Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Little, Brown, 2005, 544 pages
I’m gonna get SO much backlash for this. Ladies and gentlemen, a 20-year old male has read Twilight. Get over it now or leave, it’s your call. The first book in what people are either calling “an abomination to the entire literary genre”, or “OMFG liek da b3st theeng eva”, it depends who you ask.
So, how did Twilight come about? Well, according to author Stephanie Meyer, it started after she had a dream on 2nd June 2003 (why she remembers the exact date or bothered to figure it out I’ll never know) about a human girl and a vampire who loved her, but also wanted her blood. This dream is now Chapter 13 of the first book. She wrote the first book in about three months despite her little writing experience prior to it (I can already hear you saying “it shows”). After the final edit, she signed a three book deal with Little, Brown for $750,000 (HOLY ****, I think I’d be lucky to get half that much).
The plot revolves around 17-year old Bella Swan, who is moving from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to rain-drenched Forks, Washington, to live with her dad, since her mother and step-dad will be moving around a lot and she wants to stay in one place. At school, Bella notices a group of very strange looking kids (the Cullens). She learns from the other kids that the Cullens don’t really talk to the other kids, which explains why Edward Cullen disappears for a few weeks after being paired with her in Biology (kind of). Once he comes back, however, he seems friendlier than he was before he left.
Sounds like a fairly standard teen romance novel, doesn’t it? Well, time for some plot twists. After Bella nearly dies…twice, and is rescued by Edward…twice, Bella starts to suspect that Edward might not be fully human (the first near death being where someone’s car skidded out of control and Edward pushed it away, when moments ago he was across the other side of the parking lot; the other time she gets attacked by a group of thugs when shopping in Seattle). After she does a bit of research, she finds out what the reader has known since seeing the cover of the book: Edward and his family are vampires.
Now, I know a lot of you have seen ads for the movies and think “Twilight vampires aren’t real vampires, they sparkle”, I’d like to share with you something a friend of mine has theorised about the Twilight vampires: they’re not actual vampires, more vampiric statues. This makes sense, since their skin has a similar effect to marble in the sun. Just keep this in mind while you read it (if I’ve somehow convinced you to read it). It isn’t as bad as people think it is, so STOP JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER…literally.
My rating: 7/10
Any suggestions, feel free to leave them below
I'm no fan of Twilight, but I can see where you're coming from. I've read some of the book and I really have no objections on a literary basis. It's a...well, since it's not my kind of thing, I guess I can't really call it good. I suppose the appropriate term would be benign. It's a nice love story about a teenager and a vampire, and there's really nothing malicious about it.
ReplyDeleteThe series' problems (apart from the cries of vampires being RUINED FOREVER, but that's really a judgement call) don't really start until the second book and movie, at which point Bella becomes almost sociopathically needy, completely disregarding anyone's wants or needs in favor of her own, not to mention the unfortunate implications of the impression that she gives that her life is worthless without a man in her life.
I think my biggest objection to her is that she's portrayed as too much of a damsal in distress. Even when she's a vampire, she freaks out at things that would hurt a human despite knowing well in advance she'd be damn close to immortal.
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