I haven’t read Twilight since I was 12 years old but for some strange reason at 26 I decided it was time for a reread.

The Twilight Saga had a little resurgence in popularity again in the Autumn of 2023, mostly through memes and edits on TikTok, taking the piss out of some of the more ridiculous aspects of the series. The setting of Twilight fits in quite nicely with the autumnal season aesthetics so naturally there would be an influx of aesthetic Instagram posts and Pinterest boards featuring scenes from the movies, and book quotes overlaying moody and misty pictures of forests (with that iconic blue filter, of course). I shared a few of these funny TikToks with my friends throughout the season and realised I can barely remember much of the Saga’s plot past Bella meeting a sparkly vampire and “yOU NAmED mY dAUGhteR aFTeR ThE loCH NeSS moNSTeR!?” 😂 I mentioned this to my friends during a coffee and book shopping afternoon, by the end of the day the ✨skin of a killer✨ book club was born! 100% we could’ve just rewatched the movies over the course of a weekend but we’re bookworms, we’d rather spend months rereading a series instead of watching few movies. 🤷‍♀️

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Series: The Twilight Saga
Genre: Supernatural Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 513
Published: October 5, 2005
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company UK

Book Blurb:

“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.”

My thoughts:

I can’t believe this books is 434 pages long, its completely unjustified considering the plot lacks any substance. Not very much happens, both in terms of action and character development of, well, anyone.

Bella becomes completely delulu after she meets Edward and becomes completely obsessed with him. I’m not sure how she falls in love with him because at no point in the book do we experience anything particularly romantic between the couple. I can only guess that him being a vampire and painfully gorgeous is the reason for Bella’s powerful declaration: “I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” I didn’t find Edward to be desirable or felt wooed by him at any point. Pretty disappointing and unexpected as this is meant to be a supernatural romance novel for teens (I wasn’t particularly interested in Edward as a teenager either).

The typical thing to complain about with teenage high school fiction is to say how the whole “bland girl joins new school and all the boys are obsessed with her” trope is a little ridiculous but here I don’t consider that the case. Forks is described as a tiny town with one high school and not a lot going on. All the kids there would’ve known each other their entire lives so having a new student, especially a new 17 year old girl from out of state, is going to be a big deal to the other teenagers at the school. It doesn’t matter that she’s not “incredibly pretty” because she’s new and interesting to them and their little world, even though Bella doesn’t view herself that way. The boys in her class want to get to know her because they don’t know her yet, not necessarily because they’re super into her. The girls reaction to her is also predictable – curious and a little bit jealous of the attention she’s getting. But I don’t find it overbearing or problematic in this case either.

Jacob is also smitten with her because he’s known her since he was a child and is now a young teenager discovering girls exist. Speaking of which THIS BOY IS 15! WTF?? I did not remember that he was younger than Bella and I when I found out I was completely shook. Their friendship doesn’t get creepy or uncomfortable in this book but I can definitely see it being very concerning as the series goes on, especially as he’s going to become Bella’s other main love interest. 🤮

I don’t remember much about the tracker vampire James from the movies but I found his actions strange. Despite it being made clear he has history with Alice, he’s extremely petty with Edward and the whole scene in the ballet studio is just silly. James was overexplaining himself like a children’s cartoon villain and he just didn’t give any vibes you’d expect of a ‘malice and lethal tracker vampire’ type character.

I guess the more bizarre thing about this whole rereading experience is knowing that Twilight is basically fanfiction by Stephenie Meyer about Gerard Way – the lead singer of My Chemical Romance. I didn’t know this when I was 12, despite being utterly obsessed with the band at the time. Though I should say, this is absolutely the worst Gerard Way fan fiction I’ve every had the displeasure of reading. If I hadn’t known Edward was inspired by him I never would’ve came to that conclusion myself. It should also be noted that Meyer wanted Way to play Edward in the movies. I’m not sure if he was ever officially offered the part (probably not) but I very much doubt that a) he would’ve accepted and b) it would’ve worked since he was already 30 during the time Twilight was filmed and Edward is forever trapped in the body of a 17 year old. Fun fact: MCR were offered to write the main song for Twilight in 2008, but they declined and it went to Paramore instead.

My friends and I at the ✨skin of a killer✨ book club are reading one Twilight Saga book a month until we read them all. So I’ll be reading New Moon this January.

Happy reading 📚