The Beginning

Whitley | February 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

I became a fan of the Twilight series on November 20, 2008. My mother had been begging me to read Twilight for months, and I had been declining, thinking it was just a “teen” book, and it sounded kind of stupid on top of that. I’m not a big fan of fantasy books, and vampires just seemed a little too much for me. I am a major fan of the romance genre, and never really had much use for teen books, even when I was a teen myself. All I really knew about Twilight from hearing other people talking about it was Edward Cullen was dreamy, and he sparkled. Um yeah, no thanks. I prefer “real” characters, people that might actually have a chance of existing.

My mom was really into the books, and gotten my sisters and me all tickets to go see the midnight premiere of the movie with her. Just out of a mild curiosity, I decided to read the book just to see how the movie differed. I had borrowed it from my mom weeks ago, and it had been sitting in the backseat of my car, hidden in a mountain of fast food wrappers and school papers for all that time. I dug it out and when I climbed into bed with my boyfriend later that night, I just planned to get through as much as I could. I wanted to get some sleep since I would be staying up for the midnight show the next night.

I read the first chapter, and was immediately hooked. What was Edward’s problem? Why was he so angry? Why was I feeling so intensely worried about it, as if it had actually happened to me? There was no prying the book from my hands after that.

I read the entire book in about 3-4 hours. There was no way I could have put it down. After I finished, I had the urge to go back and read the book again. I have loved to read for the majority of my life. I read like I breathe, I have to; I just can’t not do it. But I have never felt that way about another book before.

There was no way I could sleep after that. I was actually excited to go see this movie now. I couldn’t wait to see my favorite parts (the van, the baseball game, and now the sparkling!) brought to life. I thought Robert Pattinson was ok looking, I was reserving judgment about his portrayal of Edward (I was totally unaware of the uproar his casting had provoked in the fandom).

When I was up later that day, I could not stop talking about Twilight. My mom and youngest sister and already read it, and they were well aware of its awesomeness. When I found out my other younger sister hadn’t read it, I descended on her like a vulture on prey, gushing about how awesome the book was, and I couldn’t stop myself from telling her pretty much the entire plot until James came in, wanting to leave her something to be surprised at in the movie. My excitement rubbed off on her, and she was just as eager to see the movie as I was when I was done telling her about it. We drove to the movie together, meeting my mom and little sister, who were already waiting in a line that went all the way through the lobby, out the doors, and wrapped around the theater.

While we waited in line, I noticed the other people in line around us. There were young teen girls who giggled non-stop, the kind of audience I had associated with the book when I had first heard of it. But there were also women my mom’s age, other women in their 20’s like me, and even a few small children, who wearing their homemade Team Edward shirts with pride. I began to understand again the kind of universal appeal this book had, and thought it was pretty amazing that something could touch so many different types of people.

When we were finally allowed to be seated, the excitement in the air was palpable. A few people had even brought cameras. I felt more like I was at a concert, rather than a movie showing. That feeling intensified after the lights went down and everyone cheered and squealed in elation. I couldn’t help but join in. I was extremely grateful that I was in a theater seeing theater with like-minded people who wouldn