Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
Book Review: inexcusably written like the worst, most amateur vanity publishing (and fanfic!)
Summary: 2 Stars
Stephanie Meyer and "Twilight" are a perfect example of how "New York Times bestselling" doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the writing, only about the quantity of books sold.
I really wanted to like Twilight. I really, really did. I have a large collection of vampire fiction (and DVDs), and I'm willing to check out almost any vampire author. Sadly, I was very, very disappointed with Twilight, mainly because I read far better young adult fantasy novels and authors long before I ever read Twilight. The whole idea of an "eternal teenage" vampire (in looks, at any rate) falling in love with a *real* teen of today, was intriguing. But the book utterly fails to live up to the promise of the premise.
The main problem with "Twilight" is extremely heavy overuse of passive sentence construction. Heavy overuse. HEAVY overuse. "I was wearing...", "I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I barely knew Charlie was there," "I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused," "I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face," "I was so angry, it took me a few minutes until I could move." These are all direct quotes from "Twilight."
This dull prose style dominates the novel, making monotonous and boring that which could have been passionate and exciting -- had it been written with active, rather than passive, sentence construction. Although the story is compelling enough and Meyer's new twists on vampirism are unique, the prose style both holds back and weighs down the story and the romance. It's also a lazy style of writing. I understand when one writes a first draft, there's always less polish than later drafts. But a published novel should never be this mediocre and unprofessional. I can't believe Meyer got a multi-book deal based on "Twilight."
This passive sentence construction and lazy writing also makes the book excessively long. What Meyer needed was a good editor to tell her "I love it! These are very appealing characters and you've got a unique twist on vampires, but please clean up your sentence structure and punch up the writing with more active verbs and less passive construction."
Either Meyer did not have this kind of editor, or she was told these things, and ignored them. Either way, it makes the prose amateurish and boring to read. Whether it's adult fiction or young adult fiction, writing should be professional *quality* -- not paragraph after paragraph of the most monotonous and laziest prose style. In online fan fiction, this is a common pitfall. In published novels -- NOT from vanity publishers, either -- this is inexcusable. In fact, there's a lot of fanfic on the 'net that is written much BETTER than Meyer's "Twilight."
Take, for example, "I was so mad, I could feel the tears coming; I tried to force them back by grinding my teeth together."
"I felt my angry tears coming and ground my teeth to hold them back," is an improvement.
"I ground my teeth to hold back the angry tears I felt coming" is even better.
Here's another one: Meyer's original prose reads "I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused."
How about: "I spoke first, trying to focus" or "Trying to focus, I spoke first" ?
Yet another: "I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face..."
...versus "His livid, glorious face nearly distracted me" or "His livid, glorious face dangerously distracted me."
(Perhaps the latter is too flowery or melodramatic. The point is, it's both more SUCCINCT and has more IMPACT).
Still another example: "I was so angry, it took me a few minutes until I could move"
"For a few minutes, anger paralyzed me" flows better. "My rage paralyzed me" cuts to the chase!
This is one of the first and most basic writing lessons: SHOW, DON'T TELL.
"I was so mad, I could feel the tears coming; I tried to force them back by grinding my teeth together...." tells.
"I ground my teeth to hold back angry tears" SHOWS.
If this ONE rule of writing had been observed, it would have shortened and improved "Twilight" considerably. In fact, if the entire novel were re-written this way, it might actually do the premise and characters *justice,* which Meyer's writing simply does not.
I don't usually have problems getting through vampire fiction. But this book was a chore to read simply because of the poor writing style.
I've read a LOT of vampire novels and short stories, starting with Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" when I was in high school, the original Bram Stoker "Dracula," Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's vampire novels with St. Germain, and pretty much any other vampire fiction I could find (Todd Grimson's "Stainless" comes to mind, as does the female-authored vampire short story collection "Night Bites"), until the market became so saturated I no longer had enough time to read all the vampire books out there (and average vamp novel quality deteriorated to "Twilight"s level of mediocre).
I was a huge fan of the short-lived TV series "Forever Knight" (although it was sometimes much campier than it needed to be), then became a huge fan of "Buffy" and "Angel," and even "Blood Ties." (I loved "Moonlight" with Alex O'Loughlin, and had high hopes for the show, but it's a guilty pleasure... the show was really poorly written and highly derivative and cliche-ish, plus it had problems from the outset, which was a shame. I did recently buy the DVD series set of "Moonlight" and I watch it... guiltily.) And I'm very fond of "True Blood" (Showtime's current vampire series); I think it's off to a wonderful start, although I haven't read the books yet.
In short, it should be pretty clear that I was, am, and REMAIN a fan of quality vampire fiction, whether literary, cinematic, or in other forms (computer/video games, interactive fiction, etc.).
Please note the "quality" caveat!
When you've read "Interview with the Vampire" (which reads like an hallucinatory fever dream and -- in my opinion -- is the best of all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books)...
When you've read authors like Madeline L'Engle ("A Wrinkle In Time"), Anne McCaffrey ("Dragonsong," "Dragonsinger"), Ray Bradbury ("Something Wicked This Way Comes"), and Robert Heinlein ("Podkayne of Mars")...
...you expect much more from YA fantasy fiction than "Twilight" delivers.
Stephanie Meyer's writing is simply not in the same league as Anne Rice, Anne McCaffrey, Madeline L'Engle, or Ray Bradbury. Even Robert Heinlein's "Podkayne of Mars" is written both in first person AND in an engaging, attention-keeping style, and it evokes a truly teen female POV far better than "Twilight" does! It just blows "Twilight" out of the water as YA fantasy fiction. And I don't even like most of the rest of Heinlein's scifi/fantasy!
I realize my two-star review is but a drop in the ocean of gushy teen fan reviews.
But.
Please.
Read the young adult fiction authors and books I've noted above. Stephanie Meyer's writing in "Twilight" is simply not in the same league as those authors and their novels -- and never, ever will be.
Young adult readers should not have to compromise on quality of writing simply to get a vampire fix.
"Twilight" was so underwhelming and boring to read, I doubt I'll even start (let alone finish) the next book in the series -- certainly not if the writing style is the same. I'm really glad Amazon.com has the "Look Inside!" feature -- it will save me from wasting time and money on "Twilight" sequels.
Book Review: It would be amazing if it weren't meant to be taken seriously
Summary: 1 Stars
Twilight is a story about a girl, Bella, and a moody vampire named Edward; and their cuddling. It mainly consists of Bella describing Edward using words she doesn't understand and avoiding the word said as if it were the boogey man. Really though, if you don't understand what Twilight is about at the point you've probably been living under a rock or just plain don't care, which I cant fault you for at all. Twilight isn't exactly a book that's on my hit list. In fact it's horrible.
I'll admit that when I first read this book I thought it was fantastic, but that's because I thought it was a parody. I didn't know it was serious until it became so popular. The reason I thought it was a parody was because it was so awful. The plot, characters, and writing all reek of clichés and awful.
The "plot" and by plot I mean that thing that shows its head every 200 pages or so, revolves around Bella, a girl who I like to think is just suffering from a truly horrible inner ear infection, and Edward, a mentally unstable vampire. I had heard that this book was supposed to be about the passionate love between the deep and engrossing characters but I guess I missed those parts.
The characters in this book are anything but deep and engrossing. Bella is a heroine with all the character strength and charm of a wet tissue, and a personality to match. She is a horrible role model for any girl. She's so blinded by her "love" for Edward that she completely disregards her family, friends, common sense, and life. She doesn't care about anything out side of Edward. Without Edward she isn't a person, not even in her own mind. She thinks Edward is the only thing that makes her worth while. Sure the author tries to tell us she's intelligent by having her write papers about misogyny in Shakespeare, read Jane Austen books, or listen to other characters comment on how intelligent she is but I just couldn't buy it. She does nothing to prove she is as intelligent or clever as we are told she is. She's also described as good looking but I have difficult time believing that too because she's practically beating the boys of Forks, Washington off with a stick and I doubt it's her sparkling personality they are after.
This brings me to the secondary characters. Secondary characters are important in books, they add plot, and give more life to the world that the characters live in. In Twilight they exist to tell Bella she's amazing, annoy her, and give Bella something to look down on. None of them really serve much of a purpose outside of that. Sure there are the other vampires that give you the occasional info-dump, but they really don't add anything other than extra glitter. I also noticed something that bugged me about the secondary character. All of the good guys are gorgeous, all of the neutral people are average looking, and all of the bad guys are ugly. That really bothered me. None of the good guys were the least bit imperfect. They were all gorgeous intelligent, strong, powerful, and completely dazzling, where as the "bad" guys were unattractive, wild, and gross. It was down right shallow.
Unfortunately that's not where the character problems end. Edward is where the real awfulness lies. Edward is Bella's love interest/walking disco ball. I was told many times that by Bella that Edward is handsome, marble like, godly, and like a living Adonis. But judging by the actual descriptions of him in this book he sounds more like the love child of Kevin Federline and a Tinkerbelle with all the charm of a cardboard box with fangs and the mental stability of Jeffery Dahmer. Edward had this wonderfully amusing habit of switching between two extremes in the space of one paragraph. One minute he would be telling Bella how much he loved her, and the next he would be telling her that could lose control any minute and kill her without a second thought. He would also stalker and sneak into her bedroom to watch her sleep before he even met her. And there are girls out there who actually find this romantic. That's the really scary part. The way the relationship between Edward and Bella is portrayed as perfect is one of my big issues with this book.
I noticed other reviewers mentioning that they feel the same way about the relationship, but people seem to be misunderstanding the problems with it. I have no problem with the fact that Edward is a vampire. My problem with the relationship is that it's toxic. Edward and Bella's relationship is uneven, and even down right abusive at some points. Edward is constantly knocking Bella down by calling her silly, foolish, childish, weak, hopeless, or helpless. Bella in turn, is always talking about how she isn't good enough for Edward, and she really believes it. She doesn't think she deserves Edward, but Edward treats her horribly. He crosses the line between protective and controlling. He makes her dependant on him, and the moment she starts to assert some mild independence like expressing her own opinion or having a different idea, Edward crushes it or Bella immediately changes her mind upon finding out that Edward disagrees. This is not healthy, this is wrong, and Meyer portrays this like it's the epitome of love. It's not. What's so bad about that you may ask? The problem is girls are idolizing this relationship. I can't tell you how many girls I've heard say they want their own Edward Cullen, or that they want a relationship like this one, and that's scary. This is not a good relationship, this isn't even love. It's lust, pure and simple.
Even outside the relationship this book has a lot of problems. The writing and dialogue were painful. I was cringing as I read Edward and Bella's banter. It was like watching a bad elementary school play. Lines like "You're my brand of heroin." Or "Holy Crow!" just made me want to throw the book against the wall. Then there was the constant misuse of words. Chagrin was one word that was frequently abused. People smiled with it, people were it, and I know I certainly felt it. Meyer, to quote Inigo Montoya, "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means." It's not punctuation Meyer, you should only use once or twice and only if you know how to use it.
Pacing is another big issue in this book. The first 90% of the book is divided up between Bella moping, Bella cooking, Bella admiring Edward, Edward calling Bella silly, Bella admiring Edward, Bella falling, Bella thinking about Edward, the words chagrin growling, and chuckling, and Bella and Edward cuddling. Then, finally, we get a taste of the plot. The villain of the book finally arrives, interrupting the Cullen's family baseball game, and attacks Bella because her BO is probably steak scented.
Now I really use the term villain here loosely because I didn't feel like James was a villain. I felt like he was the real hero and victim in this story. He isn't really doing anything wrong. He's following his instinct. If vegetarians ran around killing all the non-vegetarians we would call then horrible people. Humans are made to eat meat and vampires are made to suck human blood. There nothing evil about doing what you're designed to do. And would the world really miss Bella Swan? I know I wouldn't. I've been inside her head for the past 400 pages and there is nothing there. And I know that there continues to be nothing there for the other three books. She's single handedly causing a war between an entire species. They're better off with her gone.
So in the end is Twilight a book I recommend? As a parody yes, as a real love story absolutely not. This book is horrible to the point of no return and the fact that it actually managed to get published astounds me.
Book Review: An unputdownable read!!! The first novel in an extraordinary series!
Summary: 5 Stars
I usually do not read books labeled "young adult." I am an adult, many years away from being young, (except at heart!!), and, with a few exceptions, i.e., the Harry Potter novels and "Where the Wild Fern Grows," I read literature for grown-ups. To my delight Stephenie Meyer has created an extraordinary young adult series - which I love (!!) - "The Twilight Series." "Twilight" is also the title of book one. And what original, delightful novels these are - even for someone who prefers her/his literature a bit more sophisticated. I could not put the first book down, literally...and will begin book two, "New Moon," as soon as I finish writing this review. Believe me, there's a reason that more than 10 million "Twilight" series books are in print. They are addictive!
As an aside....I did see both "Twilight films," "Twilight" and "New Moon," which are now playing in theaters or on DVD. The movie versions are outstanding and true to the original storylines. The movie characters really resemble those I had in my mind's eye as I read and imagined what Ms. Meyer's world, and the folks who people it, look like. And the books' characters, especially Bella and Edward, are amazingly well depicted. Although all four books are on the market now - great Christmas presents for those uninitiated in "The Twilight Series" - there are 2 more films in the making to complete the movie series.
Isabella Swan is seventeen - a typical teen, good looking but somewhat clumsy. She is adapting herself to her long limbs and changing body. Her parents have been divorced since "Bella," as she is called, was a baby. She and her Mom live in sunny Phoenix, Arizona, where she has few friends. Bella is shy and is somewhat of an outcast amongst her peers. She is a moody and private person. But she gets along with her mother - miracle of miracles for an adolescent girl/young woman. Bella is also this stories narrator, so the reader experiences everything from her point of view.
Each year she visits her father, Charlie Swan, the chief of police in rainy, dreary Forks, Washington. These annual visits have been more of a torture than a treat for Bella. The constant rain, boredom and loneliness would get anyone down, except for those used to life in Forks. She has only three friends there - Jacob Black, a Native American of the Quileute tribe, (also a teen - and a handsome one at that), his father, Billy Black, and tribal leader Sam. All three are absolutely fascinating and original characters. They have known Stephanie since she was a toddler. The 3 of them have always regaled her with ancient Quileute legends.
Bella's mother, Renee, is about to travel with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player, to Florida for spring training. Bella has little choice - she can move with her mother and stepfather to Florida, or go to Dad in Forks. She decides to go to Dad so as not to be a third wheel in her newly wedded mother's marriage. Bella, is not a selfish person. She tends to consider others' needs before her own, a trait that can bring her joy, but can also endanger her life.
It is in Washington that major changes effect Bella's world. Once installed at Forks, she is not reticent about expressing her displeasure to Charlie, who would do anything to make his daughter happy - except move away from his home. When she begins high school, the lovely Bella, the new kid on the block, surprisingly finds herself very popular. With all the attention she receives, she is quickly befriended by a several students. Unused to being the center of attention, she is dismayed to find that many boys/young men compete for her favors. And she begins to enjoy living with her easy-going, somewhat introverted father. But Bella, who is more embarrassed than flattered by her newfound popularity, has eyes for only one boy - the dazzlingly handsome, aloof, charismatic, Edward Cullen. He is the most beautiful person she has ever seen, with his golden hair, and his dark brooding eyes - even his voice is mesmerizing. Edward is the youngest son of the mysterious and reclusive Cullen family. He and his four siblings, also noticeably beautiful, sit apart from the others, at a separate table, during lunch....but they never eat. He watches her intently, but alternates between interest in Bella and what appears to be anger at her.
When Edward and Bella are assigned to be lab partners in chemistry class, he avoids working with her or even looking at her. As a matter of fact, he is downright nasty. However, when an accident almost ends Bella's life, Edward saves her in a most non-human way. It is than when Bella discovers that Edward and his family are "benevolent vampires" who have vowed never to drink human blood. They hunt animals, and the blood of deer, mountain lions, bears, etc., is their source of sustenance. They don't eat - except for animal blood - so they dine in private. They do not sleep, and of course, they all have the usual vampire super human powers...and then some. They are all extremely sophisticated, accomplished and alluring. They can walk in daylight but their skin gleams and glitters in direct sunlight. These strange and potentially dangerous beings, unlike the characters in most vampire fiction, seem to have hearts and souls. So as not to give themselves away, they are happiest when it rains and is dark and misty outside. The head of the household, Carlisle, is a respected doctor in the community, whose citizens have no idea that there are vampires in their midst, although Jacob and his Native American tribe know.
So Bella and Edward grow close as friends, and then they fall intensely in love. They yearn for each other - and although the word "yearn" may sound corny, it really describes their feelings for each other. "Twilight" is labeled "young adult" because there is no culmination of the couple's strong sexual attraction. They do not have a sexual relationship. However, there is much sensuality here and plenty of erotic kissing. Actually, I think the abstinence gives the feeling of more passion than usual - more sexual tension. Edward is a gentleman and also fears that intercourse with Bella might harm her...him being a super strong vampire and all.
As Bella says, "About three things I was absolutely positive: first, Edward was a vampire; second, there was a part of him -- and I didn't know how dominant that part might be -- that thirsted for my blood; and third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." Bella also discovers the reason behind Edward's initial hostility toward her. He is torn between his desire to love her and the desire to devour her. He is afraid his vampire nature might become stronger than his self control.
I do not want to give the plot away. Let it suffice to say there are multiple storylines and much danger here - to Bella and her family. And there is love. Plus, the Native Americans are more than what they seem.
Whatever flaws there are in this novel, (it IS fantasy fiction!), the magical narrative overcomes them threefold! I am thrilled that I have 3 more books to read in the series. This one is exceptional!
Jana Perskie
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)
Book Review: Vampirism as a metaphor for sex
Summary: 5 Stars
When was the Golden Age of Science Fiction? The late 1930s to the 1950s, when science fiction became widely popular and many classic science fiction stories were published. The joke answer is that the Golden age of Science Fiction is 14, the age when many science fiction readers become fans. I know I read my first scifi when I was 13 or 14 so maybe they are right.
Lately scifi fandom, in which I include not just the fans but writers, podcasters and publishers, want to catch the next generation of fans and have been pushing Young Adult Science Fiction, scifi for kids in their teens and maybe early twenties. I'm not immune to this campaign so I've been reading some of it myself. First, I got Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy. It was light but okay. Then I got Twilight, the first of Meyers' books about a clumsy girl and the vampire who loves her.
My first impression of the book was that it was BIG. It was a thick book. Once I opened it I realized it was big inside. Big font. Big line spacing. It reminded me that what publishers are basically selling is a paper product. The more paper they sell, the thicker the book, the more they can charge. The actual arrangement of ink on the page is usually the cheapest part of their product. Twilight is a big book. It might be classified as Young Adult Speculative Fiction but it was great as Old People Going Blind Fiction as well. As an old person going blind I found the font and the line spacing made it a lot easier for me to read than the tiny fonts in real books. I didn't have to put on my special adjustable glasses and put it down a lot because my eyes were freaking. BIG FONTS. It was easy to read.
It was a little slow to start. I didn't really find the girl, Bella, interesting. She seemed rather ordinary. There's a vagueness to her that reminds me of superhero comic books. They leave the faces of the superheroes sketchy so the reader can imagine themselves in that role. In the same way Bella is vague so the reader can imagine herself as Bella. It's not even clear if Bella is particularly pretty (except to Edward) but when the vampires appear, going to high school to give themselves a paper trail and a backstory that will allow them to live among humans, there are pages devoted to their beauty. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful vampires. Beautiful and irresistible so their prey cannot resist them. But this family of vampires is vegetarian. They don't eat people but Bella's vampire Edward can barely restrain himself from taking her. The descriptions of the teen vampires are very much how girls, how I, viewed many boys when I was that age. They did seem just as beautiful to me as Edward seems to Bella. I used to sit in class and covertly watch them. Edward's hard flesh was like the hardness of young male flesh as their hormones turned them, almost overnight, into something different, something alien. I hit my teenaged brother a couple of times (he deserved it) and it was like hitting a log. I hurt my hands more than I hurt him. And teenaged boys, beautiful as many are, are often monsters. So the entire metaphor of vampire = teenaged boy = monster = object-of-desire works.
Like Shakespeare has multiple layers and can be read for the plots, for the characterizations, for the sex and violence, for the dirty jokes, for the philosophy, for the language, Twilight, as simple as it is, has several layers. The entire Bella/Edward relationship is a metaphor for the relationship between teenaged girls and boys as they fight their instinct to have sex, sex that might destroy them. Maybe it's not like that today with birth control and abortion but when I grew up the struggle between guys and girls was to not have sex. The girl was supposed to be in charge of that but the better guys shared it, fought against their desire to have sex and maybe ruin the life of the girl who gave in. In the same way Edward fights against giving into this instincts and taking Bella, consuming her. As much as he is driven he fights against his desire. He also fights against her desire to become like him, to become a vampire, to lead her into damnation. He believes that he lost his soul when he was transformed and he doesn't want to be the weapon that deprives Bella of hers. The whole thing is a metaphor for sex, at least sex in the life of a Mormon housewife, which was what Meyers was 5 years ago.
Meyers has linked various works to each book in the series. Pride and Prejudice to Twilight. Romeo and Juliet to New Moon. Wuthering Heights to Eclipse. Midsummer's Night's Dream to Breaking Dawn. This adds another layer to each of the stories. In Twilight Edward, at first, seems cold and withdrawn, like Mr. Darcy, but that is because, like Mr. Darcy, he is trying to control and conceal his growing desire for an unsuitable girl. I think telling the Romeo and Juliet elements in New Moon would be too spoilery. In Eclipse, there are two guys in love with the same girl, in a relationship very much like Cathy, Heathcliff, and Edgar Linton. And in the final book, Breaking Dawn, first you have two men magically in love with the same girl then two immortal families struggling over a magical child like in A Midsummer's Night Dream. All of the connections are pretty weak but it adds a nice additional layer to the books and that lets you run the similarities and differences over in your mind.
The Twilight Saga, like Austen's novels, the Bronte sisters' works and even Romeo and Juliet, are pretty much girl books, the text version of chick flicks. Meyers is writing about love and romance at its most melodramatic extreme. I don't know that a male could tolerate them. Well, unless he got off on the idea of being the superhero protecting an accident-prone, trouble-magnet girlfriend from all the dangers of the world or secretly hanging out in her bedroom, watching her as she sleeps. (Edward takes stalking to a whole other level.) Like Austen's novels, the Twilight novels, especially the first one, have a strong Cinderella element. Most of Austen's heroines are ordinary girls, usually without much money, who get the best, richest, most good-looking guy in the novel. Like Cinderella they get the prince. Just so Twilight is the story of how Bella, the ordinary girl, gets the superhero vampire.
So there are at least three layers to the Twilight Saga. It makes it all a little better. Gives you something else to read into it no matter how preposterous the story is.
Of course, I loved them, though I am kinda disgusted about that. Teenaged love, the vampire and the virgin. God, how ridiculous is that? Yet as soon as I finish one of Meyers' books I start rereading the parts I like best then reread the whole thing. After six days I'm almost through my third reading of Breaking Dawn. I don't know why her books ring my bells. They make me feel kinda manipulated but still I find them addictive.
This summer Meyers also released the scifi book Host which I recommend. It is pretty straight forward scifi about an alien parasite living in the brain of a human and changed by it. The parasite finds herself loving the people that her host loved and driven to be with them. In a sense it's a rewrite of I Married a Monster From Outer Space but without the sex. No sex before marriage in books by Mormon housewives! I've already read it three times too. I try to blame that on the nice big font!
Well, at least it's over. It will be a while before Meyers can get another book out and until then I can pretend I have better taste than this. Though I'm not embarrassed about liking Host. That one was okay.
Book Review: Art or craftsmanship?
Summary: 4 Stars
[This review will make more sense to those who have read the book. It reveals a number of things a reader might prefer to discover by reading the book.]
A novel cannot become as popular as "Twilight" unless something about it appeals to a lot of people. It can't just be vampires, or teen angst, or forbidden love; novels with such themes can be found in virtually mass produced abundance on bookstore shelves nationwide. And a book doesn't typically go from conception to publication in 6 months (per Stephenie Meyer) unless it has something to recommend it. We'll see if it stands the test of time; whether Meyer is more Salieri or Mozart. But some current analysis might be worthwhile.
"Twilight" does seem to incorporate some of the most important themes in literature: the difference between perception and reality; the fundamental importance of love as the means to redeem an otherwise meaningless life; and the difference between the permanence of what we can create and the temporal nature of existence.
The first thing I noticed was that Edward refers to himself time and again as a "monster". For someone who is as well read as Meyer appears to be, given the way she says she conceived the novel -- she had a dream and started writing it as soon as she could when she awoke -- she must have had in mind a parallel to Mary Shelley's creation of "Frankenstein".
The difference between Mary Shelley's hideous and ignorant creation and Edward is striking -- Edward is incredibly beautiful and remarkably intelligent -- but more significant is the fact that both Shelley's and Meyer's monsters share the capacity to feel deeply; in other words, despite being inhuman, they both might have a soul.
Meyer is obvious in saying outright that Edward worries about having a soul -- his father, the vampire who "created" him, is the son of a minister, for heaven's sake -- and he and his family are almost obsessed with trying to appear as human as they possibly can seem while knowing they can never actually bridge the gap. Dr. Cullen's efforts to "save" lives rather than take them makes you wonder if he is supposed to be a Christ figure (in the later books Meyer turns this suggestion upside down, but that's getting ahead of ourselves); but it demonstrates that Edward's initial physical and murderous attraction to Bella is tempered not by love -- he doesn't fall for her right away as no doubt book 5 will make clear -- but by selfish instincts, and he simply determines to keep her away from him.
Bella is easier to figure out, but then she's the narrator. She sees that Edward is different. He is beautiful (so she's a bit shallower than she wants to think she is -- that's not unrealistic). He's interesting (a lot more interesting than her bubble-headed podunk town friends). And she is bothered that he is so openly hostile toward her for no apparent reason. Apathy she can take and even doesn't mind, but her self image is shaken by Edward's hostility and -- a wallflower at other times -- with this provocation, even unintended, she wants to confront him.
Then he saves her life by a feat of super-, well non-human strength and speed. Cue the violins. But he also tries to snow her. She didn't see what she thinks she saw. No one will believe her if she describes it. And, worse than unthinking hostility, he now implies that she can't be trusted if he tells her the truth. Bella is morally vain; sees herself as being more mature, ethically and otherwise, than those around her (she mothers her own mother and cooks for and cleans up after her father).
This brings into play the other significant aspect of Edward's and Bella's relationship: Like Lear and Cordelia, or Romeo and Juliet (the latter pair again obviously referenced in a later book), there is great love between the protagonists but also great misunderstanding. They are continually at cross-purposes because, unlike with everone else, Edward cannot read Bella's mind. Edward's ability and its limit are essential as plot devices as much for resolution of the external conflict (the nomadic vampire attack) as for the central interior development of the characters whose relationship matters most in the novel. Twilight is the time of day when we can see least clearly; Edward and Bella can't truly perceive each other except through the dimness of their own misconceptions.
Edward is emotionally attracted to Bella initially because he wants to understand her -- to him, she is as different as he appeared to her and in a more significant way. Her astonishing disregard of the physical danger of loving him demonstrates her unrecognized emotional immaturity, but for her this weakness is strength as she admits no emotional half-measures: she is irrevocably in love and that is all that matters. Even her own death is insignificant. She would never let someone she loves expose themselves thus (even Edward, the immortal), but she cannot help doing it to herself.
For Edward, this is his own brand of heroin, but not the way he uses that term (when he says that, he means wants her blood): it is acceptance by someone in the human world -- and acceptance as he is and not as he pretends to be (Bella is unconditionally in love). He has been unable to form a vampire attachment, like the others in his non-human world, for over 100 years. Edward is as self-denyingly self-righteous in his moral view of himself as is Bella. In this way, as well as in the lack of insight into the other's real feelings they repeatedly exhibit, Edward and Bella are perfectly compatible, and give each what the other needs while failing to properly recognize that fact or at least grasp its implications.
Bella does realize she can only truly be Edward's soul mate if she becomes a vampire, and she longs for that even though she may in the process abandon her soul (this is what Edward fears even more than her human death). It's a risk she is prepared to take, but Edward is not prepared to let her take it. The book ends with the lovers agreeing to disagree and hoping for the best.
The book does not resolve the main issues it raises and thus it is best read together with the other three books (and the fifth if there will be one). To the extent there is closure, the most that can be learned from Bella's perspective (the perspective of the book) is that people have to accept their mortality, which means there is only so much time to make the best of our lives.
This is something Edward must learn too because he may only have Bella for the length of her human life and no longer. He has the power to make her immortal but may lack the self-restraint to avoid killing her in the process. He literally has the power of life (or, a sort of life) and death in his teeth. He thinks he does not want to make that choice, but his inaction is also a choice. And Bella thinks, who is he to decide for her what risk she is ready to take? So the misunderstanding between them continues, and their relationship has not yet reached its full maturity.
Edward and Bella are fated to continue to hurt each other and themselves through their lack of understanding; how that gets resolved, if at all, is for the further novels. But at least it can be said that Meyer has written an interesting novel, and if it proves not to be deserving of immortality, she seems to have the promise of someday writing a novel that will.