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What I Discovered Re-reading Twilight as an Adult
Edward Cullen is an abusive boyfriend.
Inspired by the release of Midnight Sun (which is Twilight retold from Edward’s perspective) and out of sheer boredom during quarantine, I decided to re-read Twilight for my podcast Breaking Down Bad Books.
Since reading Twilight as a gawky, sexually-repressed 16 year old, I earned a Bachelor’s of English Literature and had my own foray into the dating world and relationships.
These formative ‘adult’ experiences allowed me to realise two major themes during my re-read of Twilight:
- Stephenie Meyer is a terrible writer;
- Edward is 100%, completely and utterly, a total psychotic abuser.
In the first half of the book alone, we witness Edward stalking Bella, gas-lighting her, isolating her, withholding information, and teasing her.
In almost every conversation between the two characters, Edward laughs at how clumsy she is and insists that she is a danger-magnet that needs his protection.
We find out that he followed her on her girl’s trip to a nearby town in order to keep an eye on her. Hello, stalker alert!
When Bella firsts starts to suspect that there is a touch of the supernatural about Edward…
