Feature story

The recent “Twilight phenomenon” has affected many fans of the movie Twilight. With New Moon selling $69.6 million in its first days, and Twilight selling $70.5 million in its first weekend, the third installment of the series, Eclipse is sure to be a hit. The book series Twilight has been a hit among teen girls, and women since its debut in 2005. There are four books in the series, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Ever since mid 2008 the series have gotten extremely popular and sales of the books have sky rocketed. The series has a different appeal then other romance novels to, realism. The series are written so well that the reader is falling in love with Edward right along with Bella. The immense detail in the books draws readers in and pulls them deeper and deeper into the story. The vampire family, even though they are vampires they are very realistic and relatable. Bella is a stereotype teenage girl. All girls can relate to Bella and all guys can look up to Edward. The story starts out when Bella moves from Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her dad. She is seated next to Edward Cullen at lunch and they begin talking. Her new friends at her new school are skeptical against her and Edward because he is very hard to get to know and he never opens up to anybody. Throughout the story they fall in love and he reveals his family’s secret of them being vampires. The story is about them falling in love and then later in the story they fight against the evil vampires Laurent, Victoria and James. All the while they are keeping the secret that the family are vampires. There has not been many romance movies that can live up to Twilight’s hype, or even any movie. There have been many different reviews on the second installment of the movie ranging from “I did find this film to be a little better then Twilight because of the romantic triangle aspect. That and the other plot developments add some complexity and suspense making the film enjoyable”, to “oh God, make it stop”. When I asked a friend of mine about her thoughts of the Twilight saga, she replied “oh I love the Twilight saga; I have never been able to not put a book down while reading it.” But when I asked my mom, she just replied with “I have never even seen the movie and I do not know where the hype and excitement is coming from”. The Twilight saga has many times been compared to Harry Potter. The same excitement and obsessiveness overcomes Harry Potter fans just like it overcomes Twilight fans. They have put down Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight saying she can not write “worth a darn” and does not compare to J.K Rowling. If you asked her fans, they would have a totally different take on those comments. There have even been religious leaders questioning the plot line and characters of Twilight. They say that Bella is willing to give up herself to a man and that the way they fall in love is not healthy and she gives up everything for him. Being a very big fan of the Twilight saga myself, I disagree 100%. There is nothing religious about the movie Twilight and if you can relate religion to this movie, then you can criticize just about any movie for not being a positive role model for young people. There is a lot of criticism that comes with a movie being a big time hit. The Twilight saga also forces readers to choose sides in the movie, either Team Edward or Team Jacob. In all four installments of the series Jacob is in love with Bella, all the while that Edward is with her, This causes a tension between Jacob and Edward and even Bella, because in Eclipse she is forced to pick between to two men. There are positives about each character and they make readers fall in love with either character. Jacob is safe, warm, secure and reliable. But Edward is rugged, strong, and attractive and is her first love. But after Bella chooses Edward, Jacob is still in her life because he imprints on Bella’s daughter, to be born in Breaking Dawn, Reneesme. The rivalry between the wolves and vampires is a very important one; it brings mystery in the beginning of the saga and also creates a plot line in New Moon as well. Some people also say that Breaking Dawn “ruined” the series. Breaking Dawn is also where most of the religious criticism comes from. In my opinion, Breaking Dawn is not one of the better books that Stephanie Meyer wrote in the Twilight series. In the story Edward and Bella get married, and they leave for their secret honeymoon that only Bella does not know the destination to. They arrive and try to have sex because that is what Bella wants. But due to Edward’s violent and aggressive nature, they cannot accomplish it without Edward being in fear of killing Bella. But after a few tries they master it. Bella gets pregnant and the newlywed couple rushes home. They find out that the baby is half vampire and half human, and while Bella is in labor the very strong baby begins to kill her. Edward has to bite her and expose her to his venom in order to keep her alive, therefore turning her into a vampire. That is what gets most criticism, that the book is too violent and shows an example of a woman doing anything to please her husband and that she gave up everything for Edward. As a Twilight fanatic fan myself, I can relate to everybody that is anticipating Eclipse, due for release in theatres June 30th, 2010 and understand why everybody can fall in love with Twilight so easily. It is everything you would even want in a book and movie all in one. You have romance, suspense, action and in some parts horror. It brings all those genres together very well. With sales from New Moon even higher then Twilight, I expect that Eclipse will break the box office. Everybody has something they can relate to in the Twilight series and with the Twilight phenomenon under full swing, why not check it out for yourself and see if you are truly a Twilight fanatic, just like me?