The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

I wish I could give everybody that gift — to find the book that does it for you.

SH: It is. The best compliment that I ever get is not that my books are their favorite, but that mine was the first that made them fall in love with reading.

SM: And now they‘ve gone on. You know, I had a great childhood, and one thing that made my childhood so special was that because I loved to read, I lived a thousand adventures—

and I was a thousand heroines, and I fell in love a thousand times. And now, to open up those worlds for somebody else… I know how great it is, and I wish I could give everybody that gift—

to find the book that does it for you.

I did an interview for The Host once, and the camera guy who was setting everything up said: ?So this book is about aliens?? I said: ?Yeah, kind of.? And he said, ?Well, you know, I think I‘ve read three books in my life. I hate reading, ever since school — it was such a torture.?

And I just thought: How sad! There?s some book out there that?s perfectly tailored for him, and he doesn?t know.

SH: Right.

SM: But he‘s not going to pick it up, because he had a bad experience. I really feel like one of the important things you can do for kids in school is not just give them the classics that teach them about excellent form and really great writing style, but also throw in a couple of fun things that teach them that reading can be this amazing adventure. Let them love some story, so at least they know not all books are ?hard? or ?difficult,? but that they can just be fun.

SH: I agree so passionately about that. And I think some of the key is to have a lot of variety. Because not every genre, or every storytelling style, is going to be right for everyone.

SM: Some people are going to latch on to Shakespeare, and they‘re going to be like: [gasps] ?The insights!? And then some people are going to need an action story with car chases and gunfights — they‘re going to need that to get them started.

SH: Every student should have a chance to find at least one book they fall in love with.

Then they‘ll be more likely to go on and keep reading for life.

SM: Exactly. When I was in school I had some really great teachers. And lucky for me, I had already discovered books that I really liked. The classics came easily to me — I read them early, and so it was familiar ground: Oh, good. I?m doing Jane Austen again. Whoo! But a lot of kids come into it and they‘re hit in the face with a great big difficult-to-understand text — if they don‘t have the background to appreciate the experience, it just sours them on the whole thing.

And it‘s sad.

SH: I meet so many adults who stopped reading for years. And they tell me that a friend pressed them to read a book, and more often than not it was Twilight… and then they find that they do like to read, after all, and they go on to read other books.

So, Stephenie Meyer, thank you. For changing the world — making it a better place — and reminding so many people that we love to read.

SM: I do what I can. [Both laugh]

Vampires, the central supernatural creatures of the Twilight Saga, have existed in myths and local lore for centuries. While the Saga‘s vampires share certain similarities with the vampires of legend, they have many more unique characteristics and supernatural abilities that are specific to the world of Twilight.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

In the Twilight universe all vampires were originally human. As vampires, they retain a close physical resemblance to their human form, the only reliably noticeable differences being a universal pallor of skin, a change in eye color, and heightened beauty.

REACTION TO SUNLIGHT:

In direct sunlight, the disparity between human and vampire becomes more obvious. The cellular membrane of the vampire is not as soft or permeable as in a human cell; it has crystalline properties that cause the surface of vampire skin to react prismatically, giving the vampire a glitter-like shimmer in sunlight.

?EDWARD IN THE SUNLIGHT WAS SHOCKING…. HIS SKIN, WHITE…

LITERALLY SPARKLED, LIKE THOUSANDS OF TINY DIAMONDS WERE

EMBEDDED IN THE SURFACE.

— Bella (Twilight, Chapter 13)

BEAUTY:

The common factor of beauty among vampires is mostly due to this crystalline skin. The perfect smoothness, gloss, and even color of the skin give the illusion of a flawless face. The skin reacts differently to light, creating an angular effect that heightens the perception of beauty.

Additionally, the stonelike firmness of the vampire body creates a look similar to muscle, making any size human appear more fit as a vampire. Like humans, vampires are drawn to beauty. When choosing a human for the transformation process, vampires are as likely as humans to be motivated by a beautiful face and body.

PALLOR:

Pale vampire skin is a product of vampire venom‘s transformative process. The venom leeches all pigment from the skin as it changes the human skin into the more indestructible vampire form. Regardless of original ethnicity, a vampire‘s skin will be exceptionally pale. The hue varies slightly, with darker-skinned humans having a barely discernible olive tone to their vampire skin, but the light shade remains the same. All forms of skin pigmentation — freckles, moles, birthmarks, age marks, scars, and tattoos — disappear during the transformation.

EYE COLOR:

While all vampires have similarly pale skin, they can have a certain variety of eye colors.

Vampires who haven‘t fed for a few weeks will have solidly black irises. Recently fed vampires will have deep red eyes if they drank human blood, and medium gold — colored irises if they drank animal blood. Vampires who have been newly transformed will have very bright red irises, regardless of diet. It is possible to disguise this feature with colored contact lenses, but the lubricant in vampire eyes breaks the contacts down quickly. One pair will last only a few hours.

Vampires also universally exhibit dark circles under their eyes. These circles, like the changing irises, denote