The Twilight Saga came to author Stephenie Meyers in a dream one night.

An immersive, emotional, and compelling series, Twilight tells the story of Bella Swan and the mysterious vampire, Edward Cullen.  I’ll admit, I watched the Twilight movies before I read the books.  But, they are pretty much exactly the same, with no differences in the plot aside from the books obviously being more detailed.

The Summary 

The series begins with seventeen year old Bella Swan moving out of Phoenix, Arizona to live with her Dad (her Mom happened to be dating a minor league baseball player who had to travel frequently).  Her Dad was a resident and Chief of Police of Forks, Washington, a cloudy, rainy, and overall gloomy town.  Upon Bella’s arrival, she reunites with an old childhood friend named Jacob Black, who she hadn’t seen since she was four years old.  Jacob’s family are descendants of a Native American tribe called the Quileute.  Because of this, Jacob goes to school on a private reservation with other members of his tribe, and Bella has to start at a new school in the middle of the year without knowing a soul.

On Bella’s first day at Forks High School, she quickly accumulates a small group of friends.  As they were eating lunch, Bella noticed a majestic group of “kids” walk into the cafeteria.  Her friends explained that they were all foster “siblings” who were adopted by a local doctor, Carlisle Cullen.  Bella had a particular fascination with Edward Cullen, who she later got to sit next to in biology. However, they did not utter a word to each other for the entire hour, and Edward seemed extremely on edge.

A few days pass, and Edward comes back to school with noticeably different colored eyes.  He introduces himself and apologizes for his lack of sociability. After Bella and Edward’s first interaction, they both become enamored by one another. But Bella notices that Edward has god-like strength and speed, and that he “speaks like he’s from a different time.” Through further research, Bella figures out the impossible: Edward is a vampire.

If that shocked you, what if I told you Jacob quite literally descended from wolves…because he is in fact a werewolf.

More Twilight Details

When the first Twilight book was released in 2005, readers went wild.  This young adult novel caused teenage girls to rave about the iconic  supernatural love triangle between Edward, Bella, and Jacob. As a result of the series’ popularity and success, five movies came out and brought the story to the big screen. The movies aligned with the four books in the original saga (one book is so long that they had to split it into two movies!), but there are additional books in the series as well. There is a novella which follows the life of a side character within the original series called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, as well as Midnight Sun, which is the first book of the Twilight Saga told in Edward’s perspective.  So if you’re someone who likes to see both sides of the story, this can be for you!

“I think people should watch Twilight because the storyline is filled with twists and turns and you truly fall in love with the characters,” says East Islip senior Emilia Cicale. “Each person’s personality is so unique and it’s an incredible story.”

Additionally, East Islip senior Madison McNamee stated that she thinks “the movies are better but the books give more detail.”

So here’s the juicy question…team Edward or team Jacob?

Madison McNamee declared simply “Jacob, because he’s just better.” On the contrary, Emilia Cicale stated, “Team Edward for sure. Their connection is undeniable, they just belong together, and I see Jacob as more of a best friend.”

Find out what team you’re on by reading the books or watching the movies! Twilight never disappoints.