Twilight Thoughts

I too love this book and I read New Moon as soon as I finished Twilight. I hate starting a series before it is finished. I am so impatient waiting for the next book! Hopefully August will come quickly. :)

First of all- I moved to the Seattle Area from sunny California in the middle of high school. Unlike Bella though I did not find Seattle depressing and dark. It actually rains more in the Midwest than it does in Seattle. I was a little offended by her negative Northwest comments but I got over that quickly. :) I love the characterizations in this book. Bella is great. She is so passionate and focused and dramatic and drawn to the dangerous. Totally 17. I get a little annoyed - like Laurenda- that she doesn't understand the thirst or that when Edward talks about making mistakes he is talking about people dying. It is more evident in New Moon that she just doesn't really get what it means to be a Vampire for all of her desire to be one. She sees Edward and his family and how powerful they are and how beautiful they are and wants that but doesn't understand the price that Power and Beauty comes at. I love her insecurities about how she looks. Stephanie M. doesn't overdo them they are just right. Bella just kind of takes for granted that she is not as beautiful (although it is pointed out in the book that she is much more beautiful than she realizes). My favorite description of Edward is in the meadow when he tells her that he is the perfect predator. He is attractive(bait) and fast and deadly. I wondered at his intentions with her in the meadow. It seems amazing to me that someone with one hundred years to mature would fall in love with a 17 yr old- even one as self-less as Bella. BUt now he has saved her too many times. I think he is noble and genuine but still deadly. I want them to have a happy ending but I'm not sure how - since becoming a vampire is not the best idea for Bella. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

I love love love the way that Alice sees the future. I love that it changes from decision to decision rather than staying firm. It's perfect. It is so true to life that our outcome relies on the decisions that we make- sometimes seemingly inconsequential decisions can change our whole future because of the chain of little decisions that result.

On a funny note, I thought it interesting that when first describing the Cullens Stephanie M. describes the dark circles under their eyes and then continues to describe how unhumanly beautiful they are. I think it gives hope to all moms or students with no sleep that you can be unhumanly beautiful and have dark circles under your eyes. :)

I wonder how much if anything should be read into the dark skinned hot Indian/werewolf vs. pale white cold refined/vampire. It is set up to be good vs evil but she twists it so that there is no good side or bad side. It is unclear still who is the monster- if anyone. Everyone has the capability to be a monster or to control the monster. Bella is a monster to her Dad when she throws her Mom's words back in his face. She chose to let the monster out for his protection. The men on the street in Port Angeles who almost attack Bella are monsters and just as dangerous to Bella as Edward. Edward chose to unleash his monster for a while in his youth but only on Human Monsters. Which begs the question of is there a place and time when it is appropriate to act monstrously? Or is it just a slippery slope? It seems that over and over again when the characters act monstrously they just create more problems and more hard questions for themselves. Edward stopped being a monster because he wasn't sure if he was avting any better than the people he killed. He wasn't sure if his victim's intended victim would look on him as a savior or as an equal threat. Bella keeps trying to sacrifice herself to take away the danger and causing more danger. I can't wait until the third book to see the direction that Stephanie takes it. I love that I can't predict it.

I love the flow of this book, the passionate force behind it and the characterizations. Even her two-dimensional characters- like Jessica and Mike- are interesting. Well, Bella's interactions with them are interesting which makes them interesting. This is my kind of fateful romance.