Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon. And, might I add, I’m so glad I did. I missed out on Harry Potter, which I am still ambivalent about, but when I found a handful of my students – students’ whose native language is NOT English – thumbing through copies of this book, I thought it would be cute to read it, too.
This is a VERY fun book, and it would have been right up my alley in middle school although it’s not far off now. It’s a “young adult” novel, so there’s always something moderately silly going on, but the suspense is amazing and it’s relatively complex.
Truth be told, the protagonist, Bella, irritates me pretty frequently. She’s the cliche, non-athletic, super-intelligent-yet-underachieving high school outcast who reads Jane Austen to forget her cares. Uggh. I am aware, of course, of the fact that she irritates me because she reminds me of myself in high school, which is embarrassing already, and that every other female book-lover in the world identifies with her also. She’s irritating, and it speaks volumes that there are so many other elements of the book that more than make up for Bella.
I finished the book this morning and bought the sequel, New Moon, after work today. I ordered tickets to see the movie tomorrow night. I am one of those people now.
Not all literature has to be Great Literature. That’s kind of fun.
