I stumbled upon the Twilight series, when I was searching for a fantasy series similar to Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. HP literally spoiled me for any other books for quite some time because I couldn't find that kind of fantasy and magic anywhere else. Suddenly murder mysteries & thrillers looked very dull. What wouldn't I have given for another fantasy series with just the same brilliance!!
Even though the common link is fantasy in both their works, the series are handled quite differently by J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. While the HP series is really more of a growing up kind of book, where you can actually feel how the characters grow and mature with each passing year, Twilight has characters that are literally frozen in time and the genre is more romance interwoven with fantasy.
Stephanie Meyer's narration has none of the simplicity and brilliance of J.K. Rowling (Maybe something to do with the fact that she is English!)It is a bit convoluted and dragging at places where it could have been shorter. Yet, her words create a vivid picture in your mind. You become Bella Swan and when she swoons at the sight of Edward Cullen, you swoon right along with her. There is extraordinary brilliance in some of her chapters while some tiny portions definitely lack the same lustre.
The characters in the books are simply too sweet; Bella Swan, the oddly intuitive but clumsy and plain girl who falls head over heels for a vampire; Edward Cullen, the gorgeous vampire who can't help loving Bella and of course wanting her irresistible blood and one of my most favourite characters, and for many people I am sure, the russet coloured werewolf, Jacob Black. He endears himself to his readers by just being himself - warm, brash, quick-tempered, loyal and loving till the end and not to mention the hapless human father of Bella, Charlie Swan, caught in between all this fantasy and yet holding his fort with just his love and concern for Bella.
Edward Cullen is literally too good to be true. His love for Bella which almost feels like devotion to a goddess, is straight out of a fairy tale (Something that Bella herself contemplates, now and then) He gives her whatever she wants and would have given her Jacob if that's what she had wanted(and if Stephanie Meyer had the heart to do it of course). In the end, most of the loose ends get tied with Jacob 'imprinting' on Bella and Edward's half-breed daughter, Renesmee conveniently, solving the triangular love tangle easily.