mind you, after Queen of the Damned I lost interest). The Vampire Lestat was one my teenage crushes –but then Tom Cruise came along and ruined the whole thing for me. Years later, I found Buffy and Angel and watched every single episode of both shows. No to say Bram Stocker’s Dracula is one of my favorite movies. Gary Oldman as Dracula owns my soul. It makes me wonder if I shouldn’t read those Black Dagger Brotherhood books but to be honest, I am afraid I will become obsessed! LOL.

Verdict: BUY IT NOW. It was way beyond my expectations and I can only thank Thea for her recommendation.

Rating: 8.Excellent

Reading Next: A Hunger Like no Other by Kresley Cole

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Ana Grilo is a Brazilian who moved to the UK because of the weather. No, seriously. She works with translations in RL and hopes one day The Book Smugglers will be her day job. When she’s not here at The Book Smugglers, she is hogging our Twitter feed.

12 Comments

Woohoo! See I TOLD you that these books were amazing (and not just for young adults!). Edward is divine, Bella is a perfect heroine…

Can’t wait until you get into the next two books! Jacob time, baby!

Double commenting! Dude–you want vamp books? I will recommend some for you before you try the Black Dagger Brotherhood books *shifty smiley*

You may have convinced me. My fourteen year old and her group of friends have been reading the series and loving them. She bought the second and third books, and I’ve ordered the first for her, because she had originally borrowed it from a friend. She was very keen for me to read it when it arrived – I think she just wants to discuss it with someone new. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. (I don’t mind YA, but I tend to be a wimp about vampires.) Still, if it’s that good, I’ll give it a go.

She said there was going to be another book – Midnight Sun – which retold the first book from Edward’s pov. I think that’s a really intriguing idea – to have the same story told by the same author but from a different viewpoint.

Marianne McA

Marianne, give it a go! I was taken completely by surprise by my reaction to the book. And I can’t wait for Midnight Sun, although I am bit concerned at what may happen to my Edward Adoration if I read things from his point of view and turns out he is a ninny or something like that LOL.

If you do read it, will you let us know your thoughts?

Katie(babs)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS BOOK!! And they Hollywood is making it into a movie. I hope they don’t ruin it though. I really wonder if Bella will be turned or something more sinister will happen….

Happily it arrived today, so I read it this evening. Your review was spot on. I didn’t mind the obsessive love as much – I can imagine teenage love as being that intense, and that all absorbing. However, the tiny bit of brain that functioned with me really objected to the age difference – I had to think of them both as teenagers for the story to work. Effectively Edward was in thrall to his hormones – and when I was picturing him as a teenager, that seemed natural & appropriate, and I sympathised with him; but when it crossed my mind that he was a very mature adult male, all the mooning about in meadows and racing through the woods just seemed creepy.

But still, as you say, it was a great read, and I’m interested to see where she takes the story. The teaser for the next book was such fun that I nearly started reading it straight away. But it’s late, so I’ll practice self-restraint and sleep instead.

Thanks for your review.

Marianne, thank you for coming back to tell us your opinion! This is great, glad you liked the book.

The age difference wasn’t as problematic for me because Bella is almost 18 – ok there is still a huge gap and I can see where you come from but she also behaved like an adult most of the time. There is one part where they have this conversation where Edward says she doesn’t sound like she is 17 and she asnwers that she is much older “inside” (or something to that effect). I felt it was the way the author chose to address the age difference. Plus Edward was much older but he also did not have any experience with relationships or sex. That helped to ease my mind too. Because they are both experiencing these feelings for the first time.

Cheers and thank you again.

Great review. I just read this book and loved it also. Or maybe I just fell in love with Edward. Who wouldn’t?

I enjoyed this series quite a bit. I wasn’t sure if I’d like a vampire story but EVERYBODY I knew was reading it. Plus, Stephenie Meyers graduated from my Alma Mater, BYU, so I had to give it a go. I read through them so fast and now I got my mother-in-law obsessed with them also. The release date for Breaking Dawn, the fourth book has been announced for Saturday, August 2, 2008 at midnight. Remind anybody of the Harry Potter hysteria?

when I saw that you were going to review twilight, I became nervous because I got scared that maybe you would’nt like it. Thank God you did, because I really love it and it would be a bummer if you didn’t. It’s funny reading this now in 2013. It’s like I’m from the future. Haha ;D sad to say no midnight sun huh?

when I saw that you were going to review twilight, I became nervous because I got scared that maybe you wouldn’t like it. Thank God you did, because I really love it and it would be a bummer if you didn’t. It’s funny reading this now in 2013. It’s like I’m from the future. Haha ;D sad to say no midnight sun huh?

Twilight sucks. VAMPIRES CAN’T GO INTO THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF YOU WANT REAL VAMPIRES, go read Dracula. This thing is not even worth my time reviewing.

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A look inside your book

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer | Parent Guide & Review

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and decide to buy, I make a small commission for referring you. This helps me make a few cents for doing what I love.

Twilight will always have a special place in my heart because I remember reading and discussing it with my friends when I was 13 and 14. After all of the books came out, my mom mentioned that if she had read all of them first, she would have made me wait until I was older. That conversation sparked the idea for The Book Nanny and made it possible almost ten years later. Keep reading for the Twilight Parent Guide parents should have had 15 years ago!

Summary of Twilight

When Bella Swan shows up in the small town of Forks, her plan is to endure high school for two years and get out. Instead, she discovers that vampires are real and not a nightmare. One of those vampires craves her blood above all others.

Twilight Parent Guide

Language: 7 biblical swear words; 1.4% of pages contain language; Adult Content: PG-13 a couple of heated kisses and allusions to sex; Violence: PG-13 for the boss fight at the end, and thematic elements

Judging a Book by the Movie

Everything has both pros and cons. However, when it comes to Twilight, I just hear the bad. There is a bad stigma around the Twilight series from the movies, book critics, and relationship experts criticism. Let just start by saying the books were way better than the movies.

While I was reading, I pictured Kirsten Stewart as Bella but with a completely different personality. If you base your ideas of Twilight on the movies, you got the main story. But it’s hard to represent the inner thoughts of characters on film. So I suggest at least reading the first book (or half of the first book) before forming your opinion.

Critics of Stephenie Meyer

As for the criticism from readers and relationship experts, yes, the book isn’t perfect. Stephenie Meyer tried her best when writing it. I can’t fault her for accomplishing something that I only dream of someday. She has written not just one book but nine. Plus, she has more than made up for her shortcomings by rewriting Twilight twice! Once as a gender-flipped novel and again from Edward’s perspective. Is Stephenie Meyer’s writing perfect? Nope, but no one’s writing ever is. For more about Stephenie Meyer and her writing journey, check out this author spotlight.

Is Twilight Abusive?

One of the biggest criticisms of Twilight and later books in the series is the characteristics of a toxic relationship in Bella and Edward’s relationship. Some critics argue that Twilight romanticizes abusive traits and holds them up as a standard for ideal relationships. I can understand why they would say Bella and Edward’s relationship is toxic. They recognize and acknowledge this is the series and then work to change it. As long as you realize that it isn’t a perfect relationship and don’t try to copy it, you’ll be good.

This would be a great topic to discuss with your teen or young adult while reading the books. Books are great conversation starters. You could talk about what a healthy relationship looks like and the warning signs of a toxic or abusive relationship. Talking about touchy topics in a book can provide a natural setting for hard but necessary conversations.

Twilight Parent Guide Recommendations

Twilight has some sexual innuendos. In later books, there is making out, an attempted seduction, and a honeymoon. There aren’t any sex scenes, but I recommend waiting until at least 16 to start the series, so you can read all of them at once. I appreciate that only biblical profanity is used and is relatively low compared with similar books.

If you enjoyed Twilight, here are some other books you might enjoy: City of Bones, Vampire Academy, Marked, A Kiss of Deception, Everless, and A Court of Thorns and Roses. Right now, I’m working on a long post with lots of fantastic fantasy reads. Keep an eye out or join our email list to get blog updates.

Happy Reading! Emily

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Twilight – Review

For my second book review attempt, I chose another series by a well heard of and much loved and hated writer: Stephenie Meyer.  

I have not seen as many negative reviews about this series, but it does seem to be one that people certainly love to hate.

LV Gaudet is a Canadian writer and mother of two. Her writing endeavors range from stories written for her young children to the realm of horror.

Some of her short stories can be found scattered in the dark void of the internet.

A Moment of Purity

Immortal Embrace

The Beast of Macon Hollow

Daughter Am I – Review

Carpet Ride

I love the story in this series. The characters are relatable and the tension between Jacob and Edward is thrilling. Stephenie Myers can tell a great story. I too was turned off in the beginning of Twilight, but once I got into the characters, I was hooked, and could not read the next three books fast enough.

Yes Joanie, this is one thing she certainly did right in this series. Even with the target audience being much younger and their reading tastes requiring a simpler read, I still found myself getting mad at the characters and wanting to read the next book to find out what happens.

I thought the first third of the first book was a little boring, but by the end I was totally caught up in the romance. The rivalry between Jacob and Edward is, surely, the most exciting thing about the series. I, too, read through the remaining three books rapidly, determined to find out how it would end.

When I did get to the end, I decided Meyer was trying to do a Chronicles of Narnia thing, with Edward in the place of Aslan. Aslan, as you know, is not a tame lion, and Edward Cullen is not a tame vampire.

Would he be a terrible boyfriend in real life? Absolutely. Charlie’s real-life equivalent would quite possibly have “accidentally” shot him (or at least threatened to when Bella was out of earshot). Of course, fantasy novels are not real life. Lots of fantasy romance readers want the alpha male with magical powers who will sweep us off our feet. I do.

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LIT TIME TRAVEL

traveling around places, to periods & inside pages

*Note: This is a review of Twilight , the first novel by Stephenie Meyer. This is NOT a review of the entire series – which is even more problematic.

I remember how popular Twilight was back when I was in school. After its publication in 2005, the novel by Stephanie Meyer was THE book everyone talked about. And when the movie was released in 2008, the vampire romance captivated teens worldwide.

But I was one of the few teens who didn’t read the book. I couldn’t read the novel or watch the film because I was unbelievably busy at the time. So despite the hype and frenzy around Twilight , I went about my life not knowing much about it. (Besides the fact that girls were torn between “Edward” the vampire and “Jacob” the werewolf.)

Now that I have the time, I finally read the novel that everyone was obsessed with 17 years ago. And… I’ve got stuff to say about it.

I’m sure most people already know the basic plot of Twilight from reading the book or watching the film. But if you haven’t done either of the two, here is a detailed summary:

Bella Moves to Forks, WA

Isabella “Bella” Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her dad so that her mom can live with her boyfriend. She leaves her dear mother and hometown out of self-sacrifice and dreads living in the gloomy small town of Forks with her dad, who she rarely talks to. On the first day at her new school, she sees the “devastatingly beautiful” Cullens in the cafeteria and later finds out that her lab partner is one of the Cullens named Edward. But to her surprise, he glares at her with furious eyes and moves to the edge of his seat to stay as far as he can from her.

Edward Rescues

Despite his bizarre behavior and following absences, Bella and Edward eventually exchange a few words when he comes back to school. But one day, after he saves her from a deadly car accident, Bella realizes that he possesses superhuman strength and speed. They get to know each other more, with Edward looking out for her and giving her rides.

During her visit to Port Angeles with her school friends, Bella encounters a shady group of men who try to hurt her. She’s magically rescued by Edward who take her away in his car. That night, Bella finds out that Edward is a mind reading vampire who, with his family, refrains from drinking human blood.

Love & Danger

Being the “monster” that he is, Edward is unwilling to endanger Bella with his presence and tries to warn her to stay away from him. But regardless, the two grow very close, spending time alone with each other and learning everything about one another. Bella learns that the reason behind Edward’s strange behavior on her first day of school was the delicious “floral” scent she was giving off unintentionally to vampires.

They officially date, with Edward visiting Bella’s dad and Bella visiting his vampire family. But while Bella and the Cullens are playing “vampire baseball,” they encounter other vampires who feed on human blood. One of the vampires named James sets his eyes on Bella, so the Cullens set a plan to thwart his hunt. Bella gets tricked, falls into James’s trap, and faces imminent death.

Edward comes to the rescue, James the bloodthirsty vampire is killed, and long story short, Edward and Bella go to prom together. The novel ends with Bella wanting to become a vampire to live forever with Edward and with Edward, knowing the pains of becoming a vampire and living as one, adamantly against Bella’s wishes.

Twilight Book Review: The Good

To start with the positives, I personally think Stephenie Meyer did a great job writing about/for her teen audience. She starts with a strong hook with Bella facing her death and goes into the story with her dreaded first day of school, which is something every teen can relate to.

Bella is also very self-conscious, not wanting to stand out at all, just as most teens are when they’re in middle/high school.

Likeable Protagonist

On top of making her protagonist relatable, Meyer describes Bella as someone who’s modest despite being very pretty. Bella realizes her beauty for the first time when Edward the mind reading vampire tells her that lots of guys find her attractive.

She’s also mature for her age, caring more about her mother’s happiness than her own. All of these traits of Bella Swan make her a pretty likeable protagonist. At least in the beginning.

Teenage Dream Come True

But what Meyer did best was introducing the first hot Italian vampire to teen literature. There are lots of vampire romance novels out there, and perhaps there was already a tale about a sexy teen vampire before Twilight . But Meyer’s Edward Cullen was the first to really become popularized to the point where legions of fangirls cried over him.

I’ve never heard of the Stregoni Benefici (Italian vampires on the good side who fight against evil vampires) before, and I thought Meyer did a good job on her research to create the ultimate teen fantasy: a handsome, superhuman Italian teen vampire boyfriend who doesn’t drink human blood. Who goes against his instincts to be with the one and only girl he loves. (Click HERE for more on Edward Cullen.)

Twilight Book Review: The Bad & Ugly

Despite Meyer’s strengths and her successful launch of the perfect vampire boyfriend, Twilight is full of disturbing details.

🚩Red Flag #1: Edward Cullen is 100 years old.

Even though he is stuck being 17 forever, he was “born in Chicago in 1901” (Meyer 287).

So… Edward, a hundred year old man, falls in love with Bella, a seventeen year old girl. Edward says himself:

For almost ninety years I’ve walked among my kind, and yours…all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you weren’t alive yet.” From Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (pg 304).

🚩Red Flag #2: Bella is OBSESSED with Edward.

When you fall in love, it’s normal to sometimes fall hard and obsess over your girlfriend/boyfriend to some degree. But Bella Swan takes her obsession with Edward Cullen to the next level.

She’s so excited and stressed for her trip with Edward that she “deliberately [takes] unnecessary cold medicine” to knock herself out for a good night’s sleep. So that her day with Edward will go smoothly next morning.

She even says that her life was about Edward since she’d come to Forks (251).

Not to mention the fact that she’s willing to die for him. She’s willing to leave behind her mom, dad, everyone she’d known, and even herself to go through excruciating, unbearable pain in order to become a vampire. Just to be with this handsome vampire she’d just met for a few months.

By the time I finished reading Twili ght, my regard for Bella Swan plummeted to the point where I didn’t want to read the next sequel.

🚩Edward Cullen is a stalker.

Not only is he a 100 year old man calling himself a “sick, masochistic lion” that “fell in love with the lamb,” but also he’s a stalker (274). He confesses to Bella that he’d been spying on her in her house “almost every night” listening to her sleep talk (293).

Oh my God… Hot Italian vampire or not, this is beyond creepy!

If I found out that my crush at school had been following me, sneaking inside my home to watch me sleep every day… I would call the police.

But Bella, being the obsessed girl that she is, just feels embarrassed for having said Edward’s name in her sleep. She goes straight back to obsessing over him.

And it’s implied that this creep of a vampire tastes her teardrop:

He touched the corner of my eye, trapping [a tear] I missed. He lifted his finger, examining the drop of moisture broodingly. Then, so quickly I couldn’t be positive that he really did, he put his finger to his mouth to taste it.” From Twilight page 329.

I think, like what Robert Pattinson (actor who played Edward Cullen) said in one of his interviews, Edward would be a serial killer in real life…

As the first author to skillfully catapult a hot vampire boy into teen fiction, Stephenie Meyer enjoyed enormous commercial success. She knew exactly what her teen audience wanted/would like in her vampire romance novel.

But it glosses over and condones obsessive, disturbing and unhealthy behaviors. Twilight is a problematic teen romance novel about a stupid human girl and her creepy vampire boyfriend who she can’t live without.

I would recommend Twilight if you…

• are an upcoming author who wants to write the next bestselling teen romance novel like Stephenie Meyer.
• want to know why girls around the world fell in love with Twilight ‘s Edward Cullen back in the late 2000s. (If you want to know why teens fangirled over Jacob Black, then you’d have to read the sequel, New Moon ).

P.S. Here is the official website of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series.

P.P.S. I heard and read that the series become worse and worse. Apparently Bella tries to kill herself to see Edward, Edward tries to kill himself thinking that she died, they marry, Bella gets her wish and becomes a vampire, and Jacob the werewolf falls in love with Bella and Edward’s baby?! 🤢

I’m not going to read the sequels… but the covers are quite aesthetic:

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Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer review – dusk falls on Twilight saga

This plodding retelling of the first book from Edward’s perspective is a 750-page exercise in toothless tedium

S et aside the millions of copies sold, the controversies over both its sexual overtones and its lack of actual sex, and the blockbuster film franchise and celebrity careers it spawned: Twilight told a simple story, one nearly as old as its immortal antihero. Vampire meets girl. Vampire wants to bite girl. Girl wants to be bitten, but vampire must resist, for the girl’s own good. “I refuse to damn you to an eternity of night,” Edward tells Bella firmly, “and that’s the end of it.”

Actually, that’s only the end of book one in Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling four-part series. Vampire and girl settle for some heavy necking – and some agonised yearning, which they seem to enjoy just as much.

As was made explicit when the story was wrung dry of teen pheromones and repurposed as Fifty Shades of Grey, what fuelled the Twilight phenomenon 15 years ago was the ecstasy of delayed gratification, and the pleasure to be found in pain.

Neither apply to the experience of reading Midnight Sun, Meyer’s long-awaited project, which has been described as a “companion” novel to the first instalment, this time retold from Edward’s perspective rather than Bella’s. Early chapters of the book were leaked in 2008, prompting Meyer to put the project on hold. But 12 years later, the novel is out – and, at more than 750 pages, it is immediately clear why it took her so long.

The key difference between Twilight, narrated by Bella, and Midnight Sun, narrated by Edward, is the latter’s special vampire skill of hearing other people’s thoughts (though not Bella’s, contributing to her appeal). His sister Alice sees visions of the future and both skills function quite prosaically as plot devices as Edward listens in on people thinking about Bella, or grills Alice about what is going to happen to her. This, any Twihard already knows from Twilight. But Edward’s agonising over his urge to bite the new girl at school is supposed to lend the story a dark new twist. Instead, by page 150 he is hopelessly in love with her, and the feeling is soon reciprocated. The next 600 pages feel a bit like being sat uncomfortably close to a young couple who won’t stop kissing.

It would be hard for any reader to find Bella as fascinating as Edward does, with her character, never very distinctive, now smothered by his adoring gaze (“the English language needed a word that meant something halfway between a goddess and a naiad”). But taken together, the two narratives at least depict mutual attraction. Midnight Sun could be read as Meyer’s attempt at a do-over, following criticism of Twilight for romanticising a coercive relationship. Edward’s habit of breaking into Bella’s bedroom to watch her sleep, for example, was held up by some highly literal commentators as modelling unhealthy boundaries to impressionable young women, who were still learning how to navigate their own relationships with vampires. (As Meyer pointed out in a recent interview : “Really the problem is that he’s murdered a ton of people.”)

In Midnight Sun, we learn that Edward at least feels guilty about the surveillance, almost more than the slaughter: “I was repulsed by myself as I watched her toss again. How was I any better than some sick peeping tom? I wasn’t any better. I was much, much worse.”

Unfortunately, Midnight Sun does not make for gripping reading, nor significantly expand Meyer’s vampiric lore, an obvious missed opportunity when writing from Edward’s perspective. It feels below the belt to criticise the quality of the writing, given that Twilight was never loved for that – but there is something to be said for editing. Midnight Sun is chronically overwritten, plodding along almost in real time. Nine whole pages are given over to a chat about their likes and dislikes: Bella’s favourite gemstone is whichever one matches Edward’s eyes, while he analyses Linkin Park lyrics for clues to unlock his lady love: “It didn’t seem to match any of her moods that I’d seen, but then, there was so much I didn’t know.”

Despite its door-stopper density, Midnight Sun does not amplify the original novel. At times, it even undermines it. The whole appeal of a vampire-boyfriend is that he is deadly and undead, but Midnight Sun just exposes how toothless Edward really is. Meyer has described him as an anxious character, and says that writing him exacerbated her own anxiety – one of the reasons Midnight Sun was a “huge, pain in the butt book to write … Every single word was a struggle.” Why, then, are there so many of them?

The weight of expectation might have gotten to Meyer, given that Midnight Sun is not a new narrative. But it wasn’t until I had finished reading it and dug out a copy of Twilight that I realised quite how much overlap there is. The two books are almost exactly the same, down to scenes, dialogue and viewpoint. Compare Bella, in Twilight: “I looked down at my dress, fidgeting with a stray piece of chiffon. He waited in silence.” And Edward, in Midnight Sun: “She looked down at her beautiful dress, tugging absently on a chiffon ruffle. I knew what was coming. I let her find the words she wanted.”

It is inexplicable why Meyer chose to limit herself so when she has said sticking to the blueprint of Twilight was the toughest part of writing Midnight Sun. “The best parts to write, hands down, were the times that Bella was not present, and I wasn’t locked into a certain set of dialogues and actions,” she recently said . Her publishers, at least, are confident, with a huge initial print run and global release. But moving from Bella to Edward could be a less dramatic shift in perspective than that undergone by the Twihards over the last 15 years, now mostly in their 30s and finding themselves reading the same book. Will they readily be swept away by a vampire-meets-girl love story? It is hard to imagine when they’ve already read it.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer is published by Atom.

• Stephenie Meyer
• Young adult
• Children and teenagers

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‘Crooked Seeds’ is hard to read and impossible to look away from

Karen jennings’s new novel, set in south africa, follows a woman who is an open sore of self-absorbed resentment.

You can still smell the smoke.

Eleven years ago this month, Claire Messud published a brilliant, incendiary novel called “ The Woman Upstairs .” The narrator, Nora, is that most alarming and repellent character: a bitter woman. Single, childless and middle-aged, she won’t smile to look pretty. She won’t effuse to make us feel better. Her fury is boundless. When she says, “I’ll set the world on fire,” she doesn’t mean with a song in her heart.

When the book came out, an interviewer for Publishers Weekly asked Messud, “I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you?”

With withering, Nora-like irritation, Messud shot back: “For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in ‘The Corrections’? Any of the characters in ‘Infinite Jest’? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble.”

Predictably, the book world exploded with arguments about how likable a protagonist must be. It was an epic debate: “Madame Bovary c’est moi!” vs. “Madame Bovary ce n’est pas moi!” Readers of popular fiction were scolded for their narrow tastes, their childish refusal to fraternize with unappealing characters.

This month, as I read Karen Jennings’s new novel, “ Crooked Seeds ,” that old literary quarrel repeated on me like tainted meat. I’m not necessarily looking for friends in fiction, but it’s been years since I read a book that strained the Likability Principle so viscerally. Jennings’s previous novel, “ An Island ,” was longlisted for the Booker Prize, but I fear the more I tell you about “Crooked Seeds,” the less likely you’ll be to pick it up — unless you’re wearing gloves and a mask.

The story’s opening episode quickly separates the resilient from the squeamish: Deidre, a White South African woman in Cape Town, wakes up to pee, painfully, into a mixing bowl by her bed. “The urine was dark,” Jennings notes, “dark as cough syrup.” The smell of her three-day-old underwear is pungent. She’s so dry-mouthed that she can’t slide in her false teeth. With no water in her dilapidated apartment, she drinks a jar of pickle brine and eats some dangerously old Vienna sausages: “She spat out what couldn’t be chewed, ate two more, spat again, then drew her forearm across her mouth, seeing afterward the smear of grit and slime, and flakes of hideous pink.”

This novel couldn’t be any more overwhelming if it came in a scratch ’n’ sniff edition. Jennings gives us no break from Deidre’s filthy room, her dirty clothes, her sweaty armpits and fetid crotch.

But the moral rot overpowers every hygienic offense. Fifty-three-year-old Deidre is putrefying in self-pity. Limping out onto the street, she immediately starts begging for cigarettes and cuts to the front of the water line. Marked by her amputated leg, she’s clearly a well-known figure in this poor section of town. Having exhausted her disability allowance on alcohol, she begs for credit that everyone knows she’ll never pay back. A few people kind enough to help her are subjected only to more requests that quickly escalate from wheedling to fury. “Every time I think I’ve seen the worst of you, you come out with something even more terrible,” a Black neighbor tells her. “Are you trying to be unpleasant?”

Yes, Deidre is repellent, but she’s hypnotically repellent. And her unhappiness is not without cause, even if the responsibility for her situation is complicated by family sins and national politics. “Eighteen and I lost everything,” she whines. “What did I have after that? What could I become, huh? Everything was taken from me. Everything.”

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There’s no denying that she endured unspeakable physical harm, and she’s been removed from home and denied promised compensation. But in a country deeply scarred by the legacy of institutionalized racial discrimination, what do the concepts “home” and “compensation” really mean for an aggrieved White woman? “Two years of waiting to return,” Jennings writes, “and nothing now to come back to. Nothing left of any of it, apart from this hideous desolation, and shards of memory that didn’t quite fit together.”

Jennings has summoned a rotting wraith of South Africa’s discarded apartheid culture. Bereft of her racial privilege, Deidre is an open sore of self-absorbed resentment. And this is a novel that dares to push us beyond disgust, beyond pity, to a point where we’re forced to touch the swollen tumor of another person’s deepest humiliation.

That characterization is daring for an author, but the real artistry of “Crooked Seeds” lies in Jennings’s ability to make this story feel so propulsive. In the novel’s present tense, nothing particularly momentous happens, but that’s essential to its terrifying theme: Everything left to happen must come from disinterring the past. And once that digging begins, it unleashes an accelerating series of horrors. In a sense, Jennings has created a South African version of Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child.”

Early in the story, Deidre is contacted by a police officer. Investigators examining the site of her old family home have found the remains of three infant bodies in the yard. “Look, you’ve made a mistake,” Deidre insists with rising panic. “You need to find the family that lived here before us. The place was a mess when my parents got it. There was rubbish and heaps of stuff everywhere, like a dump, like a actual dump.”

Deidre may not be responsible for these atrocities — whatever they might be and mean — but with no one else left to take responsibility, on whom should the burden fall? As in some Greek tragedy, the investigation proceeds offstage, with shards of news arriving periodically to screw Deidre’s agitation ever tighter. Her dread is reflected in the wider world that’s drying out and going up in flames. “She looked up, past the gabled roof, into the distance where the mountain was burning, the sky dark with smoke and debris. Ash on her face, ash on the handles of her crutches. Same as usual, same f---ing story over and over, of fire and drought, of the world burning up and shriveling all around.”

Does Deidre ever become genuinely sympathetic? Could any person’s suffering expiate the sins of South Africa? These are questions this urgent novel forces upon us.

A century ago, D.H. Lawrence concluded his “Studies in Classic American Literature” with a shuddering critique of Flaubert and Whitman for embracing repulsive bodies and poisoned spirits. “You don’t have to force your soul into kissing lepers or embracing syphilitics,” he warned. “If you sympathise, you’ll feel her hatred, and you’ll hate too, you’ll hate her. Her feeling is hate, and you’ll share it.”

Messud came closer to the true function of literature when she told Publishers Weekly, “We read to find life, in all its possibilities.”

“Crooked Seeds” leaves us reeling, trying to get Deidre’s voice out of our heads: “I’m the one that needs help,” she screams. “Me. Look at me. I’m the one!”

Ron Charles reviews books and writes the Book Club newsletter for The Washington Post. He is the book critic for “CBS Sunday Morning.”

Crooked Seeds

By Karen Jennings

Hogarth. 219 pp. $28

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Do You Know These Novels Driven by Climate Change?

By J. D. Biersdorfer April 8, 2024

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Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s multiple-choice quiz designed to test your knowledge of books and literary culture. This week’s challenge is focused on relatively recent novels that are set in a world where the effects of ecological disruption are quite real and help propel the plot.

Just tap or click on the title you think is correct to see the answer. After the last question, you’ll find links to the novels if you’d like to do some further reading.

This 2020 novel centers on a university librarian who moonlights as an assistant for the host of a climate-change podcast and eventually becomes preoccupied with disaster psychology. What is the book?

“Gold Fame Citrus,” by Claire Vaye Watkins

“The Water Knife,” by Paolo Bacigalupi

“How High We Go in the Dark,” by Sequoia Nagamatsu

“Weather,” by Jenny Offill

In “Perilous Times,” Thomas D. Lee’s 2023 comic fantasy novel, Sir Kay of King Arthur’s round table is summoned back to life whenever Britain is in peril — and this time, climate change is one of the major threats. As in most variations of the Arthurian legend, what is the name of the magical sword in the story?

“American War,” Omar El Akkad’s 2017 debut novel, depicts a United States in turmoil, partly due to climate disruption and disease. But what is the “war” of the book’s title?

The War on Drugs

The Second American Civil War

The Eco-War

The Capitol War

This 2013 young-adult novel by Sherri L. Smith imagines a Gulf Coast region that was hit by several devastating hurricanes in the years after Katrina in 2005 — and then walled off from the rest of the country because of a Delta Fever plague in 2020. The book’s main action takes place in 2056 and tells the story of a teen girl trying to get out of the quarantined area and a scientist trying to get into it. What is the title of the book?

“The Deluge”

“Parable of the Sower”

“The Drowned World”

In “New York 2140,” Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2017 science fiction novel, the Big Apple has been transformed by what kind of event?

An earthquake has turned Manhattan to rubble

Rising seawater levels have partly submerged the city

Three superstorms have frozen the Northern Hemisphere

Tornadoes filled with sharks continually create havoc

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Book Review: Hampton Sides revisits Captain James Cook, a divisive figure in the South Pacific

This book cover image released by Doubleday shows “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook” by Hampton Sides. (Doubleday via AP)

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Captain James Cook’s voyages in the South Pacific in the late 1700s exemplify the law of unintended consequences. He set out to find a westward ocean passage from Europe to Asia but instead, with the maps he created and his reports, Cook revealed the Pacific islands and their people to the world.

In recent decades, Cook has been vilified by some scholars and cultural revisionists for bringing European diseases, guns and colonization. But Hampton Sides’ new book, “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook,” details that Polynesian island life and cultures were not always idyllic.

Priests sometimes made human sacrifices. Warriors mutilated enemy corpses. People defeated in battle sometimes were enslaved. King Kamehameha, a revered figure in Hawaii, unified the Hawaiian Islands in 1810 at a cost of thousands of warriors’ lives.

Sides’ book is sure to rile some Indigenous groups in Hawaii and elsewhere in the Pacific Islands, who contend Cook ushered in the destruction of Pacific Island cultures.

An obelisk in Hawaii marking where Cook was killed in 1779 had been doused with red paint when Sides visited as part of his research for this book. Over Cook’s name was written “You are on native land.”

But Cook, Sides argues, didn’t come to conquer.

Sides draws deeply from Cook’s and other crew members’ diaries and supplements that with his own reporting in the South Pacific.

Cook emerges from the book as an excellent mariner and decent human being, inspiring the crew to want to sail with him. However, on the voyage of the late 1770s, crew members noted that Cook seemed agitated, not his usual self.

What may have ailed Cook on that final voyage we probably never will know, but we do know that his voyages opened the Pacific islands to the world, and as new arrivals always do, life is changed forever.

Was Cook a villain for his explorations?

Sides make a persuasive case in 387 pages of diligent, riveting reporting that Cook came as a navigator and mapmaker and in dramatically opening what was known about our world, made us all richer in knowledge.

When his journals and maps reached England after his death, it was electrifying news. No, an ocean passage across North America to the Pacific did not exist, but Europeans now knew that islands in the Pacific were populated by myriad cultures; Sides’ reporting is clear that Cook treated them all with respect.

He and his fellow British mariners, though, did lack one skill that would seem vital for sailors and would have better connected the British sailors to the peoples of the Pacific, whose cultures and livelihoods were closely connected to the ocean: Neither Cook nor any of his fellow officers could swim.

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