Review of "Twilight the Graphic Novel Volume 1"

The new book, "Twilight, the Graphic Novel, Part 1" by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim, just arrived in the book stores today (March 16th). As soon as I dropped my kids off at school this morning, I headed to Barnes & Noble to buy it for $15.99. (I later found out that Amazon.com is offering the book for $10).

The first thing I noticed was the small size of this book. It was the same size as the Twilight novels, but only half as thick (224 pages).

The next thing I noticed was the beautiful cover, showing Bella lying in the meadow, with Edward's hand showing beside her. Visually stunning--I loved it!

I didn't notice that this book was Volume 1 until after I finished scanning through it and found that it stopped at the end of Chapter 13, "Confessions", after their trip to the meadow. It was a beautiful scene, but it left me wanting more...

I also noticed that while most of the book was drawn in black and white, there were only touches of color in the key scenes (or panels). This created a nice highlighting effect, but I wished the touches of color were used more throughout the book.

A touch of color:



As for the characters, I liked the way Young Kim portrayed Bella. She's simple, yet beautiful. Edward looked much younger and prettier than I imagined him to be. Perhaps Young Kim did this on purpose, but Edward didn't show a lot of depth of expression. Bella seemed much more natural and expressive.

Edward:


I laughed when I saw Jessica--she looked exactly the way I pictured her! And Alice's introduction--perfect. That's exactly Alice. Rosalie was also gorgeous. Good job with the female characters, Young Kim! I wished there were more scenes with the Cullens in this book.

Jessica:


Alice:


Rosalie:


As for the story, it read like a different version of the movie, with the missing scenes from the book added to complete the story. Although the words were there, and the graphics were visually spectacular, it just didn't have the same impact as either the book or the movie for me. Maybe that's because the story's not yet complete.

I look forward to reading Volume 2. I'd like to see the rest of the story.

I recommend buying this book if you are a die-hard Twilight fan, or if you really enjoy this style of graphic novel. Definitely check it out!