This is a very good book
How is the book?
This is a very good book. It's a fast read, despite its mammoth size. Granted, it's no "It" by Stephen King, but it's a pretty big book at a whopping 498 pages. I think this book could have been a lot better if it had been about a hundred pages less. Here's my simple breakdown:PROS:The book reads fast, so each chapter seems to fly by. The relationships between the characters are real, the dialogue feels real, even the love seems real. Realism keeps a reader glued to the book & this book - despite its obvious vampire plot - is very realistic. It's also very well written. Stephanie Meyer doesn't say in ten sentences what she can say in five, and she doesn't say in five what she can say in one. She's succinct and an incredible writer. Most of the time. This makes for a quick and satisfying read, with all Bella & Edward's high highs and low lows feeling familiar and plausible.CONS:Too much repetition. In attempt to posit the awkward, clumsy, and so-not-a-supermodel Bella against the suave, uber-hunk vampire Edward, Stephanie Meyer goes too far. My head started to swim after awhile with all the repetition. It's like this: Bella sees Edward; he's so handsome and suave and she's such an awkward clutz! Things are awkward. Then Bella goes home & things with her dad are awkward. Then she goes to school, where, you guessed it, things are awkward. There's also too much focus on Edward's good looks. I found it to be clunky and expositional. Edward speaks from ruby red lips and his muscled arms and his chiseled chest, etc. etc. We get it: she's average at best and he's just the bee's knees. We get it.Also (and this didn't bother me too much but I feel I have to include it in the "cons" section), I thought that for a downtrodden, sullen, loner with low self-esteem Bella acted awfully rude and arrogant to the kids at her school who were only trying to be nice and befriend her. You can't get mad that you have no friends and no one understands you when you detach from everyone and isolate from those who want to be your friend and understand you. Don't get me wrong; I was in high school ten years ago. I remember what it's like to fall in love and be annoyed by everyone else's seemingly insignificant drama. And granted, once your life is at stake by hungry vampires prom dresses seem a little less important. But I'm from the school of thought that you get friends by being a friend. That doesn't always work, but it's better than the alternative. Bella is a likeable character. She's smart and loyal and for the most part, nice. But I found her, at times, to be just a little too self-absorbed, and just a little too holier-than-thou around her fellow Forks friends.I think the book could've been a lot better and a lot shorter if the Bella-awkward, Edward-gorgeous stuff was kept to a minimum. It almost seemed like Ms. Meyer was overexplaining everything to an audience she thought may be too young (or too stupid?) to get it on the first try. Perhaps these books are targeted toward a teen audience and maybe at 28 I'm not a good reviewer. I don't know. I'll leave that up to you. This is just my opinion. Overall, the book was good. I'd even go so far as to say that it was great. Now, it's on to New Moon. 