By Megan Thomas
What started as a sorta-joke in book club sparked a curiosity which resulted in a burning desire to reread Twilight, with the aim of deciding whether we thought reading it as tweens (apologies, I do hate that word but it’s basically Twilight themed and I love that) helped shape our perspective of romance as adults.
Certainly, in retrospect, I think it played into why I was so disappointed by what I perceived as a lack of romance in highschool. Why doesn’t anybody consider me their “own personal brand of heroin” or want to eat me so badly they have to eat a whole mountain lion to calm down?! But when you consider that another book I was obsessed with at the same time as Twilight was Wuthering Height (peak obsession disguised as romance, featuring lovers literally digging up each other’s graves), it does explain a lot. If anyone wants to commission a comparative essay on the two…?
I’m not going to suggest it’s a literary masterpiece (and by many accounts, grammar included, it’s not), but I also refuse to slam it. Quite frankly, anything that gets a teenager dutifully reading a 756-page book (#BreakingDawn) on their holidays is a success in my eyes. It’s moreish and satisfying (not unlike eating a whole mountain lion, I’d imagine), and if you ignore the creepy undercurrents, which I only picked up on this most recent reading, Eddie Cullen watching me sleep was pure goals when I was first reading it, it’s fun.
I don’t reread books as a general rule, because of the uncomfortable reality that I will never, even if I read a book a day until I die, read every good book ever written. I’m greedy and want to maximise my reach. But this was an incredibly comforting experience, like rewatching a favourite film, and I might consider it in the future with books I like a little more – particularly if I’m in a reading slump. I will not pretend I wasn’t desperate to read New Moon when I finished Twilight (to the point that it was almost like I didn’t know what was going to happen), but I had to put my foot down. Do you have a specific book you reread regularly?
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