A fun and addictive book, Twilight is the story of an introverted 17 year old girl, Bella, who grudgingly moves back to rainy Green Forks, Washington after her Arizona-based mother marries a traveling something-or-other. Bella, with her superior attitude to just about everyone at her new small-town high school, soon falls in love with an enigmatic, moody vampire, Edward, who is posing as a teenage boy.

Though Twilight is what I'd classify as a "potato-chips" book (having all the nutritive substance and addictive qualities of a bag of Lays), there is an interesting theme in the book that I wonder if anyone else has found difficult to overlook. Primarily, it is the readily apparent and exceedingly odd role of the vampire-boyfriend in this book as mother/God, and it perplexes me into wanting to read the sequel to find out why the author has elected to mold Edward into that strange part.

Edward dotes on Bella like a fussy mother hen, worrying over her clumsiness and swooping in dramatically to take her in his arms when she stumbles on a pebble. He frequently comments on her fragility, so much so that I'm surprised he doesn't outfit her in a helmet and protective gear for her hazardous everyday life. When she is sad, he cradles her in his arms "like a small child". He rocks her in rocking chairs, holds her in his lap and gazes at her adoringly, and hums lullabies to her to put her to sleep. Edward reminds me of a new mother, thrilled at his baby's ability to sneeze or hiccup: such is his fascination with Bella. She munches on cereal, and he watches with fascination as she chews. His attentiveness to Bella has made everything else in his immortal life seemingly evaporate. Essentially, he becomes a Bella satellite, and tells her, "You are my life now....I am your prisoner." While this resembles female romantic fantasy taken to the nth degree, Edward's strong mothering role with Bella is hard to ignore. Edward's character is not so much the typical female-fantasy male as he is Mother-of-the-Year. Adding to this unusual relationship is Bella's and Edward's inability to consummate their love in the usual way. Their relationship is essentially platonic, explained by Edward's fear that he would physically destroy Bella should they attempt the act. Adding to this rather bizarre relationship is the fact that Bella's own parents are somewhat absent and one-dimensional. The mother is immature, flighty, and neurotic, and the father is uncomfortable and avoidant with his newly-blossomed teenage daughter. Bella has been emotionally abandoned by her parents, and Edward happily fills the space they left open. Why the author has chosen to make Edward an overbearing mother for Bella is anyone's guess.

Building on the foundation of Edward's maternal behaviors are his God-like attributes which Bella frequently dwells on with awe. This is not much of a stretch, somehow. Psychologically speaking, God is an extension of the parent, watching over his "children", teaching them what is right and what is not, and gifting them or punishing them accordingly when they go to join him in the afterlife. Edward is a bit like an evil Jesus. He is largely omniscient (he can read everyone's thoughts - except Bella's - that would be too intrusive), omnipresent (Edward is always there when Bella thinks of him, hiding in the dark, watching her as she goes about her mundane life, watching, watching, always watching, even as she eats dinner or reads a book), and nearly omnipotent (he kills and feasts on ferocious mountain lions and grizzlies, can move faster than the eye can register, and other Supermannish things). Bella frequently refers to Edward's physiognomy and voice as "god-like" and "angelic", thereby reinforcing the subtle religious weirdness in Twilight.

More than a story of romantic love, Twilight seems to be a vehicle, perhaps, for the author to explore a very different sort of love. Perhaps the whole thing is Bella's deranged fantasy, Edward being nothing more than the product of a lonely mind. The ideal parent/God may not exist, but Edward, vampire heart-throb, certainly comes close.