So I avoided reading Twilight for a long time, partly because most everyone I talked to about it either loved it unconditionally or kept complaining about the whiny nature of the main character Bella, the utter “teenage”hood of the book, or other such points of displeasure. I accepted these words, these criticisms, and just kept my nose out of the book…

Until recently.

My defense of Twilight comes from this angle, from someone encouraged NOT to read the series because of its flaws. I’ve never seen the movie but I’ve certainly seen a lot of the trailers and ads for it, so I’ve already got the two main characters (Bella and Edward) stuck in my mind. I have also read Stephanie Meyer before (The Host is one of my favorite contemporary books) and I know a bit about her as an author. So. I picked up Twilight not expecting much, thinking I might get a kick out of some cheap romance story….

So wrong.

Yes, it is a love story. Yes, it is doomed from the beginning. Yes, it involves hearing every moment from the perspective of a 17 year old girl who has like, zero self confidence and can be a bit helpless at times. BUT. but but but. I’d argue that Meyer’s real talent lies in two areas: moving the storyline forward through her amazingly adept descriptions of emotional interplay between characters, and re-building a famous mythical being to fit her well-tailored literary world.

Bella is young. And whiny, and unsure of herself, and ridiculous at times. But not to a degree that it’s not believable or even annoying. (At least in this first book.) I was not her when I was younger, I was the boisterous giddy girl who was everyone’s friend and was always talking. She’s quiet, reserved, just wants to fit in, blah blah blah. But you know what? I didn’t HAVE to be her to get her. I knew that Meyer had already grown up as her, as Bella, and that this story probably first sparked when she was daydreaming as a 17 year old Mormon girl about her own possible romantic interactions with the boys around her. I feel like, because I know the author and what she’s been through, Bella has a special place in my heart as forgiveably human. She’s insecure at the right moments, she’s strong and passionate in the right moments, she’s just… spot on.

Another thing that might annoy readers is Bella’s fragility and damsel-in-distress nature. She’s seemingly helpless at most any given point in the book, and there’s a lot of man-handling by the super-strong Edward that goes on throughout the novel. Again, this just reminds me of Meyer’s own romantic preferences and it echoes the interaction between male and female in her other novel as well. She’s obviously grown up in a world where the female is fragile, needs protection, can show strength at times but also needs rescuing, and the male is meant to be that salvation. I’m NOT calling her sexist or anything, not by a long shot… I’m just saying I think those who have criticized her for being so can’t really see where she’s coming from.

The writing is fantastic. It captivates you, forces you to pay attention to who’s reading whose face, who can’t understand whose comments, etc etc. She also has a PERFECT grasp on how to flesh out the hesitant flirtation and frustration of a brand new teenage relationship. She’s like, a literary cock-tease. When the lovers FINALLY kiss it’s like a release of tension that couldn’t be better if there were penetration involved. And her ability to build up this tension, to describe this romantic back and forth between the two, totally disguises the fact that these kids are confessing their undying love to each other halfway through a novel that has held NO REAL BASIS for this love. I mean, if you look at is as a rational adult, they’ve flirted in school, he’s “rescued” her several times but hasn’t actually talked to her, they have nothing in common… and then they’re saying they love each other before the torrent of questions to get to know each other.

Hmm.

Only in a world cemented by that unfathomable but undeniable pull of the teenage crush could such claims of love be taken seriously. And I do. In fact, after this first book I’m rooting for Bella to become a vampire herself.

The concept of a vampire is re-shaped, re-molded to fit a different world, a contemporary world. Meyer knows her way around science fiction, she’s proven that in her adult fiction, so her adaptation of this ancient myth is extremely well done and believable. Bella’s encounter with Edward in the halls of an average Oregon high school are exactly what I’d imagine meeting a real vampire would be like. Something’s off, something’s odd, but you can’t quite place it until you’ve been enveloped in the absurd truth.

Mmkay, I think that’s enough of my defense. The quality of writing, the finite understanding of the teenage brain in love, and the ability to help the reader over the hurtles of fantasy are what have convinced me to take a stand for Twilight. Now, it’s on to the next book in the series.