This review of Twilight is written by a concerned mother of teenage daughters for all conscientious mothers of teenagers. Whenever a popular new book – or series of books – comes out the question always arises, do we allow our child(ren) to read this book(s)? When our child(ren) are little, the decision(s) are easier; as they enter adolescence, it becomes more complicated.When my own two, now 17 and 16, were young I was the local rating authority: a book had to pass the mommy-booklady rating system or it didn’t come home from the library or bookstore. As a homeschool mom I read – or tried to read – everything my kids read. I still try to keep up with that goal, especially where new books are concerned.
Twilight is a fantasy romance novel which has captivated teenagers and adults alike. Since it came out in 2005, it’s been on the New York Times bestseller list, won A Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, An Amazon “Best Book of the Decade . . . So Far” and – most ominously – A Teen People “Hot List” pick. So what’s all the fuss? What is the story?
The book’s back dust jacket lets you know that Edward is a vampire, who thirsted for ‘her’ (the female protagonist, Bella's) blood and yet ‘she’ was also in love with him. Hmmmm... When I first read this in a book store, I can’t say I was overly impressed. I tried reading Dracula a few years back and scared myself silly. Vampires are about the most terrifying of the scary ‘monsters’ in my book, no pun intended. I’ve read and cried over Frankenstein which is only frightening in the sense that it’s about unrequited love; the ‘monster’ has the basic longing for love from his creator and/or desire for a mate, neither of which can be fulfilled. Dracula on the other hand is about ‘real’ vampires—the kind who only feed on human blood, turn into bats, must be killed by a dagger through the heart, etc.
The author of Twilight, Stephanie Meyers, a young, thirty-three year old mother of three, hasn’t read the classic horror novel and says she can’t read about ‘real’ vampires. According to her, her vampires aren’t ‘real’.
So what makes them ‘unreal’? What makes this fantasy story featuring those infamous creatures of the undead different? Or is it? It was questions such as these which prompted me to want to read and review Twilight; that and the fact my daughter handed me the book when she finished it. Since she is at that age where I have to begin to allow her to make choices about her own reading material, the best thing I can do is read – and discuss – her books along with her, hopefully guiding her and insuring she makes well-informed choices. That’s what I did and this review is the result.
When I began to read Twilight I was first struck by its ordinariness. It is set in modern day Arizona and Washington state and revolves around a teenager, Bella, who moves to the small town of Forks, WA, to live with her father upon the remarriage of her mother; once there she meets Edward Cullen and his unusual and exquisitely beautiful family. Meyers is a voracious reader and it shows in her writing; it flows. Twilight is light, readable and even though there is very little action in the first half of the book, I found myself pleasantly entertained. Up until about the middle of the book, I had no serious objections to the book. The language is clean, the situations are appropriate and compared to most books/movies today, I could easily give the book a solid “G” rating. All in all it reminded me of an up-to-date retelling of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with a twist. Edward is good. He cares for Bella. He ‘saves’ her time after time: from himself, from her, from circumstances and even from other vampires. And best of all, Edward and his family are vampire vegetarians, i.e., they refrain from drinking human blood and live off of animals instead.
However. And yes, there is a however. And here it is. Call me an old fuddy-duddy but even on the inside of the front dust jacket, we read that the book is “deeply seductive” and it is. There is a day when Bella lies to everyone to sneak off to be alone with Edward. She knows what she is doing is both wrong and dangerous, yet she does it anyway. Okay. Lots of books contain situations where young people make similar poor choices; Twilight isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, book to offer such ideas to young people. And do they even need to get their ideas from books anyway? In this particular example, Bella is fortunate and nothing ‘bad’ happens. Meyer’s writing keeps the story on the knife-edge of suspense allowing Bella to safely enjoy her innocent tryst with Edward with no unfortunate consequences. Nevertheless, Bella is playing with fire. In the story, Bella is alone with a vampire who desires her very much. She has voluntarily walked into a dangerous situation which even Edward cautioned her against. In real life, young readers of Twilight walk into similar situations every day with young men far less honorable than Edward. As a hundred year old vampire who presumably really does love his beloved, he has lived long enough and seen enough to know what havoc his passions can unleash.
Can as much be said for most young seventeen year old males? Can as much be said for any of us?
Although Edward was born in 1901, as an immortal vampire, he looks like any other teenage boy, only incredibly more beautiful. Bella is captivated by him. Stephanie Meyers, the author, even admits that she was in love with her character as she wrote the book. Can any young, impressionable, hormonal, adolescent girl fail to be swept away by page after page of romantic descriptions of his overwhelming good looks?
I don’t even deny to falling ‘under the spell’ of Edward and Meyer’s writing a bit myself—and I usually tend to abhor the romance genre. It is seductive. I include this information because this is a review for parents and in particular parents of young teens.
My going-in concerns about Twilight were centered on vampires. I have deliberately stayed away from the issues of Holy Scripture and the forces of Evil – which I very much believe in – because other reviewers before me have already dealt with these issues and this review is turning into a book as it is. Instead, I would just like to point out the moral dangers of reading too many books of this sort. Young minds are incredibly vulnerable. As a responsible parent, I would exercise great caution where Twilight is concerned. Presumably you know your child better than anyone else. Unless your daughter (or son) is extremely mature, I would strongly discourage anyone under sixteen from reading this book. Whatever your decision, read Twilight for yourself first and then -- if you decide to let your child read it -- be sure to discuss it together.
The lack of a rating is deliberate. With the release of the movie, Twilight, two weeks ago a resurgence in popularity of the book can be expected.
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