The “Twilight Saga” by Stephine Meyer, was (and maybe still is) one of the greatest book series of all time. It sold over 160 million copies, became a pretty successful film series and brought vampire literature back into the spotlight. Whether you were waiting outside the bookstore for the final conclusion of the series or waiting in line to watch the movie, there is no doubt that Twilight induces a sense of nostalgia for adults who grew up in the early 2000’s. But in later years, it seems that many parts of the story don’t seem right. Today I’m going to take a deep dive into Twilight and determine if it has stood the test of time and is still readable.

Bella is supposed to represent your typical teenage girl who goes to live with her father in Forks, Washington, where she eventually meets Edward. Once she does and figures out he’s a vampire, she falls head over heels in love with him, for all the wrong reasons. First of all, he snuck into her room at night and watched her sleep, literally stocks her because he thinks she might get herself in trouble, is literally drawn to the scent of her blood, and finds her compelling because he can’t read her thoughts. And it’s not just Bella who has questionable judgement; Edward literally falls in love with a girl who has no personality or appeal to him besides living to love him and reading classic literature. 

Later, when some vampires automatically target Bella, Edward tells her that she needs to leave and to say something to make Bella’s father, Charlie, think that she hates living in Forks, and wants to go home, a very controlling thing for Edward to do. Even when Edward almost kills Bella, she still sees him as dangerously cool and want to be with him forever, beginning on the night of prom.

In New Moon, Bella melts down because she’s now a year older and throws a hissy fit because the Cullens throw her a surprise birthday party (which goes badly). A week later Edwards takes her out into the middle of the woods and tells her that he doesn’t love her anymore and then leaves her alone, lost in the woods. And what does Bella do when he leaves? She goes into a deep state of depression and literally threatens her own life several times, so that she can hear Edward’s warning voice in her head. 

Then comes Jacob, who knows that Bella’s hurting and tries to move in on her, but let’s face it, he never has a real chance. She mainly flirts and hangs out with him just so that she can have a functional motorcycle upon which to invite vision of Edward. Bella also has the wonderful idea to go jump off a cliff, into freezing cold water, and nearly drowns because of her love for Edward. Unfortunately she survives and finds out that Edward is going to expose himself as a vampire, so that the Vultori will kill him prompting Bella to drop everything, hop on the next flight to Italy and nearly die in order to save him. When they get back, Bella officially decides that she wants to be a vampire, which angers both Edward and Jacob (not to mention causes a lot of trouble between the Cullens and the Quileute shapeshifters). So what does Edward do about this? He tells her that he will turn her, if she agrees to marry him.

 In Eclipse, a vampire from the first book creates a newborn vampire army to kill Bella, but let’s focus on Edward and Bella’s wedding plans now. In short, Bella agrees to marry Edward if she has a romantic honeymoon with all the trimmings and trappings, and afterwards Edward promises to turn her into a vampire. But guess who shows up in the picture, Jacob. He wants Bella to choose him because he loves her and claims that he can protect her better than Edward. Fast forward through some chapters, and the reader learns that the Cullens and the Quileute shapeshifters have formed a temporary alliance to fight the newborn army and protect Bella. Right before this battle starts, Jacob threatens Bella by saying that he will kill himself if she won’t return his love for her. And Bella (being both emotionally manipulative and manipulating) asks Jacob to kiss her (this time with her consent). Long story short, the newborn army is defeated and Edward and Bella start planning their wedding.

In Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward get married and go on their romantic honeymoon where Bella endangers her life, yet again. She’s gets pregnant with a vampire hybrid child that is slowly killing her from the inside. Despite the entire family’s wishes (except Rosalie), Bellas continues with the pregnancy with the assurance she will becomes a vampire at its conclusion and all will be well. However, the kid breaks her spine, her husband has to rip out child, and she almost dies. Fast forward three days, Bella wakes up as a vampire and her baby now looks like she should be 18 months old. Jacob imprints on the baby and now can’t stay away from her or else it will drive him crazy. The Cullens and the Vultori have a terrible misunderstanding, but they confront it and everything turns out just fine.      

Overall, rating of the series is still not that readable, mainly because of what’s going on with the three main characters. When I first read the series I was absolutely in love with it because it was the first real romance series that I actually read and enjoyed, but now I see it differently. The only thing about the books I still enjoy is their take on vampires and werewolves (although let’s be honest, they’re just shapeshifters) as well as the side characters like Dr. Cullen and Alice.They have good qualities and likable personalities. But I do have to give credit to Twilight for introducing me to romance because without Twilight, I would have never found the “Night World” series by L.J Smith. If you are starting out with romance, specifically paranormal romance, then I would not recommend this series.