Twilight saga in my own words

Original publication Feb 22, 2012 

Updates made June 19, 2025

With the upcoming release of the last installment of Stephanie Meyer's best selling vampire drama series, Twilight, I thought I'd take today to post a summery, in case you need a refresher. The Twilight Saga was written by Stephanie Meyer and published by Little Brown between the years 2005 and 2008 (for the original 4 book series). The following is in my own words. No copyright infringement is intended with this summary.

There was a girl named Bella Swan who moved from the dry heat of Arizona to the wet cold of Washington to live with her dad and let her mother have some time with her new baseball player husband. Bella never really felt like she fit in anywhere and it was never more apparent than when she attended Forks Highschool. The teens in the small town were a little strange and one family in particular, the Cullens. The Cullens were pale, with golden brown eyes, which sometimes looked black, and kept to themselves and they missed school whenever the sun was shining. Edward Cullen intrigued Bella with his sparkling good looks. She soon began to crush on him. When she learned of his interest in her, they quickly became an item, but Edward had secrets, secrets that he started to share with Bella. Most people would have been afraid of the things he told her, but not Bella. She never felt more alive. Falling in love with a vampire isn't without problems of course, you know, the whole I want to bite you thing. Edwards protectiveness of Bella also became an obstacle and something the other vampires didn't understand.

Bella and Edward were inseparable, nothing and nobody could change that. He was as drawn to her as she was to him. Was it love, lust, or something else? You pick. Edward at one point did something stupid and killed another vampires mate in order to save Bella, still a human. That vampire swore revenge on Edward and another vampire Victoria set her sights on Bella. It turned out Bella's perfect life with her perfect vampire family wasn't so perfect after all. After a couple near death experiences that included an attack on her by Edwards vampire brother Jasper, it was just too much for Edward to bear (are you crying yet?). He decided he needed to be a total jerk and leave Bella, so he left and broke her heart. A devastated, and turns out selfish Bella took her solace from Jacob, a boy who had a huge crush on Bella. She knew Jacob felt that way and so she totally used him during her I’m missing Edward phase which only made things that much harder for Jacob.

Bella and Jacob became inseparable, but it meant way more to Jacob than it did to Bella and it was very apparent with how crappy she treated him. Jacob then, in an effort to protect her from the animal he became (literally), also tried to stay away from Bella. Bella however was still very self centered and would have no part in that. Being the stupid girl she was she got herself into trouble a few more times and Jacob was there to save her while Edward was off wallowing in self pity and hating his life. Edward wanted to die and decided he would break vampire law so the old vampires would kill him. Of course that didn't happen and Bella got wind of his plan and had to rush out of the country to save him (because all teenage girls can just hop on a plane, leave everything behind and not say a word to their father). She saved Edward...was there any doubt? Of course they professed their love for each other and once again - of course! - Bella found herself in trouble. This time with the vampire court. They decided she was to either be Edwards dinner, or turned, and they hadn't much time, because they needed to keep themselves a secret. Edward, never wanted Bella to be a vampire, because he was so noble and all and pushed it off again, and again while Bella was practically forcing his teeth on her and her body on Edward. That wasn't going to happen because Edward didn't want to steal her virtue, he didn't want to send her to hell because she had sex outside of marriage. No, it was far better she become the walking dead who preys on human blood.

Finally after a lot of drawn out disputes Bella agrees to Edwards terms, which were marriage than change to a vampire on the honeymoon - how romantic. She actually marries him. Never mind that Jacob had saved her so many times and shown real love and affection to her and well, he wasn't dead. Before she married Edward, she kissed Jacob on the day when Edward finally killed the vampire who wanted Bella dead (while Jacob was off killing multiple vampires to also save Bella). It was then that Bella realized, after what felt like a lifetime, that she actually did love him. She needed to choose...she married Edward and was going to leave her human life behind and live as a vampire in her perfect vampire world. Things didn't go exactly according to plan, do they ever? They did marry but Bella wanted to experience a human honeymoon, not one where she'd be a savage looking for blood. Edward of course resisted this but gave in to her charms anyway.

Then glory be, Bella discovered by some small hellish miracle that she had conceived. The baby was growing fast and killing her, but all was well, Bella was keeping that baby come hell or high water. Edward was depressed...again. Jacob returns and couldn't stay away...again. Edward, after realizing that he could hear the baby's thoughts was on-board with the baby plan while Jacob still was not. Jacob was having his own problems though with his werewolf pack. He left it. Two others followed. Bella's water breaks and Carlisle isn't there to help. What are Edward and Jacob to do!? Why have Edward bite through her stomach to get the baby out after the baby had paralyzed Bella, of course. The baby is born, she looks okay - she bites Bella. Rosalie takes her. Jacob and Edward are frantic. Edward injects, from a syringe, his "venom" - yes, you read that right. I am not really sure how a vampire milks himself...but okay..moving on. Bella dies. Dramatic waiting period....…

Bella wakes up all healed, pasty with a lot of makeup on her face and is no longer in jeans, in a pick up truck, or falls a lot or stares at everything. Okay, maybe she still stares. Her eyes are red now, that is until 5 seconds later when she kills her first deer, just knowing exactly how to be the perfect vampire. She and Edward have a lot of alone time together as she tries out her new dead self, until she remembers she had a baby. The baby grows at a rapid pace. She’s a hybrid, part vampire and part human. How that works is beyond me. Would you believe that Bella still is at the center of a whole lot of chaos? Even as a vampire others have to come to her rescue. Lots of others in this case; all of her family’s vampire friends. There was a big battle...or was there? Don’t worry, everything works out for Bella and her perfect vampire life. She’s with Edward and oh, Jacob is with her daughter. Yeah...it’s all kinds of weird. Don’t worry it wasn’t like “that”...not until her daughter grows up anyway...remember it’s a rapid pace.

So it sounds like by how I wrote this that I didn't enjoy the series..I did, however, I did not like the last book, Breaking Dawn, for many reasons. Also I am not the biggest fan of the movies or casting. If you haven't yet read my post-op of the Breaking Dawn, part 1 movie, it's here in this blog. The series was decent but I think at this point though after so many disappointments in the films it's lost it's sparkle...wait..only Edward sparkles.