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By Gilianne Kathryn L. Gantuangco, Special to
The Manila Times
This isn’t your typical romance novel for
young adults. Think vampires, werewolves and teleportation. Twilight
is the current teen fiction phenomenon. Debut novelist Stephenie
Meyer proved skeptics wrong when, just a couple of weeks after its
release, her book sold out worldwide. A fan attests on the book’s
website, “Twilight is an extraordinary love story that will stay
with you long after you have turned the last page.”
In the story, the unfussy, rebellious and
willful Isabella Swan moves to the rainy town of Forks, Washington
to live with his father after her mother got hitched to a struggling
basketball player and is just enjoying her newfound love. There, in
Forks, she becomes an instant celebrity, being the prodigal daughter
of the sheriff who moved away after her parents’ divorce without
even saying goodbye.
School is a terrifying thought to Bella. The
idea of making new friends, fitting in and pretending to like a new
place is something that binds her stomach to knots. But so far so
good, people are overly kind and warm to her, and seem to know more
things about her than she does. That is, until she makes contact
with the mysterious, dazzling and unsmiling Edward Cullen. The thing
she does not understand about Edward is his cold treatment and icy
stares.
Edward isn’t just weird. He runs faster than a
mountain lion. He can stop a moving car with his bare hands. And he
hasn’t aged since 1918. Of course, he’s a vampire.
But he’s also handsomely gorgeous and madly in
love with Bella. He also refrains from bearing his fangs and
abstains from drinking human blood. Truly a teenage hottie.
But when Laurent and James, the Cullens’
mortal vampire enemies, come to town, Edward suddenly has this
insatiable desire to taste Bella’s blood? Thus, following an
adventure of self-discovery, myth, and a love that would change
their lives forever, Twilight guarantees a new and unusual love
story.
The characters of Bella and Edward are so
contradictory that it makes their love story even more fascinating.
The powerful and compelling gothic atmosphere of the story is
balanced by the light and playful nature of the characters,
especially Bella. The Cullen vampires prove to be an endearing
family.
What sets the story apart from the other books
of similar plots is Meyer’s ability to weave a tapestry between
threads of action and all-too-serious love talks between the
characters.
This story of tortured love is a surefire
page-turner. The forbidden love between human and vampire will leave
readers breathless and excited for the other installments in the
trilogy.
Twilight is currently being adapted into a film
starring Kristen Stewart (In the Land of Women) and Robert Pattison
(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’s Cedric) to be shown in
theaters worldwide by December.
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