## Thoughts ### Overall Thoughts This book isn't half bad, in my opinion, if you take it for what it is: a young-adult, supernatural, romance. The writing isn't perfect, but I think the general progression of the story is pretty interesting. I tend to list fish-out-of-water stories, and this book has some of that along with the obvious supernatural element. ### World-building I really don't understand why the author felt the need to make the vampires so **absurdly overpowered**. Perhaps their only weakness is dependence on blood to survive, and some of the erratic, instinctive-driven behavior that comes with it. Your average base-level vampire has abilities such as: * Skin that's tough enough to be bullet-resistant * Movement faster than the human eye can track with reaction time to match * Strength enough to crush stone between their hands and fingers, or to bend metal (I think it was wrought iron from what I remember) * In the chapter where Edward and Bella are in the clearing[^1], he effortlessly breaks off a tree branch two *feet* thick. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be inches, but it cracked me up a little bit. * Hearing sensitive enough to hear heartbeats at a distance * Sense of smell that rivals any animal * Improved eyesight, including better vision in darkness and perception of ultraviolet light * Some sort of ethereal or preternatural beauty to make them more attractive to humans * Ability to reconstruct themselves unless their bodies are completely dismembered and burned * No necessity to breathe, besides needing to in order to be able to smell anything * No necessity to eat normal food, besides periodically requiring blood for sustenance * Literal immortality At least in comparison, the shape-shifters like Jacob seem to have been considered *slightly* more carefully in terms of writing. Where they have some preternatural abilities of increased speed, strength, healing, and reaction time, they also consume way more food, and run a much higher body temperature. It still doesn't explain most things, but at least there was an attempt. The only other special ability that they have is the shared pack consciousness, which I actually really like as a concept. It made them very distinctive as a race, and gave a fairly large downside to being a shape-shifter, as it was difficult for many of them to deal with. Further, I haven't even gotten to the supernatural abilities that many vampires have. Based on the Vampire Appendix at the end of [[Twilight - Breaking Dawn]], it seemed like maybe 1/4 vampires had some sort of supernatural ability, with no patterns between them: * **Bella**: innate, subconscious mental shield which later is controllable and and can protect others from psychic attacks * **Edward**: telepathic, able to hear thoughts at a great distance in some cases * **Alice**: clairvoyance, able to see the future in a somewhat vague way * **Jasper**: emotional control over others It just keeps going from there, like with Benjamin who has actual magical powers to control fundamental elements. I think it would have been much more interesting to have the vampires be generally much faster and stronger than a person, but not to a supernatural degree. Their power level is just so bonkers that they're basically at a superhero tier by default without even considering the extra special powers that many of them have. While I understand that Bella coming full circle with her mental shield ability was important to the ending of the book in the way it was written, it also felt rushed. Edward being able to hear her thoughts when she gained this control at the end was a nice — I daresay, romantic — way to wrap everything up. [^1]: In hindsight, I'm surprised that this clearing wasn't revisited in later books, especially [[Twilight - Breaking Dawn]]. That would've been a nice way to wrap up the story where it — in some ways — began.