I recently finished reading the popular Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer, so I figured I would share my thoughts on each book and rate them on a scale from 1-10. 

‘Twilight’

Synopsis: Bella Swan, who is 17, moves to the small town of Forks, Washington, to live with her dad. She quickly falls in love with mysterious Edward Cullen and finds out he has a secret — he’s a vampire along with his entire family. She enters into a romance with him and finds her world ever-changed. 

Review: The first book is obviously essential to the rest of the series, and I think Meyer does a wonderful job at setting the stage for the other three books. Even at the length of 498 pages, this book was a quick read and kept my attention the whole time. 

I like Meyer’s writing style and I became familiar with it after finishing the first book. However, she can be quite wordy at times and uses many descriptive words. Of course, this isn’t always a bad thing because the reader needs detail to fully understand the scene in the book. 

Even though there is the element of fantasy in this book, it is not overwhelming like some other books in this genre and slowly builds up to the climax. 

Overall, this book was fun to read and I quite enjoyed it. I had actually read Twilight once before, and it was still just as interesting the second time around. I would highly recommend this book to any hopeless romantic who enjoys reading fantasy. 

Rating: 8/10

‘New Moon’

Synopsis: After an incident at her 18th birthday party, Edward decides to leave Bella for her own safety. Bella, depressed and angry, finds comfort in spending time with her friend Jacob Black and quickly discovers there is more truth to the mythical world than she ever imagined. 

Review: This book is my least favorite out of the four, mainly because of the absence of Edward for almost the whole book. Nevertheless, it was still enjoyable to read and it was interesting to learn more about Jacob and his life. 

Meyer is a consistent writer and there was never a time when I was uninterested. She still manages to write a really good book even with the absence of one of the main characters, which I think would be difficult to do. 

This book is also essential to the other two because it introduces the elements involved besides vampirism, and the reader gets a glimpse of the Volturi — the law-enforcers of the vampire world. 

All in all, ‘New Moon’ held my attention and Meyer does a good job of introducing other important characters. She also does a fantastic job of describing Bella’s grief and made me feel the degree of her pain. 

Rating: 7/10

‘Eclipse’ 

Synopsis: Reunited after being apart, Edward and Bella’s relationship is stronger than ever. However, after Jacob expresses his feelings for her, Bella must make the difficult choice between the two, all while dealing with the supernatural elements of her daily life. 

Review: This book was refreshing to read after New Moon, when Edward and Bella were separated. It stays faithful to the rest of the series and sets the stage for Breaking Dawn. 

Meyer does a really good job of describing Bella’s feelings, and the reader feels the extent of her confliction when choosing between Edward and Jacob. 

For a lot of the book, Bella is trying to persuade Edward to transform her into a vampire so they can be together. But Edward wants Bella to enjoy her human life. I think a situation like this would be difficult to write about, and Meyer shows Bella’s feelings well. 

This book is the second longest at 629 pages, but it doesn’t really feel that long because it’s also a fairly quick read. The font used is also pretty large in my opinion. 

I enjoyed reading this book, but at the end I was getting a bit antsy and ready for the finale. It’s not that it wasn’t fun to read, but it drags just a bit, especially if you’ve watched the movies before reading the books. 

Rating: 8.5/10

‘Breaking Dawn’

Synopsis: Bella and Edward are getting married and Edward plans to transform Bella shortly thereafter. However, complications arise and a rift forms between the Quileute werewolf pack and the Cullens. They must overcome their differences when a threat comes in the form of the Volturi. 

Review: This book is probably my favorite out of the series. It’s the longest, at 756 pages, but I don’t see how it could be any shorter with the amount of information Meyer had to fit in. 

This book is the only one in the saga that is split into three parts, one of them from Jacob’s point of view. I liked that Meyer did this because it was nice to have a good place to pause while reading. I also like how she shared Jacob’s perspective on things because it helped me understand his feelings more. 

I think this book is the most exciting out of the four and it was difficult to put down — I just had to know how things were going to go (of course, I had already seen the movies, but things are always different in the book). I liked reading about all the different elements that were not included in the movie adaptations. 

I think the series had a wonderful ending and I am happy with the way everything turned out. After two months of reading the series, I am a little sad to see it end. Of course, I still have to read Midnight Sun, but I think I’ll wait a little while for that one. As interesting as it would be to see things from Edward’s perspective, it’s only about the first book, and I don’t know that I want to read that again just yet. 

Rating: 9.5/10