"Real" Rating: 5+ For any potential readers concerned that this might be a retread of twelve combined seasons of Buffy and Angel, set your fears aside. It's not. That said, now go and buy the book. Buffy and Angel were never set in "our" world - the real world. It was the "Buffy" universe, and/or the "Angel" universe.
At first glance, it seems inconceivable that Bella not realize what Edward is. Most of the requisite indicators are evident. You find yourself reading and wondering how Bella could possibly guess "Peter Parker" instead of "vampire", but then it sinks in. Bella can't conceive of such a thing because this book is firmly, irrevocably set in our world, and that, indeed, is the magic of this story. It is a remarkable accomplishment, often attempted, but rarely achieved, and far more rarely executed with such (apparent) ease.
I did not expect to like this book, and started to read it only as a courtesy to the person who gave it to me for my birthday. But twenty pages in, I was hooked. If we want to follow that metaphor to its inevitable conclusion, I was so hooked that by the time I finished it I was in the fisherman's pail, flopping around as if gasping for air. Instead, I was begging for a sequel. Thankfully, I already knew that the sequel was out. To quote a character from the book, "W - o - w". I haven't sped through something like this since I picked up the first Harry Potter book. Ms. Meyer handled the developing relationship between Edward and Bella with the mark of a seasoned professional, not a first-time novelist. We need to remember that this is coming-of-age book, or a romance - more a combination of "Catcher in the Rye" and "Pride and Prejudice" than a vampire story.
It certainly has far more in common with those two books than "The Vampire Lestat". (And, of course, Buffy and Angel.) It is very difficult to write a coming-of-age story. Why? It's been done a million times, and finding new material to mine becomes more difficult every month. It's also difficult to write a vampire story. Why? Same reason. Yet those reasons didn't give Ms. Meyers, it seems, any pause. It would have given me considerable pause. Kudos to her bravery. Edward Cullen, the vampire, is perfect - and we are reminded of exactly how perfect nearly too often. While reading the book, I found myself frustrated with the never-ending descriptions of his perfect body, perfect hair, model-like looks (maybe I was jealous?) but then I realized that the book wasn't being written in the third person. It's a first-person narrative, so we're getting the story as *Bella* tells it, and how Bella sees it. His burning black eyes, or warm topaz/butterscotch eyes, are magnets to her, as are every single movement he makes.
It's not difficult to step back into high school and remember your first love (or crush) and recall similar feelings. Their eyes never ceased to captivate you; their smile melted you; when they kissed you, you felt faint. And you felt these things every single time you saw that person. One of the more interesting aspects of the book is that we never get a sense for how unique and beautiful Bella is until we start to see her through Edward's eyes. This being a first-person narrative, it takes a while for the reader to understand how Bella - so awkward that she can trip while walking on a flat surface - could have fascinated such a magnificent...creature. I even questioned it myself while making my way through the book. But again, Ms. Meyer's deft hand brings the realization of how special Bella is very slowly and deliberately - much the way in which we didn't find out why Bella moved to Forks until page 50 or so, and why we never knew exactly why Edward had such a powerful, apparently repulsed reaction to Bella when they first came close to each other. That's just one thing that makes a writer truly exceptional - the ability to hold back, and tell the story as the story needs to be told. Or to put it another way, to know exactly how the story needs to be told. That might just be the most difficult task a writer has.
There are a million ways to tell the story in the writer's head, but to find the right way is often elusive. This was such a remarkable and refreshing story. Even when Buffy and Angel similarities started to pop up, they quickly fell away as Ms. Meyer staked an irrevocable claim to this story as absolutely her own. Nothing borrowed, nothing... The representation of the vampires, their unique talents, and the unique way in which they blend into society is marvelous, and provides a firm backbone to the story. While this is a story that is decidedly told in our world, and while I have said that this is more of a coming-of-age story than a vampire story, there are still vampires in it, and the vampires - the fantastical elements of the story - need to be believable. If not, the entire story, no matter how well told, falls apart, and the reader is left wondering why the vampires are even in the story. Her vampires, and their lore, are distinctly drawn. I wanted to title this review, "My brand of heroin", from a line in the book, but thought twice seeing as it's a young adult book and I didn't want parents or anyone else thinking that I was advocating heroin use, or claiming to be a heroin addict, etc. But this book is absolutely intoxicating and perhaps addictive.
Thankfully, the worst side effect of the intoxication is you might suffer a lack of sleep on *one* night (if you have the time, it shouldn't take much longer), and the addiction - to a book - is harmless. Unless, of course, that book actually contained heroin, and then we'd be talking a bit differently about this one.
Reviewed By : T. Burger
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