Dear Stephenie,
I remember the time when I was sitting outside of my next lesson during my lunchtime with Twilight, the movie cover tie in edition in my hand, completely mesmerised by Edw…I mean the story and 17 years later it’s celebrates its 20th anniversary.
This book, this series started something I didn’t know I needed, it gave me escapism, it gave me hope that each day at school I could find solace. What I didn’t realise at the time that it started my true love for reading.
I’m not sure how I discovered it, but I know that the film was out I made the point of reading the books first and I’m so happy that I did. That book was so hyped, but I didn’t really know it, I just read for myself and no-one else and those were some of the happiest times, discovering literature, books, that excite me, that really started my true journey of becoming a reader and I owe so much to this series and to you.
Now, a 30 year old bookworm, librarian and hardcore twi-hard fan I have had the most wholesome experience over the year leading up to the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Twilight. Last year when I heard that Lego was doing the Cullen House, I think I was in heaven and I knew exactly what I wanted to ask for my 30th birthday for. Something so simple as building the Cullen House was therapeutic and whilst it didn’t take me long to build it, I left the last bag for ages, knowing that once it’s finished that would be it and strangely I wasn’t ready until September.
In June, I started a The Twilight Saga read-along on Instagram supported by Atom Books. I had a broadcast channel of 120 people and I built a community of readers who love Twilight and we were reading it together and I couldn’t believe I did that. With one book each month leading up to the September. It was the first time I had reread them since I was a teenager and I worried that I wouldn’t enjoy them as an adult, but I think I loved it even more. This year has been something, with some sadness but a lot of happiness to and rereading this books, reliving those moments, being in my nostalgic era of books, it had made it so very special.
As a librarian I am seeing a resurgence of young people, young readers, reading Twilight again that I had to replace copies and order in extra copies which has made my heart swell.
In September, on the 25th, my local Waterstones hosted their own Twilight Anniversary launch party, bedazzling the cover of killer, followed by a Twilight quiz. (I did fairly well – but could have been better). We got some epic merch as well. Then came the 27th September, the release of the gorgeous new editions and I couldn’t choose one or two, all three had come home with and I’m so glad I did. Unboxing the new hardcover, taking the cellophane off, I had a moment to myself and I knew just how much these truly mean to me.
Finally at the end of September through to the end of October, they re-released the films in the cinema. I remembered that I waited impatiently for the DVDs to come out for Twilight to Eclipse. So seeing them for the first time in the cinema was something else, and I returned each week seeing the next movie until the end on Sunday 2nd November. Those final scenes of Breaking Dawn: Part 2 captured my whole heart.
So Stephenie, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart from the young 13 year old to the now 30 year old Emma for creating the series that has changed my life and this will live with me forever.
Yours Sincerely,
A loyal twi-hard,
Emma
How wonderful!
Oh my goodness, I was just thinking about this today and then your post plopped into my inbox! I was reflecting on how rare it is that a book series captures a moment, how much I devoured the series ( I loved the Host too) – and how much snobbery there was about her writing. Yet she does something that too many literary and lauded books so often fail to do – it connects readers with characters in such a fundamental way you don’t even see the joins. I wish I could write like her.