Fan of Forks

Forks - as in Forks, Washington - the fictional background of the "Twilight" series.

I admit - I am hooked. Elder daughter told me I needed to read these books. She had the entire series. I asked her to bring them to me to borrow. She was kind enough on a recent trip to bring the books.

Last week I read all four books. Yep, I perused all 2,444 pages in the hard back editions. Now I want to read them again. Seriously, I don't actually do that too often. I am usually not a re-reader but I do believe I will make the exception. I even watched the movie twice. It was worth a second look.

Okay before I get carted off, let me explain this from a middle aged feminine view point. It is a romance story and a coming of age story- in an other-worldly type of way. While the circumstances are purely fictional, the substance of the emotion is very real to the feminine reader.

Our heroine, Bella, chooses (or is she drawn?) to move back to Forks with her father. She has only known her father and his community from those short visits over the years after her mother left. Bella, despite her young years, is a caretaker. She took care of her scatterbrained mother and now it is her turn to take care of her father.

We root for her being the 'new' girl- having to fit into an established group at school. She doesn't really fit but tries to get along.

The hero, Edward, doesn't fit in and keeps to himself and his 'family' and is actually quite rude to Bella, at first.

Any girl who has lived through those awfully, conflicting high school years, relates to the emotion of what is going on. Plus the other appeal of the series, is that each one of us wants someone to rescue us from ourselves and protect us from those forces that work against us.

Bella, the caretaker, needs Edward, her caretaker. Edward will also need Bella- the caretaker. They need each other's strengths to get them through. Ahhhh.....

In the coming of age aspect, Edward wants Bella not to be in a hurry to become a member of his family because he doesn't want her to have regrets. He wants to protect her. He wants her to understand what the total scope of her decision to love him unconditionally means to her humanity. His actions are very old school and takes some understanding from the heroine.

Realistically, real life doesn't work that way. But on a very basic level these novels are appealing because we all want to find someone who will love us unconditionally despite our flaws. We also want to have unconditional friends who will do anything for us. We all want a happy ending.

We all know that real life isn't quite like that.... but escaping to Forks can give us all a little bit of what we seek - fictionally speaking of course.