Language: 1

Violence: 4

Sexuality: 3

Adult Themes: 3

Title:  Twilight

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Ratings Explanation

Language: References to rapidly uttered profanities spoken by the vampires – unintelligible to the human ear.  Bella claims Forks is her personal hell.

Violence:  The preface foreshadows Bella’s hopelessness as the hunter saunters toward her to kill her.  A van hits ice in the school parking lot and slides toward her.  If not for Edward’s stealth, she would have been crushed.  Blood typing in science class.  Every student has to prick their finger with a lancet.  Bella has a nightmare of Jacob the Werewolf and Edward the Vampire squaring off to fight.  Bella researches vampires and discovers the Romanian Varacolaci, a powerful undead human being who could appear as a beautiful, pale-skinned human, the Slovak Nelapsi, a creature so strong and fast it could massacre an entire village in the single hour after midnight.  Bella takes a girl’s shopping trip to Port Angeles.  She leaves their company in search of a book store.  Bella is herded and surrounded by four raucous men in a deserted industrial area.  Bella is terrified and knows there is no escape.  Fortunately, she is saved by Edward.  Although, thanks to Edward’s mind-reading capabilities, it is obvious that Bella would have been a victim of rape.  Edward confirms that he is indeed a vampire.  He warns Bella not to go into the woods alone.  There are things far more dangerous than him out there.  Edward describes how vampires hunt their prey.  “….we give ourselves over to our senses….govern less with our minds.  Especially our sense of smell.”  Edward tells Bella that he could have easily killed her when they first met.  “There was only one other frail human there – so easily dealt with.”  Edward also recounts how he was turned into a vampire.  He recounts the grisly description of Carlisle’s transformation from human to vampire.  Violence recounted from the 1600’s – the deaths of many innocent people.  Carlisle attacks a deer and his thirst is quenched, he vows to drink the blood of animals and not humans.  James the tracker desires Bella’s blood.  Alice describes how to become a vampire to Bella.  The bite, the incapacitating venom, and the blood-lust that ensue.  James attacks Bella.  Bella receives a crushing blow to the chest, her head crunches into the mirrors.  James steps on her leg, snapping the bone.  The glass from the mirrors, rips her scalp open and the blood soaks her.  James bites her hand and the venom begins to spread.  James is destroyed, meaning, torn into pieces by the Cullen Coven of vampires and burned.

Sexuality:  Twilight is a very sensual book.  Every interaction between Bella and Edward is amplified and described in a slow, sensuous manner.  Edward is described in repetitive detail, denoting his beautifully chiseled marble face etc.  ie) “Again, the fabric clung to his perfectly muscled chest.  It was a tribute to his face that it kept my eyes away from his body.”  Edward watches Bella sleep each night.  Eventually, he sleeps holding her in his arms in her bed.  As Edward is in her room, Bella notes that her father is in the house.  Bella watches as a waitress coyly suggests to Edward “Isn’t there anything I can get you?”   Intense first kiss, with Bella’s human reaction lacking in self-control as she wraps herself around Edward.  Bella curiously asks if vampires can have sex.

Adult Themes: Vampires – The Cold Ones, Blood Drinkers.  Bella deals with the complications of divorced parents.  Bella’s mother lives with her boyfriend, Phil.  Bella deliberately and unnecessarily takes cold medicine to knock herself out – gratuitous drug use.

Synopsis

Isabella Swan is seventeen years old.  “Bella’s” parents are divorced.  Mid-school year, Bella chooses to move to Forks, Washington, where her father resides.  Bella’s father, Charlie, is a single father, who is also the Chief of Police.  Bella leads her mother to believe that she really wants to move to Forks, when she would rather stay in Phoenix.  However, Bella believes her mother will be happier traveling with her boyfriend, Phil, to Florida for Baseball Spring Training.  Phil is an amatuer baseball player, working toward his big break.  Bella sacrifices her comfort for her mother’s happiness.

Bella arrives in Forks with little enthusiasm for her new life.  She quickly begins to realize life in Forks will be anything but dismal.  Her father purchases a “historic truck” for her to drive – forty years new.  Bella is showered with male attention as the “new girl” at Forks High School.  She finds that her pale complexion is an asset in Forks, Washington.  Bella is unaccustomed to so much male attention.  She is mutually humored and stunned by the attempts for her attentions.

Bella experiences her “First Crush/First Love”, with Edward Cullen.  She experiences her first kiss, as well as the intense longings and desires that accompany first love.  Bella discovers that Edward is not just another high school student.  Edward and his “siblings”, are a coven of vampires, who pose as high school students in their quest for co-existence with humans.  They drink the blood of animals instead of humans in order to stave off their thirst for human blood.  Bella is cautiously introduced into Edward’s World  – A World of Vampires.  As Bella participates in a Cullen Family game of baseball, another coven of vampires happens upon the Cullens.  Bella, as the only human, has her life threatened.  James, the leader of the opposing coven is a “tracker”, a hunter, with an insatiable desire for Bella’s blood.  An intense game of “Hunter and Prey” ensues as the Cullen’s conspire to keep Bella alive and out of James’ grasp.

I first read this book two years ago when a few twelve and thirteen year old girls in my neighborhood told me “I just had to read Twilight”.  I admit, I was intrigued by the plot.  I had to find out how a vampire/human relationship could ever work out.  Meyer’s writing style leaves much to be desired.  Her descriptions are repetitive and unimaginative.  The strength of Meyer’s lies is her ability to capture the intense emotions that a person experiences in their “First Crush/First Kiss/First Love”.  The love story of Bella and Edward is the intense draw for so many young women.  The unattainable uber-attractive male who is just as enamored with the average female as she is with him is a universal desire.  This resounds with every female.  As I re-read Twilight this month, I have been quite surprised to recently see so many 4th and 5th grade readers devouring the Twilight Series.  The Twilight Series is more appropriate for a 9th-12th grade “young adult” reader.  Twilight lends itself to discussing many issues with your young reader: personal safety, drug abuse, theft, honesty, defining self-worth, boundaries in relationships and early sexuality.

©2009 The Literate Mother