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Edward is torn by his love for Bella and his desire for her blood. Here's where the book stretches credibility a bit for anyone familiar with the vampire subgenre - Edward is 100-years-old and familiar with all of those passions that a vampire would be familiar with over the course of a life that has spanned a full century - but he's never fallen in love before, which makes his love for her all the more intense. The book tenuously explains this along with some of the questions of how a romantic relationship could work out between the two of them. Much of this is due to Edward's overwhelmingly conservative restraint from traditional vampire activity and the fact that hers is the one mind he can't read. (Oh, yeah - he's psychic.) As tenuous as it seems, the connection between Bella and Edward seems pretty firmly established by the end of the book.

As the relationship between Edward and Bella solidifies, he introduces her to the rest of his vampire family and the novel switches into a third phase heavily steeped in Meyer's particular flavor of vampire fiction. Mixing vampires with superheroes, Meyer establishes that each one has a different supernatural ability - whereas Edward can read minds, there are those who can create a supernatural calm in humans, those who can see the future and so on. Of course, all of them have superhuman strength, agility and speed, which is illustrated in a game of baseball played by the family to Bella's amazement. During the game, Edward, Bella and company run into a group of vampires with a more traditional diet. One of them takes a liking to Bella's blood, setting up the big final climax - a game of cat and mouse between the good vampires and the evil hunter.

Suffice it to say, this isn't terribly deep stuff. The episodic format of the story and its open-ended plot make it really apparent that Meyer isn't writing this to make a statement or even really tell a story. Like most episodic fiction, Twilight is there to allow author and reader an opportunity to hang out with a few somewhat fantastic characters without all of that tedious mucking about with directly interacting with the people in question. For the right kind of person (and there are several million of them worldwide) this is a fun, romantic, dreamlike fugue.

The Movie

Turning a genre novel with a huge cult following into a big budget feature film has got to be a daunting experience for any filmmaker. Responding to this stress, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg is rumored to have written the script in six weeks, turning out something remarkably comprehensive in only a month and a half. Rosenberg's script judiciously transforms some 110,000 words in the novel into two hours onscreen under the direction of Catherine Hardwicke. Hardwicke, who started out as a production designer, has helmed three films prior to this, most notably her directorial debut Thirteen in 2006. After opening night, there is no question that Twilight will stand as her greatest commercial success thus far.

Filmed largely in Oregon and Washington state, Hardwicke and company capture some of the authentic, beautiful murkiness of that section of the country. Placed in the middle of all that natural scenery is Kristen Stewart in the role of Bella. Clocking-in at roughly 18 years of age, Stewart was roughly the right age to play a high school senior during principal photography. The value of this cannot be overstated, as the character is the emotional center of the story and to have her played by someone of college age would feel woefully out of place. Stewart's performance is intelligent and visceral - by far the best aspect of the film. It's too bad she couldn't save it from its many flaws.

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