Twilight

Stephenie Meyer

Published 2005        434 Pages

Synopsis

When seventeen year-old Bella Swan leaves sunny Arizona to live with her father in the small and gloomy Pacific North-West town of Forks she doesn’t expect to like it.  After all she has made excuses not to go there enough times over the past few years.  If living in Forks, with its constant mist and rain, wasn’t bad enough she will have to make a whole new set of friends and settle into a new school.

Bella soon makes some new friends at school but when she sees a boy called Edward Cullen sitting with his brothers and sisters in the cafeteria she is instantly intrigued.  Edward is stunningly attractive, almost inhumanly beautiful, and yet he is an outsider too.  Although Edward and his family have lived in Forks for two years they have never really been accepted by the townsfolk. 

At first Edward is aloof, sometimes it almost seems like he can’t stand to be in the same room as her, but eventually they strike up an unlikely friendship.  Even as Bella falls hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Edward, she still can’t work out exactly what makes him so different to everyone else.

On a trip to the beach, Bella is told of the local legend about the “cold ones”, a group of blood drinkers who have sworn off hunting humans but are still not welcome on Indian land because vampires are not to be trusted.  Realising Edward is vampire changes nothing for Bella, she knows that she still loves him even if he’s not human.

Edward and his whole family are vampires.  Edward himself was made a vampire when he was seventeen years-old, although that was at the end of World War I.  For Edward his love for Bella is both a delight and a torment.  A delight because she is the first person he has loved since he was made a vampire.  A torment because although he has sworn off human blood and only hunts animals the craving for human blood never truly leaves him and the very scent of her also stirs his hunger for blood….

New Moon

Stephenie Meyer

Published 2006        563 pages

Synopsis

Bella has been going out with her vampire boyfriend Edward for six blissfully happy months.  The only thing that worries her is his steadfast refusal to even consider making her into a vampire like him.  As the day of her eighteenth birthday rolls around she feels less than happy because she is now older than Edward, who will never age past seventeen.

To celebrate her birthday Edward takes Bella to a birthday party at his family home but when a stupid accident that leaves Bella covered in blood and nearly triggers a feeding frenzy in Jasper, Edward’s brother, the party falls somewhat flat.

Edward suddenly becomes more distant towards to Bella and finally he tells her that he and his family are leaving Forks, to never return, and he no longer wants to see her. 

Edward is Bella’s whole world and his abandonment is a harsh blow.  Her whole world falls apart and as she becomes withdrawn from the world she soon loses most of her friends becoming even more isolated and lonely. 

When she does something dangerous she starts hallucinating and thinks she can hear Edward telling her not to do anything stupid and to be more careful.  This leads to a whole new range of interests for Bella including learning to ride a motorbike and cliff diving because she feels that he is still with her at those times.  Her old friend Jacob Black becomes her partner in crime, fixing up her motorbike for her and teaching her to ride it.  Although the pain of Edward’s departure never leaves Bella, Jacob soon becomes her best friend and he helps to fill some of the voids in her life.

Jacob himself is no ordinary boy and soon Bella discovers that part of his Quileute heritage is to be cursed to be a werewolf.  Certain members of the tribe turn into werewolves in their teenage years in response to the presence of vampires.  Werewolves and vampires are natural enemies and the enmity runs deep on both sides.

Alice returns to Forks and although she brings no news of Edward with her, her extraordinary gift of being able to see the future soon tells her that Edward is heading on a path of self destruction that only Bella can advert.  But will Bella be in time to stop the tragedy?

Eclipse

Stephenie Meyer

Published 2007        628 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

"BELLA?"

Edward's soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.

This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine—like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

Breaking Dawn

Stephenie Meyer

Published 2008          754 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both a fantasy and a nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she has endured a tumultuous year of temptation, loss and strife to reach the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice, to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life, has become the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs.

Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating and unfathomable consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella’s life – first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse – seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed… forever?

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The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella

Stephenie Meyer

Published 2010          Novella (178 pages)

Summary (from the book jacket)

Bree Tanner can barely remember life before she had powerful senses, superhuman reflexes and unstoppable physical strength. Life before she had a relentless thirst for blood… life before she became a vampire.

All Bree knows is that living with her fellow newborns has few certainties and even fewer rules: watch your back, don’t draw attention to yourself and, above all, make it home by sunrise or die. What she doesn’t know: her time as an immortal is quickly running out.

Then Bree finds an unexpected friend in Diego, a newborn just as curious as Bree about their mysterious creator, whom they only know as her. As they come to realize that the newborns are pawns in a game larger than anything they could have imagined, Bree and Diego must choose sides and decide whom to trust. Bust when everything you know about vampires is based on a lie, how do you find the truth?