When ‘Twilight’ fever swept the world, I chose to ignore it as just another fad that will pass, like all other fads. I did read the reviews, just to get an idea of what it’s all about. Human girl meets vampire boy, they fall in love. Someone even likened it to a Sweet Valley High story with the addition of some vampires. So I chose to pass.
Then last week, over yee sang, a business associate talked about her curiousity over the book, given how it has converted her daughter into a bookworm who didn’t mind being grounded for a week just to read the books, how it was banned in her daughter’s previous (Chinese) school but is now required reading for English class in her new school in Singapore. The reviews that I’ve read helped me put in my 2 cents’ worth during the conversation. But how I wished I’ve actually read the books so that I could comment something so much more original than “Imagine that! A vegetarian vampire!”
Thus, I decided that the time had come for me to read the books and find out what the hype is all about. I put my googling skills to good use and searched for pdf files of all 4 books. I got what I wanted in less than 15 minutes.
That night, I immediately started reading the first book, ‘Twilight’, with no expectations whatsoever. I breezed through the first chapters. Had I followed my usual criterion for picking out a good book, i.e. that I get intrigued right from the first few pages, ‘Twilight’ would have failed miserably because it started off real slow. But I was curious. I needed to know what the frenzy’s all about. I forced myself to plod on wearily.
In 2 1/2 hours, I finished the book, mainly because I skipped through some details and dialogue that I felt I could do without. And, at long last, I finally got it. I understood, once and for all, the world-wide frenzy over it — the pull of the forbidden. And, for this, I find the apple — portrayed since time immemorial as ‘the forbidden fruit’ — on the cover to be very apt indeed. Edward, the vampire who only feeds on animal blood instead of human blood, found himself so drawn to the intoxicating smell of Bella’s blood. Just as different people favour different flavours — chocolate for some, strawberry for others — Bella’s blood is the flavour for Edward, a knowledge which jolted him the first time he even met her. But the catch is, he was drawn to her, as well, but for entirely different reasons — he was attracted to her, like a moth to a flame. So every single encounter with her is a huge battle for him. Her blood sings to him but he wants nothing else in the universe but to be with her and protect her and would do nothing to hurt her. He even watches over her as she sleeps, listening to her heartbeat, watching her dream.
