(no subject)
(I love the cover, but what's with the apple... there's nothing about an apple in the book...)
Er...
Okay.
That’s it then?
Really?
This is the vampire novel that’s taken the world by storm? This is the Anne-Rice-for-teenagers thing people have been raving about? Not to say Twilight was bad... it just wasn’t *that* good either. It was all right. It was compelling though, very much a page turner, and I will be buying the next novel in the series for definite.
Basically from the beginning of the novel I dislike Bella. I mean, that’s kind of annoying in and of itself - hating the main character, when the *entire* book is told from her point of view in first person. I just found her totally and utterly bland.
My strongest opinion of her is that she is a complete Mary Sue. (For the non-clued-in folks, see here for an explanation this term.) The character reads like she’s got a fifteen year old author behind her, living vicariously through her and applying all the things to her that she wants to be - basically an OC female lead in a fan fic. She’s got a little bit of the troubled past thing, she’s sarcastic and no one ‘gets’ her, her one fault is clumsiness but that conveniently makes her the damsel in distress all ready to be saved, she’s drop dead gorgeous and doesn’t realise it until almost *every* boy at her new school comes onto her (seriously, Eric, Mike, Tyler, Jacob *and* Edward all ask her out or very obviously show they want to be with her).
Bella simply she doesn’t feel like a proper character. What are her likes and dislikes, what are her quirks, what clothes does she like to wear, who were her friends back in Phoenix, what are her favourite school subjects? What does she like to do bar sitting around being emo!? She seemed to be an outline of a character rather than a real character that leaps off the page and grabs you. It was the things happening to her and the people she met and described that were *way* more interesting than Bella herself.
The eponymous vampire himself, Edward… well, he did irritate me at the beginning. I certainly haven’t swooned over his bad fictional self like so many seem to have. I wasn’t as irritated by him as the novel wore on. I liked the feral, vicious side of his personality, the vampire side I suppose, and how he struggled, along with his family, with being a ‘good’ vampire, one who didn’t feed on humans. I also enjoyed him learning to regain his human side and be more affectionate, and getting used to physical contact with humans.
What really got to me about the novel really was the fan fic feel of it all. Bella’s an ordinary girl, apparently a boy magnet, but ordinary nonetheless, then a stunningly gorgeous boy falls for her, and she’s accepted into his family immediately. The boy falls in love with her in record time and goes all alpha male and possessive of her… I’ve read this template a thousand times in fan fics.
Bella’s complete helplessness and damsel-in-distressiness annoyed the hell out of me. She almost gets hit by a car, and Edward saves her, she faints just because someone at the top of the room pricks his finger and she sees the blood, and Edward saves her, she falls prey to a vampire, gets thoroughly beaten up, and Edward saves her. Can’t she freaking save herself just once? Passive heroines just don’t work for me. Maybe I’ve seen to many kickass ones to be able to swallow this ‘waiting to be saved by a big strong man thing’. Buffy Summers, Lady Marian in Robin Hood, Veronica Mars, Martha Jones and Rose Tyler, Lyra Belaqua, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley… none bar the first one and the last two have special powers, and even besides that, all of them in tough situations, manage to save themselves and others time and again. Even in ordinary life, they are kickass.
I wasn’t looking for totally independent, headstrong, take no crap, self-sufficient Xena girl… I just wish Bella wasn’t so passive and submissive. Jane Austen this ain’t. She doesn’t have to wait for the boy to make her happy, or save her… ARGH. I am just frustrated with her.
I liked Edward’s sister Alice and his brothers Emmett and Jasper more than I liked Bella. I loved the whole Cullen family. I loved the history surrounding them, how they all came together, and how they function as a family unit. The fact that they don’t come out in the sunlight, not because they would burn and die, but because their skin glows and shines, is actually a really cool and intriguing addition to the vampire mythos on the author’s part. It reminded me of Yvaine in Stardust glowing when she was truly happy. I also really liked Mike and Jacob… was it really necessary for them to be in love with Bella as well though?
And honestly, did the author really have the repeat over and over to inifinity, and describe in minute detail how gorgeous, pale, muscular, cold-skinned, handsome, tall, and powerful Edward was? I mean, after a couple chapters of it, I was like I GET IT, HE’S HOT. I mean does the freaking author want to have lots of sex her own fictional character? Seems like it to me.
Edward and Bella did not need to say I love you so many times either. It got so boring after a while, and the words lost their meaning and uniqueness. Also, is Bella incapable of walking? Because it seems like Edward carries her *everywhere*. Even when she’s not injured or they’re not running from something… he just randomly carries her. WTF?
I’m very torn on this novel. On one hand, for some reason I like the book and could not put it down. On the other, the main character frequently make me want to reach into their world and beat them with my shoe. *sigh* Maybe a 3 / 5, I suppose? I just hope the second book is more of the stuff I liked about Twilight and less of the ‘OMG we’re Buffy and Angel for the 21st century I love you so much forever never leave me you’re so hot’ crap.
Also? Is the reader supposed to want Bella to become a vampire? ‘Cause that’s what I was rooting for the whole way through.