This book has caused a lot of fuss both by people who love it and others who hate it. I read it to find out what the big deal is, and the answer is: not much, really. I was honestly expecting it to be awful. Like, "My Immortal" awful. It wasn't, but that doesn't mean it's anything to get really excited about. I found the story to be reasonably interesting (once it finally got going, which took forever), but the characterizations to be shallow. The main character's obsession with her vampire lover was hard to fathom and tedious to read about. For much of the beginning of the novel, nothing really important happens, and it really tends to drag on and on, but not really any worse than some of the supermarket bodice rippers I've skimmed. (Okay, I've read ONE, but that's all, I promise!)
I really didn't like the emphasis that was put on the characters' physical appearance, as though that was all that was needed to make this an epic love story. You really don't get any idea why they are attracted to each other; especially to the degree presented. Their interests aren't really discussed, and you don't see where there is any common ground. They (or rather, the author) both just 'decided' that they were in love for some reason, despite having nothing in common, and nothing to really pull them together.
Neither of the characters was flawed enough to seem real, and the major flaws they did have are not treated as such. Both characters are deeply obsessive, creepily so, and rather than making this a book about obsession and mental illness, these weaknesses are lauded, as though they were just the heighth of romance. Rather than treating her characters as people, for the author they are props, which she moves around and makes do things. Outside of their love for each other, Edward and Bella have no real motivations, and thus are stale and uninteresting.
It was an okay way to pass a few boring evenings, but nothing more.
You should go read "Midnight Sun." It was meant to be a retelling of Twilight from Edwards perspective, but the first chapter got leaked and Stephanie Myer got all butt hurt and stopped writing it. Honestly, I think it would be a better book than Twilight.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/midnightsun_partial_draft4.pdf
I too was totally unimpressed with the characters, but one thing I did like is that Meyer's added some interesting Vampire folklore.
ReplyDeleteI know everyone is all kinds of pissed about sparkly Vampires, but I really liked the way she used that to fit into the existing vampire myth. ie. Vampires aren't killed by sunlight(as the urban legends tell us), they do fear it though because it reveals their weakness.
They also used "the reason Vampires settle in the NorthWest is because it rains often enough to hide their vampiristic qualities."
You're spot on with the character analysis though. Cute guy and cute girl find each other cute. I'm surprised they don't end up in the Mall more often.
I too was totally unimpressed with the characters, but one thing I did like is that Meyer's added some interesting Vampire folklore.
ReplyDeleteI know everyone is all kinds of pissed about sparkly Vampires, but I really liked the way she used that to fit into the existing vampire myth. ie. Vampires aren't killed by sunlight(as the urban legends tell us), they do fear it though because it reveals their weakness.
They also used "the reason Vampires settle in the NorthWest is because it rains often enough to hide their vampiristic qualities."
You're spot on with the character analysis though. Cute guy and cute girl find each other cute. I'm surprised they don't end up in the Mall more often.
I don't actually have a problem with the whole sparkling thing, per se. I do kinda think it's silly, but that's not a huge flaw. Sometimes silly is goo. It's that... Well, how do I put this? you said:
ReplyDelete"they do fear it (sunlight) though because it reveals their weakness."
...What weakness? He's super fast and super strong, He'll live forever and sunlight can't hurt him. Having read only the first book, I don't know about the effects of garlic, crosses or any of the other typical vampire weaknesses, but judging by the first book, I'm going to guess that they're either 1) not addressed or 2) not a problem.
This doesn't bother me because it's an insult to vampires or some such stupidity. The vampire Mythos has grown and changed and been messed with lots of times. Anne Rice made all vampires inherently beautiful, Buffy made them awful soulless killing machines. Every creator that has used vampires has done something to create their own rules and there have been tons of variations on fire, sunlight, garlic, mirrors, crossing running water, sleeping on native earth. Some creators ignore some of the rules, or tone them down (how many vampires do you read about nowadays that can't cross running water?) And they add strengths: some have psychic powers some can transform, some can fly. But there's always a weakness for a strength.
The sparkling thing is a problem because it's an imbalanced character. This makes the twilight vampires profoundly uninteresting IMO. There's no chance of a human taking one down, which removes tons of drama which could otherwise be had. Edward doesn't need to not sparkle, he needs to not be a God.
Ah, shoot cory, I just saw your comment. I will go read that probably sometime today.
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