In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

The Twilight Saga (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn) - Stephenie Meyer
2005-2008

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       There are few books which I love more than the Twilight Saga.  If you follow my blog, you probably have read at least once where I lament how much more difficult it is to write about a book I love than a book I dislike.  With disliking, I usually can point out criticisms and specific things I am not a fan of or think is dreadful, but with books I like or love, it is so much harder for me to formulate how and why I love them so much.

       First, let us start with Bella Swan, the heroine of this series.  She is possibly the most perfect protagonist of any novel I have ever, ever read.  From the opening pages we learn of her sacrifices: the loss of her friends, her home, and her mother's constant company, as she allows her mother to move across the country to live with her boyfriend, an up-and-coming minor league baseball star.  Instead, she shall be exiled to Forks, Washington state, a wet and dreary world that is a far cry from her home in sunny Phoenix.

       Over the epic saga she constantly risks her life for love and her family. Throughout the second tome, she repeatedly risks her life to in risky events to simply believe that she can hear her beloved, Edward.  And, even just falling in love with Edward is a risk, as they are star-crossed lovers: she mere mortal teenage girl, like the virginal Juliet, and he, vampire for whom the very life's blood passing through her body is like the finest claret which can only, barely and with great personal struggle epic fortitude, be passed over.

       But yet she must make more decisions, for she also loves another, the young Jacob, a sworn enemy to Edward by his birthright and heritage.  Throughout the novels you can clearly see her writhing in agony over this impending decision.  How can one break not only one lover's heart but also her own as she cannot be with both?  It is, at the most base, drama in the purist sense of the word.  And, on top of all of this, she may have to pass up other important life opportunities like higher education at university for her love!  Not only that, but also when she becomes with child, she says, I paraphrase "I should rather die than lose this child for my love of the unborn in my bosom is greater than all the stars combined!" even as the child, still in her womb, slowly saps her own life and breaks her bones.  Truly, she is a heroine to be admired by generations by demonstrating such great morals to the reader.  I would be remiss if I failed to mention this especially light of how she reacts to her beloved sneaking into her room late at night and watching her sleep or, when he leaves her for her own good, continues to get into risky situations simply to imagine she can feel and hear him! 

       And yet, in the final of the four novels comprising the main body of the Twilight Saga, the author cleverly breaks away from the main action with Bella, to show how her cast off suitor fares, as he tries to still protect his beloved and her unborn, spurned though he has been by her.  By doing this, the author demonstrates how wonderful Bella is as a character, as even someone tossed aside by her would risk his life in service to her!

       The climatic ending of the series in Breaking Dawn is beyond words in greatness.  It is, without a doubt, masterful in its simplicity of a climax.  Years after having read this series, I still cannot describe adequately with words to do it justice.  I know it is controversial to some, but this may be among the greatest stories ever told.  Stephenie Meyer is likely among the greatest authors of the modern era, if not possibly all time.  In Twilight, she creates the classic tale of the love triangle between Bella Swan, the innocent and sacrificing heroine,  Edward her bloodthirsty suitor, and Jacob his rival for her hand which undoubtedly is a stroke a masterwork and possibly one of the quintessentially great American novels, essentially broken up in four parts.

I cannot more highly recommend these books.  It is literature at it's finest echelon. 

Rating: 4.1 out of 4