Thiago Lucio Lucio itibaren Tarskoye, Respublika Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya, Rusya, 363106
This is the first Neil Gaiman book I read, and I'm lucky that it was. Books that are leaning towards 'fantasy' are seldom to be found in my bookshelf and I tend to read those that are under general fiction. But just like what other reviewers say about Mr. Gaiman's books...his fairy tales are interesting even for adults too. Because of this, I plan to read more of his other books.
I feel like everyone gets this book as they graduate high school. It is way cheesy but kind of a rite of passage.
I really did not want to like this book, but I did. I know that this novel is often presented as a "vampire book," but I think it is more than that. For me, the book, and all those that follow, is really about the nature of good and evil and the intersections of multiple realities with human nature. The reader's previous conceptualizations are disturbed as the whole concept of absolutes is overthrown. Meyer's novel tells us that we can never make flawless moral judgments, that all things are relative and require intellectual exploration. I think she also communicates that "evil" is often actually just complexity in disguise and that this type of evil is very much a part of the human condition. This book is far more complicated than a lot of reviewers imply, and I think that dismissing it as an easy read and a popular culture phenomenon means missing so much of what Meyer put into her work. I highly recommend this book and hope that readers will put some energy into the reading experience!