Immaculate Obsession

Wait, Philip. Didn’t you already write a Twilgiht review?

Yes, but I was crazy, biased, and it kinda sucked. This is a redo. I own the blog, and I’m allowed until people start complaining. Cheers.

Its actually refreshing when an undercurrent idea hits the main stream. Stephenie Meyer’s first book in the Twilight Saga quatrology takes an idea that has been stewing in the underbelly of fantasy thought, namely the idea that vampires can be rather excellent chaps when they’ve forced themselves to stop drinking human blood, and brings that idea into the shining, prismatic light of the bestseller list.

Now I know there are those who would say that the idea of “good” vampires has been around for at least a few decades, but the blood-sucking (yes, the vampires in Twilight suck blood, but the ones we like don’t suck human blood at all) members on the side of the protagonist take this farther. They try to be good and peaceful. None of them draws a modified robotic katana and slays other vampires while taking hits of a human-blood drug replacement. Yes, I’m looking at you Wesley Snipes.

So, as I launch into the bloody meat of this review (yes, I know I’m not that witty), let me start by saying that the humanity expressed in this book is more real than in a lot of other Fantasy novels with only human casts. Part of that realism comes from the fact that the “good” vampires in Twilight do not serve as a foil to the humanity of the non-vamps, but express incredible depths of humanity themselves.

As I am now tired of saying (quote) good (unquote) vampires when I could be writing one word, A taste of the plot follows: Isabella Swan, Bella to both her bloodsucking and omniverous friends, is forcing herself to live with her father in the remote town of Forks, Washington. This in order to make life easier on her drastically immature mother who’s touring the country with her rock star boyfriend. (Man, that didn’t sound nearly as weird in my head…) Upon arriving in the spectacularly small town of Forks, where Bella’s dad is the chief of police, Bella is thrown into the cloak-and-dagger cut-and-thrust of small town society. If that sounded a little sarcastic, it was, but luckily Meyer qucikly moves on to what is obviously the secondary focus of the book, the Cullen family. Comprised of five high-school age kids and their parents, the Cullen family children are stand-offish from rest of the student population, and Bella is advised by her newly minted friends to not even try getting acquainted, with the pale-complexioned, supermodel-esque Cullen children. Bella, of course, immediately notices a Cullen brother by the name of Edward, and sparks fly. Bella summons all the cool and courage she can simultaneously muster, and is repeatedly snubbed. I’m going to go fast now.

Bella is almost killed in an accident in the school parking lot, but is saved by Edward, who seems to stop a car with his bare hands. This makes Bella even more interested in Edward, despite the fact that an old friend named Jacob Black makes Bella suspicious of the fact that the CUllen family might actually be vampires, a fact she confronts with and gets confirmed by Edward. In a moment of either spetacular love or ludicrous insanity (I’m in favor of both here, actually), Bella decides she doesn’t care that Edward could kill her as easily as she can breathe, and sticks to her guns on that fact for the rest of the book. Edward, displaying amazing will power and sense of right, keeps trying to push Bella away for her safety but is irresistably drawn to her as she is to him. Their relationship grows at astounding rates, and all seems well until some wandering, non-friendly vampires come in for a visit and try to make a snack out of Bella. Edward saves her, she ends up in the hospital, and despite her undying (that sounds like a pun in the making) love, Edward seems unsettled by the sequence of events and wants to leave her for her protection.

With that, I am now going to designate the “good” vampires as the Cullens, since that’s what they are, and all other vampires will just be vampires.

Emotionally, this book is a kick. Let me prefeace what I am going to say by stating that I am a hetersexual male who deeply enjoys gory action movies, and refuses to reject reading certain types of literature jsut because some people think that puts his sexuality into question. I’m comfortable with myself sexually, and everyone else can grow up. So when I say how great the emotional and romantic portrayals are in this book, that’s me revealing that it cut straight to the hidden romantic in me, and used vampires to drag my action side along. I said earlier that the deep humanity (I really meant to say human emotion) this book shows is not thorugh the reflection of normal humans against vampires, but also but also by the Cullens themselves. Somewhere between Bella’s reckless abandon and Edward’s experienced caution, deep, meaningful love takes place. It was recognizable almost intstantly for me, and words to describe it correctly are rare in the English language. I think it says enough to mention the way Bella and Edward act towards each other speak of mature affection rather than teenaged passion.

Then there’s Edward’s wise restraint. Bella, for most of the book, practically throws herself at Edward in ways that suggest Edward has the self-control on Ghandi. It is immediately obvious, however, that Edward’s control is not formed out of a desire to aviod detection as a vampire, but out of extreme concern for Bella. That is a level of care and compassion I have seen in very few human characters. Its almost as if, rather than losing his humanity over the near-century of his life, Edward’s humanity has only deepened. Its just my opinion, but I think the emotions he shows support that.

The attack. In reality, despite how deeply Edward and Bella care for each other, Bella is a pale skinny, damsel-in-distress type who is choosing to hang out with people that nature made to suck human blood. There is always the feeling in the back of the reader’s mind that they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, the first shoe being that Bella’s true love turns out to be a vampire. A vampire attack serves nicely as the other shoe.

The ending of “Twilight” serves as both a good resolution, and as a foreshadow of things to come which I will not reveal in this review. This book earns top marks from me, not necessarily because the writing style deserves a Pulitzer, but because the book grabs your emotions from page one and never lets go until you’ve fininshed at some ungodly hour of the morning. Excellent read, and I can’t wait to review the others.