“About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. Third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” – Goodreads

Listen, this is Twilight. I am definitely not the first to read and I will for sure not be the last. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before now, but with a long Thanksgiving flight ahead of me, I decided to suck it up (haha no pun intended) and try it out.

It seems to me that every time somehow has an opinion on Twilight, they either love it more than anything else or hate it with the same passion. I expected to hate it, but it actually wasn’t that bad. It doesn’t try to be anything other than a silly teen vampire romance. It doesn’t try to make any major social or thematic statements or try to seem like some kind of high literature. It is entertaining and fun for the genre and it got me through a three hour plane ride.

That being said, it has plenty of issues – but I’m someone who enjoys reading silly stuff with plot holes if it’s entertaining enough. Twilight definitely fits that bill.

Twilight started out pretty slow for a story full of vampires. It read as a realistic teen falling-in-love sequence, minus the paranormal weird parts. Instead of all the characters acting like college students or being mature about starting a relationship, they behave like insta-love high school kids. Again, just kind of fun. It’s not supposed to be serious. Edward is immediately the center of Bella’s life in an extremely unhealthy way, and Edward cannot keep himself from her even though he thinks he’s going to kill her.

The two gets super close and “meet the parents” while Edward waxes and wanes between feeling emo about how much he wants to suck Bella’s blood and seeing how close he can get to her without tearing her limb from limb. Meanwhile, Bella has no regard for her own safety and is totally cool with that. In fact, she continuously puts him in ridiculously tempting positions in very casual ways (more on this in the content warning section).

In the second half, a random carnivorous vampire (there has to be conflict somewhere) shows up and really wants to eat Bella, so the whole Cullen family has to protect her. She is clumsy and useless as usual. I won’t spoil the end, but it’s pretty predictable.

The plot moved along well, though the pacing was heavily focused on the exposition and Bella and Edward getting together. It was overall very silly but I lost myself in the atmosphere very quickly – I’m a West Coast girly so I love the rainy-Forks-Washington vibe.

There could have been a lot less angst, however. Edward and Bella’s constant arguing with each other about him trying to protect her and her wanting desperately to be with him became unnecessary after they had already decided to be together. Edward would still have moments where he got all weird and angry that she wanted to be with him. It’s fine to be worried or scared that you’ll hurt your girlfriend or not trust yourself to be near her, but you need to man up and set those boundaries properly or break up with her instead of just getting angry with her and letting it all happen.

Stephanie Meyer has some phrases and metaphors she really likes to use, and she doesn’t stop using them. Edward has a beautiful face. Bella is very white. Charlie is incompetent around the house. There are details in this book that the reader couldn’t forget if they’d tried. Now, I read this book before I’d seen the movie, but I’m living in 2025 – I’ve seen plenty of clips. Somehow I was still able to get a really good idea of what the characters looked like and the environment without being super influenced by the movie casting. Say what you will about the heavy handed descriptions, but it got the job done and I felt very immersed. Bella spends a lot of time thinking about things, which gets old pretty fast but doesn’t take away too much from the action.

If I met Bella in real life, I would not like her. Not only is she the most beautiful and desired person on the West Coast even while surrounded by vampires, but she doesn’t seem to know it and is always mentioning how no one wanted to date her in Arizona and how “plain” she is. She is obsessed with a boy to the point of risking her life to be around him and seems very responsible until he gets involved. I understand teenager girls becoming consumed with their crush, but there’s a difference between that and the kind of intense obsession Bella exhibits – which she displays before they even get together. She is very selfish and pretends to recklessly care for those around her but usually just puts them in more danger by pursuing her own desires anyway. Part of my distaste for Bella is how much I hate books where the main girl makes cutesy girlfriends and then dumps them as soon as a guy comes along, which is pretty much what happens here. I’ve been on both ends of that kind of real-life fiasco, and it’s not fun. I personally do not think it is that hard to balance girl time with boyfriend time, especially when you sneak him into your room to spend all night every night with him anyway. Overall she’s annoying – but somehow you’re still rooting for her. I don’t know how Meyer did it, but I still wanted Bella to get everything she wanted and be safe even though she would get on my nerves in real life.

Edward was just creepy. Again, I would hate him if we truly met. Like Bella, however, I still was able to root for him throughout the book. A little less so than Bella because I just wasn’t sure what she saw in his personality past his immortal beauty and crazed urge to protect and pursue her, but I wanted him to end up with his girl nonetheless.

Everybody else in this book was really fun and lovable though. The vampire family was so sweet and interesting, and I love the dynamics they all have with each other (though I would’ve loved to see more sibling interaction over couple interaction). Bella’s parents – especially Charlie – were very realistic and three-dimensional, with their own cares and desires. I am going to mention this here because I’m not planning to write full reviews for the next three books (which I’ve already finished at the time of writing this review), but I love Jacob. He’s so sweet and perfect for Bella. I mean, who would pick a cold rock over a nice warm soft comforting wolf boy? I rest my case.

If can get past silly and soft mythology systems and extremely flawed characters for the sake of a fun, cult-classic, atmospheric romance, you’ll love Twilight. If you prefer your paranormal romance YA to at least include a better main girl and realistic character choices, maybe look elsewhere. As a participant in the current book culture, I resolved that I should at least read the series once, but that doesn’t mean you have to as well. People have strong opinions about Twilight, but mine is pretty soft: it was okay. It entertained me on a long plane ride. Plus, I had a great time watching the movie with my family and laughing about it.