Finished

Well, I finally finished.

After months of putting it off, I took the time to read the Twilight sequels.

For me, the first book was a pretty quick read. I mean, it had its slow points, but what book doesn't? Then I picked up New Moon and just couldn't seem to get past the first three chapters. Well, maybe I read the fourth chapter, but it just didn't hold my attention at all.

Nicole said it was because the main character's main squeeze, Edward, was out of the picture. If you know anything about the book or have seen the trailer for this fall's movie adaptation, you know the vampire takes off. This makes room for Jacob, a werewolf, to step into Bella's life.

But for half of book 2, you really don't "know" that Jake is a wolf. He's just a guy who has an obvious crush on a damaged girl. Pretty boring stuff. I was told over and over that the book would get better toward the end when Edward reappeared. I just had to choke my way through book 2, because book 3 was so worth it. But I'll admit, I thought New Moon started taking off once the werewolf story began to really take shape. So I was actually okay without Edward being around.

Book 3, Eclipse, was better though. And I don't think it was because the vampire and his family were back in full force. It was because the story was better. Again it started off a little slow, but that's because there were so many threads of the tapestry that needed to build and then become woven into the whole.

But Breaking Dawn, the final book of the saga, eclipsed all the others. I'm not gonna sit here and talk about what happens in the plot, just know that throughout the great majority of the book, it's filled with suspense.

But is it the final book? On the author's website, one can find a partial manuscript for Midnight Sun. While it was intended to be a fifth book in the series, it was never a true sequel. It's really just a retelling of the original story, told from Edward's perspective, rather than Bella's. But since the manuscript was leaked onto the internet, and Stephanie Meyer didn't finish it, we may never know how the whole thing would have turned out.

But while that wasn't a real sequel, it seemed to me that she left a few plot threads hanging in Breaking Dawn that could easily be turned into another story. Time will tell.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good run. Is it worth the national obsession that the series has seemed to garner over the past few years? I don't know. I don't think so. It's a good story, but that's just it. It's a story. Harry Potter was a good story. Left Behind was a good story. But that's all they are. These books should be read purely for their entertainment value. Looking at them from that angle, then Meyer has been incredibly successful, because her books are just that, entertaining.

And just so I can say I threw a video on here, below is the trailer for New Moon. Enjoy.