Twilight

After months of pretending that "Twighlight" didn't even exist, I finally decided to break down and read it. I suppose I thought that anything that caused such a craze among teenagers (teenyboppers as we so affectionately refer to them as) would be a waste of time. However, I must admit that I was a little curious about what all the rage over this book was about. So, alas, I broke down and read it. In less than 24 hours. It is incredibly addicting! I started the novel at 10 pm and finished it by 10 the next morning. It is not as if the writing is all that complex or moving, but the story envelopes the reader and won't let go. In fact, I was so hooked on this book after reading it that I ran to Blockbuster and rented the movie (a huge disappointment after reading the book!)

In any case, I really like Kelly Byme Bull's analysis that part of the pull on readers for this book is in the characterization. Bull writes, "Readers are drawn into this story because the characters are intriguing and develop complex relationships as the story progresses" (113). I think she has a point. There were points in reading the novel that I winced at the cliches that Meyer uses, and yet I couldn't put it down. In fact, Meghan and I discussed this very issue last week. I kept wondering what is going to happen as Meyer took me deeper and deeper into the plot and into the character's thought processes and I was hooked.

I can't imagine using this book in the classroom, although many of the students would certainly love it! Still, I'm sure that we could pull out themes from the novel that coincide with other, more traditional literature. Perhaps using a few pages or chapters would be beneficial. The other way I can see using this text is in a writing class. Meyer clearly excells at characterization, and it would be interesting to study how exactly she pulls us into the story as an example to be used in developing their own stories.