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 enlarge | Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $10.50
You Save: $9.49 (47%)
New (36) Collectible (1) from $10.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  2231 reviews
Sales Rank: 26
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Standard
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.9 x 1.7
ISBN: 0316160172
EAN: 9780316160179
ASIN: 0316160172
Publication Date: October 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new from sunny florida, will ship internationally and expedited
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| Customer Reviews:
 TWILIGHT - BOOK 1 September 4, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
great story line - I was intrigued by the subject as I got "hooked" on a TV series "Moonlight" on CBS in 2007 with a similar story line and wanted to see where the books would go with the characters
Loved it. Just loved it. September 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's been a long, long time since I've had a book that grabbed me like this one did. I had a hard time putting it down each night.
 momsread September 4, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
My daughter expressed a deep interest in these books so I took one with me on a biz trip to preview. I would not say that I was disapointed, I knew it was TL in the first place, but I was really surprised at how week the main character was portrayed. She takes no responsibility for herself or her own emotions, relying instead on others to lift her up and to make her circumstances more bearable. She is further portrayed as klutzy, accident prone with low self-esteem and instead of the author developing Bella's strengths, it seems she focuses on developing her dependence on a boyfriend, again to solve her problems for her and save her from herself.
I discussed a few of these topics with my daughter but urged her to read it for herself. She thought it would have been a brilliant story, had Bella become a stronger person too, instead of resigning herself to whatever fate (joy with boyfriend, doom without) doled out for her. Sparkly Vampires??? This one had us both in stitches.....
Compelling in a Cheap Harlequin Romance way September 4, 2008
After hearing all the talk about Breaking Dawn from people at church and the blogging community and having heard about Twilight this December from family, I decided it was time to let go of my own biases toward vampires and read the story.
Most of the rave reviews I heard came from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have to say that I am disappointed that so many teenagers and women of my faith are being sucked in to this cheap story.
Stephanie condones the following actions of Bella's, through the lack of consequences suffered:
1. Parents who are unaware of their children's activities.
2. Boyfriends secretly in the teen's bedroom while the parents are home.
3. Days spent completely alone with a person of the opposite gender.
4. Secrecy from parents about who your dating and their background.
In spite of all these dangerous acts, which would be very frowned upon in the LDS culture, Bella comes out unscathed because supposedly Edward is in some super control of his appetites. Although, we do see him struggling with his desire to kill Bella on multiple occasions, this never bothers or frightens Bella nor does she ever pay a price for such dangerous addiction to Edward. Bella does pay a price but it is more because she gives in to fear and takes control of the situation instead of solely trusting Edward. Stephanie tries to convince us that Edward's danger is real. But, because Bella is so overcome by Edward's powers of persuasion she doesn't care. So flirting with evil is o.k. if it is persuasive and looks safe?
While reading Twilight I couldn't put it down, but I left feeling used and abused. Stephanie Meyers has an amazing gift of creating feelings of female arousal without going into explicit details of sexual encounters. And, while I am grateful to not have been drug through embarrassing intimate situations, I feel betrayed by the arousal that I did feel while reading this. And, I am frightened by what stimulation and feelings this story could give my 11 year old daughter.
The female character is easy to identify with, as being clumsy and nothing extraordinarily special. It is by contrast so easy to fall in love with the idea that the perfect male who can control his passion, has unsurpassed beauty, physical dexterity, beautiful handwriting and the ability to give an utter feeling of security and safety would fall in love with a such a female as Bella. Edward's character is wholly ironic given that being a vampire he is lethally dangerous. But that is what draws the women in to this novel so much, is that he is so dangerous and mysterious, but he somehow controls it so that we never really experience the consequence of being close to someone so dangerous. The danger of this characterization ending happy is that women are buying into the unrealistic notion that there is some perfect male out there who will be their savior and lover in spite of possible dangerous behaviors. Most classics would point out that danger and safety do not coexist. And that evil is never safe. Wickedness never is happiness.
Stephanie is trying desperately to convince the reader that a vampire can be good and safe. And that Bella could be happily married to one. It is unbelievable.
The character development of Bella is shallow. We know little of her likes and persona, other than she is desperate for love because of dysfunctional parents, who shuns the real friends and people in her life drawn in to her fantasies. It would have been nice to see her struggle between her own thoughts and ideas and the feelings she had under Edward's spell. But we never see her have her own ideas and feelings.
The classics the author tries, loosely, to use as a guide portray consequences for actions that are real and tragically suffered. I wish in the back of my heart and mind that this story had a similar tragic ending that would show that life is real and painful and consequences for embracing danger are tragic, regardless of the sugar coating that is put on the evil. We can't have our cake and eat it, too!
It could have been so much better.
 Very good but not great September 4, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Teenager Bella moves to live with her father (her parents are divorced) to Washington state. She attends school there and meets Edward. At first he acts like he hates her but then they become attracted to each other. The problem is that Edward is a vampire. Can a vampire and human be lovers?
I'm not the prime audience for this book. I'm a guy in his 40s. I just picked it up because I heard the movie was coming out in December. Also I'm a big fan of vampire books (Anne Rice is an exception) and well-written romances. "Twilight" is a well-written, interesting and engrossing combo of horror and romance. That's tricky to pull off but author Meyers manages to do it. Despite the length this book reads quickly (it just took me a week or two--and I only read it occasionally). Meyers pulls you right into her world. Meyers gives us a strong and totally believable teenage girl in Bella. Also Edward and his family are presented in a matter of fact way. A story like this could easily become ridiculous but I never once found it stupid or unbelievable. It's hard to describe it, but this book sort of puts a sort of spell over you. You can't stop reading. I highly recommend this--even if you're not a teenage girl.
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