Twilight – the novel by Stephenie Meyer – A review by a Guy
I guess I should not really emphasize the fact that I am male and have read a book which has a massive following amongst teenage girls – but I really liked it. I had to read about half of it before I got drawn in though. Twilight has a very slow start, the author spent too much time in character and scene development which was not necessary at all as I came away with Forks (the setting) as being dull.
The main character – Bella, is another story. The book is about her, everything centers around her but why? She is portrayed as clumsy with low self esteem and and does not think of herself as beautiful. However from the moment she steps in Forks, all the guys at her school are after her, the vampire is after her…and falls in love with her. Ok this is explained further along and I can understand. But Bella’s perception of herself does not change and So my next point is why is there legions of girls, young women and even older women who have read the book and in turn fall in love with Edward (the vampire)?
This portrayal of Bella was what interested me the most. While Fi (who lent me the book in the first place) profeses her love for Edward, I really think he has a secondary role overall. It was great to see this contrast. I have not spoken to any single girl who would say anything about Bella, it is always Edward, Edward, Edward. In turn I don’t really know any guys who have read this book so I can’t tell what other guys might think of Twilight. Notice I am approaching Twilight a bit differently. I wanted to read the book to see for myself what was so appealing about it. It is not a particularly well written book although there are alot of places where I can see the author has tried very hard to give her best. That has worked for the most part; I can definetely see the appeal Twilight would have at the audience it is aimed at. If I put myself in that same mindset, I will admit I really liked it, but only after Meyer actually moved on to an actual story and not scene setting. However by the end of the book I could identify with Twilight’s appeal without any problems and strangely without any guilt (its not really in the male stereotype 
.
Ok,ok the book had a slow start but I liked it. I liked it enough that I finished the next book, New Moon within two days, which I liked even more that I’ve bought the whole set. And no as a guy I am not ashamed to admit this. I’ll have a review of New Moon up soon.
