Twilight - Preface

There isn't much to say about the preface, really. It is vague, absolutely nothing is told about the situation or the environment that Bella is in, and it is mercifully short. There are a couple of things, though, that struck me as odd.

I stared without breathing ...

I wonder how long she'd been doing that for.

into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.

Probably wondering why you're not breathing, you stupid girl.

The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.

Sauntered? He sauntered? Harbingers of death do not saunter! They stalk, they stride, they ... tiptoe very menacingly! They ... do not ... saunter!

Meyer is going for this:



But instead I imagine this:



Even though it's not a particularly atrocious incidence, I award Meyer (+1 Thesaurus Rape) for making a deadly killer saunter, thus killing the mood of what had actually been a pretty good scene up until then.

Overall the preface is pretty good, if for no other reason than that it is vague and short. It actually made me want to read more of the book to see what happens. It is an effecting hook to draw the reader in, not overdone with a decent amount of tension ... well, except for the whole sauntering business.

And thus are so many lambs led to the slaughter. Little to we readers know which creek we just dove into. Here's a hint: the creek is brown, and it stinks.