Twilight
It's time. I've finished Twilight and New Moon, and after reading everyone else's opinions on the Internet, I feel that I too must chime in on the Twilight phenomenon. I'm far from a squealy fangirl, but I still kind of like the books.
I started Twilight expecting it to be cheesy, because pretty much everyone on the Internet seemed to have hated it. However, my friends Beth and Lauren loved it, and I generally hold them to be reasonable people, so it was possible that the book would be okay. Lauren loaned me her copy. I got about half a page in, and my reaction was "How the hell did this ever get published?" I hated Bella from the beginning. She's horribly written and her narrating sounds like a third-person narration with all the "she's" turned to "I's". She doesn't act like a real person, and let's face it, she's annoying. She's not quite a Mary Sue due to her many faults, but she's awfully close. Heck, there are Mary Sues I've enjoyed more than her (Ayla is cool, I don't care what the haters say). I forced myself to read a couple more chapters, because if I was going to hand the book back to Lauren, I'd have to have a good reason or else I was going to come off as a pretentious English major who can't enjoy a good story.
Then sparks started flying between Bella and Edward, and I couldn't help but start squeeing. See, I have a very particular taste in my romantic fiction. I love it when one member of a couple is so strong or powerful that he or she could easily kill his or her partner with a touch. I don't know what this says about me, but that is the one thing that will turn me onto a story, now matter how badly written it is. So pretty much any book with a vampire/human romance is awesome to me, and Twilight even more so because they play it up. It's cheesy, it's badly written, the characters are unrealistic and a little bit boring, but the romance is great.
So that got me through most of the book (I was definitely tripped up at the baseball and prom scenes--I mean, vampire baseball? Why, Stephanie Meyer, why? And the whole not realizing that prom dress + prom night=prom date was beyond ridiculous), and I could almost forget how stupid and annoying Bella was. It's not a bad story. It's not a great story, either, but it's a fun light read. I'm embarrassed for Stephanie Meyer, because so many people are reading her bad writing, but apparently she's onto something.
So that was Twilight. New Moon spoilers are up ahead.
I picked up New Moon all excited about more Bella/Edward goodness, and what happens? He leaves her at the beginning of the book. And not only him, but all the vampires, including Alice, who is pretty much the only redeemable character in the whole series. But I wasn't worried, because he had to be back. I read a hundred pages. No Edward. Two hundred. No Edward. Okay, fine, the romance was over. I got it. I sulked for a little bit, and then got into the story.
Aside from the fact that Bella was even more annoying than usual, and being a bitch on top of that, I kind of liked the way the story was going. Her relationship with Jacob was more real than the one with Edward. He wasn't a stalker, he had a life outside of their relationship, and there were real, normal problems between them instead a perfect love (ignoring the werewolf stuff). I thought Bella might learn a lesson, and stay in a relationship that wasn't perfect, but where they could both be kind of happy (okay, I didn't really think that would happen, but it would have been nice).
I got a little fangirly again when the vampires came back into the picture, especially when they went to Italy and met new vampires. I liked Jacob less after he interacted with Alice and Edward. They handled it much more maturely than he did. And the decision made about Bella's future pretty much made my week.
The plot devices in New Moon were very bizarre and didn't make any sense (particularly Bella hearing Edward's voice, and also her over-the-top depression) and Bella is still annoying and unreal, but I liked the fleshing out of the other characters and the mythical world. I'm looking forward to reading Eclipse, although I don't expect it to be a masterpiece.
Overall, I like both books. They are not good literature, they are not good writing, but they are fun. They are also really easy to make fun of. If you haven't seen this yet, you should. :~)
I started Twilight expecting it to be cheesy, because pretty much everyone on the Internet seemed to have hated it. However, my friends Beth and Lauren loved it, and I generally hold them to be reasonable people, so it was possible that the book would be okay. Lauren loaned me her copy. I got about half a page in, and my reaction was "How the hell did this ever get published?" I hated Bella from the beginning. She's horribly written and her narrating sounds like a third-person narration with all the "she's" turned to "I's". She doesn't act like a real person, and let's face it, she's annoying. She's not quite a Mary Sue due to her many faults, but she's awfully close. Heck, there are Mary Sues I've enjoyed more than her (Ayla is cool, I don't care what the haters say). I forced myself to read a couple more chapters, because if I was going to hand the book back to Lauren, I'd have to have a good reason or else I was going to come off as a pretentious English major who can't enjoy a good story.
Then sparks started flying between Bella and Edward, and I couldn't help but start squeeing. See, I have a very particular taste in my romantic fiction. I love it when one member of a couple is so strong or powerful that he or she could easily kill his or her partner with a touch. I don't know what this says about me, but that is the one thing that will turn me onto a story, now matter how badly written it is. So pretty much any book with a vampire/human romance is awesome to me, and Twilight even more so because they play it up. It's cheesy, it's badly written, the characters are unrealistic and a little bit boring, but the romance is great.
So that got me through most of the book (I was definitely tripped up at the baseball and prom scenes--I mean, vampire baseball? Why, Stephanie Meyer, why? And the whole not realizing that prom dress + prom night=prom date was beyond ridiculous), and I could almost forget how stupid and annoying Bella was. It's not a bad story. It's not a great story, either, but it's a fun light read. I'm embarrassed for Stephanie Meyer, because so many people are reading her bad writing, but apparently she's onto something.
So that was Twilight. New Moon spoilers are up ahead.
I picked up New Moon all excited about more Bella/Edward goodness, and what happens? He leaves her at the beginning of the book. And not only him, but all the vampires, including Alice, who is pretty much the only redeemable character in the whole series. But I wasn't worried, because he had to be back. I read a hundred pages. No Edward. Two hundred. No Edward. Okay, fine, the romance was over. I got it. I sulked for a little bit, and then got into the story.
Aside from the fact that Bella was even more annoying than usual, and being a bitch on top of that, I kind of liked the way the story was going. Her relationship with Jacob was more real than the one with Edward. He wasn't a stalker, he had a life outside of their relationship, and there were real, normal problems between them instead a perfect love (ignoring the werewolf stuff). I thought Bella might learn a lesson, and stay in a relationship that wasn't perfect, but where they could both be kind of happy (okay, I didn't really think that would happen, but it would have been nice).
I got a little fangirly again when the vampires came back into the picture, especially when they went to Italy and met new vampires. I liked Jacob less after he interacted with Alice and Edward. They handled it much more maturely than he did. And the decision made about Bella's future pretty much made my week.
The plot devices in New Moon were very bizarre and didn't make any sense (particularly Bella hearing Edward's voice, and also her over-the-top depression) and Bella is still annoying and unreal, but I liked the fleshing out of the other characters and the mythical world. I'm looking forward to reading Eclipse, although I don't expect it to be a masterpiece.
Overall, I like both books. They are not good literature, they are not good writing, but they are fun. They are also really easy to make fun of. If you haven't seen this yet, you should. :~)