Product Description

"Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. ''Be very still,'' he whispered, as if I wasn''t already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat. " As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he''s a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward''s sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer''s writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.com Review
The book that started the phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector's edition! Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up–When Bella Swan moves from sunny Phoenix to Forks, Washington, a damp and dreary town known for the most rainfall in the United States, to live with her dad, she isnt expecting to like it. But the level of hostility displayed by her standoffish high school biology lab partner, Edward Cullen, surprises her. After several strange interactions, his preternatural beauty, strength, and speed have her intrigued. Edward is just as fascinated with Bella, and their attraction to one another grows. As Bella discovers more about Edwards nature and his family, she is thrown headlong into a dangerous adventure that has her making a desperate sacrifice to save her one true love. One of the more original vampire constructs around, this recording of Stephenie Meyers debut novel (Megan Tingley Books, 2005) is narrated with great style by Ilyana Kadushin, who makes the infinitely romantic tale of star-crossed lovers resonate with a bittersweet edge. Although Edward and Bellas romance and subsequent danger develops slowly, the pacing is appropriate for teens who want learn all the details in this suspenseful tale. An excellent purchase for both school and public libraries.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
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From AudioFile
Stephanie Meyer's teen-vampire romance offers an appealing heroine in Bella, transplanted from sunny Phoenix to the wet, dreary town of Forks, Washington, and the seductive, secretive object of her obsession, Edward, who may or may not be a vampire. Predictability doesn't keep this spine-tingling tale from being fun, but alas, Ilyana Kadushin's reading, does. Her speaking voice is thin and underdeveloped, and any sense of nuance is nonexistent. Kadushin doesn't try to give the characters personalities, so distinguishing between speakers is difficult. This is one of those rare times in audiobook listening when the writing exceeds the reader's capabilities. Still, the story is engrossing and the characters well drawn, ensuring that older teens will find much to enjoy. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

An Unfortunate Sensation - Why is this so popular?
It is hard to imagine a book line right now that is getting more attention than the Twilight series and in my mind, the reviews and fan response has been completely puzzling. I picked up the books to check out what the hype was about and found myself sadly disappointed. From the very beginning, Meyer's writing is unpolished and does not get better as the books go on, leaving a reader capable of skipping paragraphs of the same repetitive descriptions of teenage angst to get to the actual plot.

The actual plot itself is amazingly mediocre: a completely useless female protagonist with not a single interesting quality finds herself the object of a mysterious boy's affection and finds out that they are two star-crossed lovers because he is a shiny, shiny vampire. Amazing, really, to think that he's a vampire since he can walk around in the daytime and the only problem he might have with the sunlight problem is a slight glossiness people will notice. So the writer has given him all the vampire strengths and literally none of their drawbacks except that he's... shiny, and can't keep his hands off his girlfriend because she smells good. Edward, while being a slightly more interesting character than Bella, becomes utterly unpalatable once he falls into his 'I love you so much, Bella, you're so wonderful Bella' mode that makes up most of the book.

On the subject of the heroine herself, she is perhaps the largest drawback of the book. While the atmosphere of the dreary town of Forks is actually interesting and, in my mind, well described, the main character is a nightmare of wish-fulfillment writing. She plays into every teenage girl stereotype of the shy, awkward, clumsy, helpless girl who not only spends most of her time bemoaning the fact that she is so painfully self-conscious she can't relate to the world, she also can't seem to walk ten feet without falling down and nearly killing herself. This ploy is used SO many times in the book (look Lassie, Bella fell down the well, better go find the Sheriff!) that it quickly loses its meaning. And besides, there is so little to like about the character of Bella that by the time she actually was in mortal danger in the book, I wouldn't have cared if she fell into a wood chipper and died. In short, the largest handicap to this book is its protagonist and that makes for serious issues in the long run.

I won't and can't understand how this book is getting so much attention, except to consider that it is the ultimate in wish-fulfillment fantasy. Everyone wants to be that person that the handsome, perfect stranger finds appealing and wants to have that Romeo-and-Juliet passionate love with the tragic twists and turns and dramatic moments. The fact is, though, that while Shakespeare could pull off something as shmaltzy as Romeo and Juliet well, Meyers just makes me feel like I'm reading bad teen fan fiction, not anything with any substance.

Wonderful love story!
I am a 37 year old married woman and I have to say, this was the best saga I've ever read (and I read, on average, a novel every two days). I was, as was mentioned by another reviewer, a little apprehensive about reading a "young adult" book, as I mostly stick to adult; however, I could not put this down. I'm not even sure I can explain what makes this saga stand out in my mind so much more than any of the other hundreds of books I've read in my adult life. The author just kind of sweeps you up and makes you feel a part of the story.

One of the main reasons women of all ages will like this book is because you don't necessarily become "besotted" with Edward Cullen, but merely the idea of someone who embodies the attributes he possesses. He is definitely a hero after a woman's own heart. I also think, as a young woman or mature woman for that matter, many of us can identify with Bella's view of herself (pleasant but ordinary yet drawn to a man she considers to be the epitome of perfection (whether anyone else sees him that way or not). I think that just captures a bit of what we have all felt at some point in our lives. The fantastical part about this and the part that makes the female reader want to "swoon" is the fact that out of all the females Edward could be interested in - he chooses Bella. Not only does he choose her, but he adores her and lives for her to the point where he overcomes his own nature to just be with her. I think this is what makes our hearts sing as we read this book.

~*Worth Reading*~
Twilight is one of my favorite books. It's a love, drama, & action story, that is very well written. It is about a girl named Bella who moves to a new town, meets a guy that she deems worth going after. His name is Edward & he has to struggle with being a vampire & falling madly in love with her. It is a book that is worth reading over & over again.