Thursday, February 7, 2008

Twilight


By Stephenie Meyer

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and read Twilight, though I didn't exactly do it willingly. It's this month's book club pick, and I made a goal to read all of the picks, so I was kind of forced.

The book focuses on Bella, a junior in high school, who moves to a tiny little town on the Olympic peninsula to live with her father. She eventually (by eventually, I mean almost instantly) meets and falls in love with Edward, who just happens to be a vampire.

I am not a huge fan of romances or vampires, so I was pretty sure that I wouldn't like this book at all. After finishing the book, I can see why it is so insanely popular with the teenage/young adult female crowd. I can also see why some people absolutely hate it. I think I fall somewhere in between. It was an ok story - not fabulous but certainly not the worst thing that I have ever read. I found it very readable. It was in fact oddly addicting - when I would start reading, I tended to read for 100 pages or more without realizing it. The writing wasn't fabulous and lyrical, but it somehow worked. There was one line that I thought was fabulous. Edward and Bella are in the car having a "discussion" about their relationship minutes after Bella confirmed that Edward was in fact a vampire:
"Are you crying?" He sounded appalled. I hadn't realized the moisture in my eyes had brimmed over. I quickly rubbed my hand across my cheek, and sure enough, traitor tears were there, betraying me.
(emphasis on traitor mine) I have found myself thinking the exact thing about tears before.

I found the characters fairly shallow - especially Bella. She was so annoying and whiney and just bah! Especially for the first 1/3 of the book. She never really grew on me, but I can see that there is potential for her to become less annoying. Edward seemed fairly one-dimensional and I thought it was kind of creepy that he used his "powers" (for lack of a better term) to get Bella to do what he wanted. Doesn't that seem like an abusive situation waiting to happen? I also didn't think Charlie was very believable. I understand that this was a man that hadn't lived with anyone and didn't necessarily know how to be a father, but I can't believe that he would be so laid back about everything. Maybe it's because I've always had a very protective father, but I just didn't believe that Charlie could be so...out of it.

The Vampire thing was not as big of a deal as I was afraid of. Edward and family are definitely vampires, but there was no bloodsucking (that we witnessed) and I never felt like it was creepy.

Overall, the book was mostly just ok - it didn't change my life, but I also don't regret reading it. I think I would recommend it to my sisters that love highschool romances. I don't think I will be reading the sequels, though once the series is complete, I might consider it.

2 comments:

Shelley said...

I agree with most everything you said, but I was still sucked in to the story. I think I read it so fast that I didn't have time to dwell on its weaknesses. I do know that I could never read them again--I would be too irritated. I thought the next two were better, just because they got a little more complex, though a little over the top. I think it's a good idea to wait until they are all out if you ever read more. That way you can just zip through and not think too much while you read them.
By the way, I love your blog--sorry about these really long comments!

KT said...

My sister-in-law calls this series "book crack." She says she knows she shouldn't read them (because they irritate her too), but once she starts she just can't stop. I laugh everytime I think of that comment.

I think I will give the other three a shot (once they are all available), everyone seems to agree that they do get a bit better with time.

Thanks for all the comments!