Customer Reviews

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

*The rating should probably be a 4, but out of principle I give everything Twilight related 5 stars. Silly, but that's the way it is.

I am evenly split between happiness and disappointment. There were so many wonderful bits of information in the Guide, things I never thought to wonder about and answers to numerous niggling questions. However, so many things were left out - things that I'm sure Stephanie knows and are really essential pieces of information for any Twilight lover.

On the bright side, the paucity of information means there's lots left to the imagination. Readers and writers of Twilight fan-fiction will not lack for story options. I also wonder if the major holes in various characters' biographies (specifically Alice and Jasper, as well as Renesmee and Jacob) were done in purpose to leave room for future books. I already know that she won't answer certain questions about Nessie and Jacob in case she explores it later, but there was so much left out of Alice and Jasper's early lives that perhaps Stephenie envisions another story (I doubt it though).

I'll go over the good and bad points. I am making an effort not to put any spoilers in my review (e.g. the substance of Alice's story), but I'll be referring to what is and is not in the Guide. If you're as picky about spoilers as I am, you might want to be careful. Also, given the level of my emotional investment in Twilight, my criticisms will likely not be as diplomatic as I normally try to make them.

The Good

1. Vampires Generally: I learned almost everything I wanted to know about the physical qualities of vampires. I already knew much of the information, but there was just enough new to keep me happy.

2. Alice's Human Life: Brava, Stephenie! You told me everything I wanted to know and so much more. Alice's human life was fascinating from beginning to end, although not in a good way. In some ways, it's better that Alice doesn't remember any of it. One of the highlights of the Guide.

3. Edward's Life: Not entirely complete, but I loved learning more about Edward's relationship with his parents, particularly his father. I already knew that his father was an attorney and they were fairly wealthy, but I loved filling in the gaps in Edward's story. It was also fabulous to learn what degrees Edward has received over the years. I was happy to get a little more information about Edward's years as a traditional vampire: specific dates and one tidbit I'd always wondered about.

4. Other Vampire Biographies: While I was largely disappointed with the new information, or lack thereof, in the Cullen's stories, I was beyond impressed with the biographies of the Volturi, the Denalis, the Romanians, the Egyptians, the Amazons, and the Nomads. There was tons of information here, all new. We get detailed biographies of each major character's human and vampire life. The Guide was worth buying for these stories alone. They were the highlight of the entire book.

-The Volturi: From the books and the Twilight Lexicon, we already knew a little background about the Volturi, but the Guide tells us so much more. Detailed histories of Aro, Marcus, and Caius which give us insight not only to specific events of their lives, but also to their personalities and motivations. I was so happy to learn about Alec and Jane's histories. Chelsea's biography was much more interesting than I expected it to be. The way the Volturi's motivations for ruling and claiming themselves as keeper of the law was skewed; I think Stephenie would root for a vampire coux.

-The Romanians and Egyptians: I'm combining these categories, because they are both ancient covens. I loved learning about how millennia of ambition and warfare built these covens and tore them apart. Amun's story was particularly interesting, especially how he has interacted or hidden from the Volturi over the years.

-The Denali's: There wasn't a huge amount of new information here, but the sisters' stories were fleshed out. I was very happy to get a better idea of when the Cullens' first met the Denali's.

-James and Victoria: Fabulous. Especially Victoria's stories. I don't like either character any better after knowing their backgrounds (if anything, I like James even less), but I definitely understand them better. Victoria's human life and then how her talent for escape worked as a vampire was really interesting.

-Alistair: Perhaps the most fascinating story of all. I really wanted to know more about Alistair and Stephenie did not disappoint. It would be hard to top the betrayal and horror of Alistair's transformation into a vampire. I was also happy to learn how Carlisle and Alistair became acquainted. It could have been fleshed out a little better, but I was still happy.

-Peter and Charlotte: We learn more details about Peter and Charlotte's escape from Jasper and Maria and Peter's return for Jasper. We also get excellent insight into Charlotte's character and feelings for Jasper and Alice. Through Peter and Charlotte's stories, we learn a lot of new information about Jasper. I would have liked a better explanation of why Peter and Jasper got along so well as well as information about Peter and Charlotte's human lives, but the amount of new information made up for what was lacking.

-Joham: Tons of information about Joham. His motivations, his relationship with his children, his selfishness and cruelty. I also enjoyed getting to know a little about his children.

5. The Wolves: I've made it pretty clear that I'm not nearly as interested in the Wolfpack as I am in vampires. Still, I found a lot of the information about the wolves fascinating.

-General Mythology: I loved learning more about "real" werewolves versus the Quileute shape-shifters. There was also good information about the physical attributes of the Wolfpack. I got a better understanding of their appearance and supernatural capabilities both in wolf and human form.

-Billy's Story: I loved learning more about Billy. We learn about his knowledge of vampires and werewolf legends, his thoughts on being a missed wolf generation, and his feelings toward the Cullens.

-Sam, Leah, and Emily: Now this is drama. From the books, we know the basics of how Sam dropped Leah when he imprinted on Emily. Here we learn exactly what happened - Leah's bitterness, Sam's regret, Emily's surprise. We learn just how Emily received her scars. Leah's story definitely makes me sympathize with her more. On a side note, we learn what triggered Harry's heart attack. Very interesting, although I think I like how the New Moon movie portrayed it better.

The Bad

1. The Cullens' Stories: The lack of new information about the Cullens' in their bios was the biggest disappointment for me in the Guide. There were little tidbits I didn't know, but on the whole, their bios were just paraphrased from the books. I already know the biographical information in the books. What I want to know is what wasn't in the books. If the information didn't come from the books, it likely came from Stephenie's website or from the Lexicon interviews. I keep reading the same pages over and over in the hope that the letters on the page will magically rearrange themselves into new sentences. A huge, huge disappointment.

2. Alice's Vampire Life: As I said, I loved the story about Alice's human life. But there was virtually nothing about her life as a vampire prior to joining the Cullens. It's not like she found Jasper and the Cullens within the first couple of weeks of her new life. It took thirty years! A lot of things surely happened during that time period. What were they?

3. Esme's Story: What did she name her baby? Why, oh why wasn't this included? Such a simple piece of information that so many people want to know (or at least I do). Otherwise her story was fine. Nothing I didn't know from the Lexicon interviews, but interesting nonetheless.

4. Jasper's Story: I wanted to learn more about his human life. What was his family like? Was he in school prior to joining the army? Absolutely nothing about his vampire life that we don't know from Eclipse. His relationship with Maria was not adequately fleshed out. Nor do we learn much about his early years with Alice and the Cullens. Also, there is nothing about the scope of his power to manipulate emotions. Three of the things I most wanted to know.

5. Carlisle's Story: Not enough information. It was a rehash of what we already know from the books - practically word for word of what Edward and Carlisle told Bella in Twilight and New Moon. There were some interesting tidbits spread throughout the Guide, but not nearly enough. I wanted to know more about his human life and more about his early relationships with Edward (both before and after he turned him), Esme, and Rosalie. We didn't get a firm idea of when he started practicing medicine or just how hard it was training to handle blood. No idea where Carlisle learned to fight so well.

6. Edward's Story: I was largely satisfied with Edward's story. There was enough new information to make up for what was lacking. Or almost enough. I really wanted more information about how Edward, his mother, and Carlisle became close in the hospital. I wanted more information about Edward's first few years with Carlisle and Esme and whether he was initially resentful that Carlisle turned him. Also, I would have loved an outtake of Edward's prodigal son moment.

7. Rosalie and Emmett's Stories: There was virtually nothing new about Rosalie. I might as well have just re-read Eclipse. I wanted to know more details about how and when she kills Royce and his cronies. I was especially disappointed that I didn't get a better feeling of Rosalie's relationship with Carlisle. Emmett's bio did have new, interesting information, but not enough. What did he do as a human? Where did he work? It's interesting to know that he slipped often in his early years, but I want to know specific details.

8. J. Jenks' Story: We don't really get any new information about Jenks. I wanted to know specifically how Jasper terrified him so much. I would also love to know whether Bella can convince Jasper to let her handle that relationship post-Breaking Dawn.

9. Maria's Story: Sadly lacking. Unlike the other vampires, we learned nothing about Maria's human life. There was some new information in her bio, but not nearly enough. I wanted to know more about her relationship with Jasper. Also, I was disappointed that we didn't learn more about Maria's visit to the Cullens in Calgary and why they had to leave immediately.

10. Wolves Sleeping Around: We don't find out who Embry's father is. Come on, Steph!

11. Interview: The Guide starts out with an interview between Stephenie and Shannon Hale. The interview is really interesting. It's more of a conversation than a traditional interview between two authors/friends. It covers everything from the origins of Twilight, to Stephenie's reaction to the books' success, to Stephenie's writing process. My main problem with this interview is that it was 65 pages long! While it was interesting, it didn't tell me anything groundbreaking. Plus, Shannon Hale inserted a lot of herself into the questions. I am not a big Shannon Hale fan, so I really didn't care about what she had to say. Those 65 pages could have been used for more back-stories, more outtakes, more things important to the Saga. (You could also argue that the extensive cross-references, playlists, fan art, and international covers were wasted space, but I can understand their relevance to the Guide)

12. Sloppy: I was extremely irritated with the mistakes in the timeline for Jasper, Peter, and Charlotte's lives. The Guide states that Peter's age ranges from 1860-1920. Two pages later, it says Peter was 3 years old when he ran away with Charlotte. If you follow Charlotte's bio which says she was turned in 1938, they left in 1939. However, the timeline later in the book says that Jasper left Maria in 1938. Hmmm...problem here. Even more mixed up, it specifically states in Eclipse, that Peter came back for him five years after he and Charlotte fled. Clearly someone dropped the ball here. I blame the Twilight Lexicon for this (who helped with the Guide). Their timeline wrongly states that Jasper left Maria in the last 1800s. From Eclipse and Midnight Sun, this is obviously incorrect. The screwed up dates carried over to the Guide. (To be fair, the Lexicon is no more to blame than Stephenie and her editors for this large error).
A smaller error appears in Angela Weber and Ben Cheney's biographies. In Angela's, it states that they both plan to attend University of Washington. In Ben's, they are suddenly going to Washington State University. Two different schools.

If you look very carefully on the back jacket, you will see the cover image of the original announced book. It reads, "#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Stephenie Meyer" as the byline. The byline on the cover that was printed reads "A companion to the #1 Bestselling Series by Stephenie Meyer." That should tell you everything you need to know about this book. The title page doesn't credit the author, it credits Alphie and Pel from the Twilight Lexicon website and it's evident from the number of things that are marked 'unkown' or 'sometime between time x and time y' that very little new information was given to them in this writing. The book is a hodge-podge of information of varying newness and quality, and while it's an interesting addition for those who'd like a pretty book, it doesn't provide much meat for fans who've paid close attention to information about the series all along.

Wonderful and interesting backstories have been included for some characters, such as James, Victoria, Laurent, and Alice. As became usual for SM starting in Eclipse, far more attention has been paid to the wolves and their history than to the vampires and theirs. There is some new information about the Volturi, but what she imagines for their past is generally out of line with ancient European history. The backstories vary immensely, however, in quality and new information, with some lifting word-for-word the tiny backstory given for that character in the books. (This is unfortunately especially true of the Cullen bios, which are arguably the ones fans were most interested in.) Some bios give pages of information about characters we didn't know, others are a few lines long and reveal that very little new info has been added. If you were expecting maybe a portrait of each character and a right-facing page of information, you'll be disappointed--at times with the minor characters, the bios are so short that three sets of info are included on facing pages. Even Edward's bio is only three full pages, mostly detailing what happens to him in the books.

There's an interview with SM for the first 60 pages, and I'm convinced this was more or less the extent of her involvement with the assembly of this book. In it, she provides a little more information that explains how she writes, and maybe gives some of us who were annoyed with the way she ended her series a glimpse into the erratic style that made that happen--most importantly her burning desire to have us hear Jacob's voice the way she did which resulted in the jarring and unprofessional inclusion of a first-person POV shift in books 3 and 4.

The rest of the book is filled with mostly meaningless information--Young Kim did excellent illustrations for the Cullens, but illustrations are missing for even many of the other major vampire characters, like the Volturi. Despite lots of info on the wolves, how the gene works, their geneology, and their backstories, the only wolf drawn is Jacob. (There's an interesting watercolor of Rialto Beach, La Push, however). There is a section with an illustration of each CAR featured in the book, but really, since there were photos of all the vehicles on SM's website, I think I would've preferred an illustration of Aro to Jasper's motorcycle.

The timeline printed in the book is the one available for free on TwilightLexicon.com, as are the provided chapter summaries (incidentally, this fan-created timeline is inconsistent with some of the new backstories provided for this volume). Other information such as the Frequently Asked Questions and outtakes are things that have been available for internet fans for years. Big fans will have even likely seen most of the gallery of the fanart and foreign covers which take up the last 25 pages or so. There is precious little new information that could not be obviously inferred from the books and interviews SM has given in the past.

Meyer has shown herself repeatedly to not be interested in the true world-building, consistency, historical and geographic accuracy that was necessary to take her series from just a light read to something as rich as a HARRY POTTER or PERCY JACKSON. This book underscores her lack of attention to detail and reveals the shallow depth to which secondary characters were thought through in the books. To top that, THE GUIDE, because it was written by others than the author herself, introduces more historical and story-internal inaccuracies than existed in the original books, while basic questions that fans have always had about some of the series' mysteries go unanswered.

The 4-color pages and illustrations make this a beautiful book, and the authors who did put time into it, Lori Joffs and Laura Byrne-Cristiano, should be congratulated. The artwork from Bradley, Carey, Kim, McMenemy, and Palmer Preiss should be commended as well. For the price, if you're a Twihard, you'll want this one in your library. If nothing else, it's nice to have all the info at hand in one volume instead of having to scour the 'net.

But don't expect to read this and feel any less like the series author abandoned this story a long time ago.

I so looked forward to reading this guide, and am sad to say it was a huge disappointment. About 10% of the book is new information, the rest is just rehashed from the books themselves, twilight lexicon or author's website. There is some nice new background information on Alice, and some of the less central characters, but the information on most characters is a direct repeat from the books. You think SM could have thrown in just a little bit of new information and given us something, or even some basic information about future events, i.e. did Charlie marry Sue? The story timeline, fan drawings and Cullen car overviews were annoying filler and made me feel ripped off. Particularly the story timeline. I'd say most people wanting to read the guide are fans, so hey, we know the basics of what happened in the books, trust us! I came away feeling the whole thing was put together by the publisher's, with barely a look in from SM. The really annoying thing is it could and should have been SO much better.

Because of all the delays and push-backs of the release of this book you would think this book would be great. This book could have been released 2 years ago and be exactly the same. It just feels like SM is burned out on Twilight and her lack of effort shows in this book. I was expecting amazing things and got very little. Each character should have had a photo. No fan art should have been in this book, it's a guide not a fan tribute. And pages of book covers from around the world, WTF? I can go to Amazon.com and see those. The book is filled with useless information to make up for the lack of necessary information. And the FAQ are a joke. We had those same questions answered 2-3 years ago. I'm heartbroken that we the fans that love and dedicate our time and money to this saga got this as the long awaited guide. It's not a guide, it's mash-up of Twilight fan/websites. And the 60 page interview was so unnecessary and just a page filler to make the book bigger. The Twi-Fans got taken for a ride with this book. I never thought I would think this or say this but if this is all the energy that SM can put into Twilight then maybe she shouldn't write anymore about it. I felt the passion and desire in the first 3 books of the saga but after that it just seemed like she had to finish it and she hurried through to get it finished.

Sad, sad day in the Twi-Universe.

In my personal opinion this book is a paper weight. It has very little information about the MAIN characters and goes above and beyond about the minor characters. Why? Because Ms. Meyer didn't write it! She allowed others to do it for her! And if you are a Twihard, you have found all this information on-line!

I honestly believe that Ms. Meyer let them have free reign on all minor characters and restricted them from adding additional information on the main characters! Either that or she wanted to upset the Twihards!

Why couldn't she answer the simple questions: What is the name of Esme's baby? What happened to Alice between the time she was changed to the time she met Jasper? What was Jasper's life like before he was changed? What did those two do before meeting the Cullen's? Who is Embry's father?

All of this shows me that this author wrote "The End" on this series and truly meant it, despite the unexpected popularity of her books. She has done little else to satisfy the Twihard's thirst and leaves a lot of things unanswered. Guides are supposed to help us answer questions not leave more.

Never mind the fact the characters time lines do not match their mates, or world history for that matter. This is just like the Bree project, hyped and wasteful. At least Ms. Meyer put time in the Bree project, besides a lengthy interview. But even she herself gets the time line of events wrong with the Saga.

The Saga is and always will be a Masterpiece...adding to it simply doesn't work.

This book is not for anyone who pays close attention to what they read. Most of what is in this comes directly from the books themselves. If you were a fan of the series for some time now, you've probably made your way to her website and have already read any additional info that you would find in this book. If you haven't, save yourself some cash and head over to Stephenie Meyer's website and read the info she has posted. There isn't very much information in this Guide beyond each character getting a page-page and half telling us some stats about them. I am very disappointed that Stephenie Meyer would lend herself to this project but not write anything else new. She has really taken advantage of her fans in this instance and is making a buck from people who were hoping for some new information on the series. This is not something I will be keeping around on my bookshelf.

Like others, I've been anticipating the release of this "guide" since 2008. I was hoping it would help ease (or at the very least, explain) the ridiculousness of Breaking Dawn and maybe clarify some of the "logic" (a term I use loosely) behind Stephanie's world. She does give a pretty detailed explanation behind vampire abilities and characteristics, but it's obvious that most (if not all) of the "science" behind her vampire "logic" is pure BS. The first 50 or 60 pages are a long, drawn-out interview with Stephanie Meyer (nothing new), and the guide FAQ is nothing you couldn't find at the Twilight Wiki or Stephanie Meyer's personal fansite. In fact, I'd say a good 85%-90% of the information presented is something even the more casual Twilight fan would ALREADY KNOW.

There are some interesting bits. Alice's human life, for example, is explained (though it is outlandish and far-fetched), and some of the minor characters like Peter and Charlotte and Maria are given stronger backstories than in the books. Some of the vampire hobbies are listed here as well (I wasn't aware Carlisle collected art), and the guide provides insight into the "daily life" of the Volturi, and the roles they play in upholding vampiric "law."

But these bits and pieces of "new" don't excuse the fact that most of this "guide" is a rehash of already well-known facts. Most of the Cullen biographies are either paraphrased from the novels, or copy+pasted straight from Twilight Lexicon. Alice's human life is explored, but what of the 30 years spent searching for Jasper and the additional two searching for the Cullens? What of Jasper's life as a human? What of the relationship between the Cullen "kids?" What of the events that happened following Breaking Dawn? What of Jacob and Renesmee's relationship as Renesmee grows? What of the new cover story for all these dozens of vampires and werewolves running around in one house? What of Maria's visit to the Cullens in Calgary? What of ANYTHING Twilight fans actually NEED or CARE to know?

The illustrations are nice, though even those are few and not all are even half as nice as how the characters are portrayed on-film. (I feel Alice especially is better represented onscreen.) There are character sketches for the titular cast, including the Cullens and James' coven. Bella is drawn in her wedding dress, though I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see Alice or even Rosalie's wedding dresses as well (not ALL of Rosalie's, obviously, but perhaps for the initial wedding). In the back is an encyclopedia for the Cullens' various cars/bikes, and even a 5-6 page dedication to fan submitted art (totally useless). I did think the "International Cover Gallery" was neat, but expendable in light of all the useless and already well-known information presented throughout the "guide."

All in all, this "guide" is a joke. Five minutes of research online will tell you the same thing and save you anywhere from $17 to $20 bucks. That this has been a work-in-progress since 2008 and is all the fans receive for their wait, is just an insult to the entire Twi-community. I would recommend only for the die-hard collectors/fans of the series, or as a "general reference." Otherwise, this is an epic pass. You're not missing a thing.

An official guide to a bestselling series written by the author seems like a golden opportunity -- it's a chance for the author to reveal parts of their series that didn't make it into their original novels.

Unfortunately, "The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide" doesn't come even close to living up to that promise. Most of the content is recycled stuff you could easily find on any Twilight website or wiki, and it's padded out with endless fluff, disingenuously dull interviews with Stephenie Meyer, and recycled factoids.

Yes, the first eighth of the book is devoted to Stephenie Meyer giving a prolonged interview to her "baffy," far superior fantasy author Shannon Hale. Basically the two women natter on aimlessly about various topics -- Meyer's books, the dream that got her started as a writer, her inspirations, her process, how wonderful Meyer is, blah blah blah. Most of it is nothing new.

There's also a brief Q&A about commonly-asked questions (some of which are REALLY unsatisfying!), cut scenes from the books, fan art, music playlists, profiles of the characters' CARS (I wish I were joking), detailed chapter-by-chapter plot points from the books, a timeline, and character stats and biographies for pretty much everybody in the series, including notable quotes, hobbies, and vehicles (what IS Meyer's obsession with cars?).

"The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide" is a lot like the novels it describes -- lots of self-indulgence, padding and the occasional flickers of interesting information. Now, I will admit that there are some interesting new facts included here, particularly the backstory of Alice, Billy Black, and the Volturi, and some stuff about vampire wars, their divisions, their history.

However, that's about as good as it gets. Even with a whole guide to mess around in, Meyer's worldbuilding remains flimsy, the vampire origin/history is still horribly vague, and it all feels sloppy and halfhearted. Most of the book is either fluff (why does a GUIDE have a fan-art gallery?), or facts that were already revealed in the books (such as most of the characters' backstories).

There's very little consistency in the writing -- some character biographies are long detailed rambling affairs, while others are painfully short and vague. And there is almost no new content for most of the MAIN CHARACTERS. Would it have been so hard for Meyer to come up with a few pages of interesting stories for Rosalie, Edward or Jacob's histories that were NOT mentioned in the books?

Also... THE CARS. I am sick of them. I'm far more interested in historical vampire wars than I am in whatever Edward drives. But guess which topic gets more ink devoted to it!

Meyer also attempts to explain the biology of her vampires and werewolves more thoroughly... and fails miserably as she unloads one biological impossibility after another ("unbreakable" teeth, extra chromosomes, rigid cell membranes, etc). And there's the horribly racist implications of "everyone who becomes a 'perfect' vampire turns lily-white" -- interpret that as you will.

There are some interesting facts in ""The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide," but the author doesn't bother to flesh most of them out enough.

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide by Stephenie Meyer is a companion guide to the most beloved Twilight Series. It was well worth the wait Twilight fans! It begins with a long interview done with Stephenie Meyer by Sharron Hale. Stephenie comments on her inspiration and how she spontaneously began the series, never before presuming to be a writer. Next the guide provides the logistics of Twilight vampires; their characteristics, history, law, myths, etc.. All the questions that have been asked about what makes Stephenie Meyer's vampires different and unique are answered.

In the next section, the characters are broken down and described, first through statistics and then in lengthy detail providing history, connection to other characters, and favorite quotes. It goes through all the vampires, wolves, Quileutes, and humans. I was amazed to see all the characters listed out like this, as you don't really grasp the amount until you see the pages go on and on. When "studying up" for Breaking Dawn the background behind all the new vampires is great.

Next is a Timeline of the books and a listing of Key Plot Points that summarizes the series well. My two favorite sections are the description and drawings of the cars that appear in the novels as well as the playlists that Stephenie Meyer has released for each book. Along with each song she provides a quote from the book about what that song represents. I love this as it shows what she was thinking and feeling while writing these emotional scenes. Lastly there is some Fan Art, international book covers, alternative endings and scenes from the novels and FAQs.

If you are a Twihard, many of the aspects of this book you may have seen in other forms, such as on blogs, through interviews, and red carpet blurbs; however, having it all officially in one book that is illustrated and planned out is awesome. As quoted "At long last, all the pieces come together..." Enjoy!

I think this book is nice if you've never found sites like Twilight Lexicon, or perused Stephanie Meyer's web site. There is a little new information for the main characters, most notably for Alice. It was nice hearing about her human life, but her vampire life before meeting Jasper (28 years) is glossed over. The rest of the new information is in back story for the secondary characters like the Volturi guardsmen, the Romanians, the Egyptians and the other vampire clans. There is also more detail for the werewolves, and vampire history as well.

It should also be noted that this guide covers material in the Twilight books, and not the movies, which diverge somewhat from the book universe.

But the points that get this book marked down is for retroactive continuity, where attempts were made to change existing canon. Also, for what is supposed to be an illustrated guide, there could have been more illustrations of the characters. Only the Cullens, Jacob, James' coven and a few of the humans are illustrated. The cars get more screen time than the characters do.

And although this book isn't a story, there are *** SOME SPOILERS *** below:

PREGNANCY CONTROVERSY

Here are earlier statements made by Ms. Meyer that affect the possibility of vampire reproduction:

"They sparkle because they have turned to substance that is somewhat like diamond. Their bodies have hardened, frozen into a kind of living stone. Each little cell in their skin has become a separate facet that reflects the light. These facets have a prism-like quality - they throw rainbows as they glitter." -- Correspondence from Ms. Meyer to TwiLex, in answer to "Why do they sparkle".

"And since we're talking physiology - I've had tons of people ask if vampires can have babies. The answer is no. When someone becomes a vampire, it's as if they are frozen exactly as they are in that moment. His or her (and we'll go with her because it's more central to this discussion) body no longer experiences change. Hair does not grow, nor do fingernails (if you cut your hair, you're stuck. That's why Alice's hair is so short - it was growing back from being shaved in the asylum). This applies to all changes - so a woman would no longer have any kind of ovulation cycle. If she were already pregnant when she was bitten, both she and the fetus would be frozen in that state. Which would really suck - pregnant for eternity? I'm shuddering at the thought." -- Correspondence to TwiLex, in answer to "What happens to a vampire's blood?".

Compare that to these passages from the Twilight Guide:

Reaction to Sunlight, pg. 68:
"The cellular membrane of the vampire is not as soft or permeable as in a human cell; it has crystalline properties that cause the surface of vampire skin to react prismatically, giving the vampire a glitter-like shimmer in sunlight."

Vampire Hybrids, pg 83:
"Male vampires do have the capacity to pass on genetic material with a human female partner. ... Female vampires still carry ova similar to human ova, but the unchanging state of their bodies results in a total absence of a reproductive cycle. Even if the female vampire could somehow continue this cycle, her frozen body would be unable to grow and change to accommodate a growing and changing fetus."

To me it sounds like she is trying to back away from her original statements, which essentially negate the possibility of vampire-human hybrids. And since over two-thirds of Breaking Dawn involves the baby, that's a lot of story to be wrong about. The phrase "it's not as soft as a human cell" is not as absolute as "frozen into a kind of living stone", giving her wiggle room for the baby to be possible. However there is another passage from the guide that emphasizes the fact that Edward is not making any genetic material:

Physical Change, pg. 71:
"Vampires are frozen in the state at which they are transformed. They do not grow older, taller, or wider, or experience any other physical change, including unconsciousness (vampires never sleep). Their fingernails and hair do not grow."

Ms. Meyer has said that she was being intentionally misleading with her statement that vampires can't have babies, and she was specifically speaking of female vampires. Even in the interview with Shannon Hale, she insists that she has the science worked out, and that male vampires CAN sire babies with humans. But she still doesn't present it in this guide. This was the perfect opportunity to put the critics to rest and she passed. All we are given is a reiteration of the statement "male vampires can create babies, but it's a very rare occurrence." No explanation of how a being that does not generate new cells or experience growth of any kind is going to pass on genetic information. How is it that the female vampire lacks a reproductive cycle, but the male vampire supposedly still has the male equivalent? Well, at least she didn't repeat that nonsense of Edward storing sperm for 100 years.

Some folks may say that it's not possible to keep track of everything that was said on a subject. That these are accidental misstatements, not intentional re-statements. Well at one time that may have been true. But with modern search engines and content being stored on the internet, it's a simple case to research what has already been said, so as not to contradict oneself.

Ms. Meyer also uses the often repeated phrase "it's a fantasy" during the interview while scoffing at people who don't believe her vampires can make babies. But even in fantasy, you have to be consistent with the established rules, otherwise the story has nothing to stand on. It's not that we don't believe, it's that she wrote it out of her universe.

Is this book an attempt to negate some of the criticism that erupted after the publication of Breaking Dawn? Maybe, maybe not. It does seem a little odd that some things are verbatim from Twilight Lexicon, and certain other things are not. Should you buy this book? As long as you aren't too concerned about some things not following canon exactly, this book might be a useful addition to your collection. It is rather pretty and provides back story to what was in the books. But if you've already perused this information on the net, you may be a little disappointed.