Now that I started to read New Moon, the second book in the Twilight Series. I think I need to talk about the first book – Twilight a little more before I move on. At first I really don’t understand why the book was so captivating to me. As good as it is, in term of young adult fantasy series, it doesn’t have the depth of His Dark Materials, nor the complexity of the Harry Potter world. But to my surprise, it hooked me just as much as these two other series that I considered my favorite of all time. I finally narrowed down to two irrational reasons.

First, the book was told in first person point of view. Well, that wouldn’t be a “reason” at all unless you put this into the equation: Edward, the object of affection from Bella’s point of view is played by Robert Patterson, Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the upcoming screen adaptation of Twilight. I dunno about you but when I read I do envision what does the character looks like. Sometimes the movie adaptation would cast someone that just does not fit the description of the book, but sometimes, it’s so perfect that it exceeds that. In this case, it’s the latter. Therefore reading in first person’s point of view, it is so easy to put yourself in Bella’s shoes. When she said she’s staring into Edward’s marble-like eyes, you really feel like you are doing the same. That is the power and advantage of writing in first person’s point of view. Although I have to point out that the problem of writing in first person’s point of view showed up in the climax of the book in the dance studio – once Bella loses consciousness, we couldn’t “see” what is going on at all but can only found out about it from other characters. You lost that sense of “first hand experience” because you are not “there” anymore.

Second reason was entirely mine, not related to any literary style – For someone who has been denied for any kind of romance as long as I can remembered, a story of extraordinary first love is irresistible. As pathetic as it sounds, it’s a rare chance to experience the kind of emotions that I carved for, no matter if it’s happy or sad. Besides, we all know how much I enjoyed the Buffy/Angel story; to be captivated by another human/vampire is just natural~

Related posts:

1. Twilight
2. The Battle of the Labyrinth
3. The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner
4. Wasted Concept
5. Death’s Daughter

Tagged: Books · New Moon · Twilight