In light of my brother-in-law's recent post about Mormon cultural sins, I had to share a little about a guilty pleasure and a confession about my true thoughts of this cultural phenomenon!
While the books in the Twilight series are National Bestsellers, so not limited by any means to an LDS audience, there is no question that they have been making the rounds through the LDS circuit and have a HUGE following. Granted- I enjoy the "Twilight" books, and considering I would not consider myself a "reader"- the fact that I read them at all is a huge compliment to the books! Having said that, here is my confession against the grain so to speak... I don't think that Stephenie Meyer is the greatest author ever, after "New Moon" I was convinced that Bella was a spoiled brat and hardly a great heroine, and a shallow character at best- she drove me absolutely crazy, a whiny spoiled brat! Edward was jealous and controlling, and not a great role model for teenage love (ie, it's probably not a great idea to let your boyfriend sneak in and spend every night with you). And frankly, I was rooting for Jacob a little by the end of Book 3!
Having said all that... Breaking Dawn, helped relieve a lot of that for me. I won't give any spoilers for you slowpokes who haven't finished it yet- you know who you are! BUT, I have to say that Bella redeems herself quite a bit, and my take now is just that she really was meant for Vampire life after all, and her wimpy, whiny former self is better off lost! And I was surprised at how much I like Bella being a vampire. Yes, I actually do like Edward, and he obviously had more self retraint than Bella, hello!? It would have been nice to have more details about the vampire/human honeymoon sex, I mean come on, how does that work?? And yet, I'm glad she refrained, knowing it's meant for a younger audience... maybe an adult version!? hahaha... And I'm happy for the fitting happy ending for Jacob that solved so many problems in one fail swoop! And I wish I had an Alice in my life! But there is one HUGE, flaw with the book and I'm not sure how it managed to survive editing... Renesmee? Seriously??! But, despite my polar feelings on the books- I enjoy them like everyone else and had finished my "copy" (Thank you Derek) by Monday afternoon... and on one final note.... you Twilighters really do need to get a life! Just a few random thoughts- but what do you think??
Tilou Bleu ne veut pas se coucher
4 years ago
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6 comments:
blech...
i haven't gotten the book yet. much less read it.
bravo to Meyer who wrote books that non-readers enjoy (i know both you and jodi consume them like chocolate).
i will read the 4th, because i love you and jo. however, it better be dang good to redeem itself a little.
i agree the main characters are just irritating! aren't you supposed to root for somebody? anybody? the fact that it kept quoting bronte"s wuthering heights...made it a little clearer my distate. i never liked wuthering heights...for similar reasons to twilight. i don't want to read the romantic struggles of a couple when i can not see the attraction between them. so far, it seems like edward only likes bella because she's his vampire-flavor. and bella likes him because he's beautiful. that's it.
so, that's my feeling at the end of reading 3. i have hope that 4 will fix a lot of it (well, it seems so by your blog). plus, each of the books seems to just lamely build, then have interesting final chapter.
want to read vampires? read dracula. or interview with a vampire. or i dunno!
that's my vent. sorry. but before you decide to hate me forever...i am planning on reading 4. i didn't completely hate them i guess?
BOYCOTT! I'm not planning on reading any of the Twilight books and your blog validated that opinion for me a second time (Nicole and I have talked about it, see above comment). I will not read a series that you have to get to the fourth book to be kind of happy with the character development. BUT, for all you non-readers out there, I'm glad you found something that you liked that you could read.
As for my other gripe with the series that Nicole alluded to: "STEPHANIE MYERS, DON'T RUIN MONSTER LORE!!" With the Twilight series, she has destroyed Vampire lore! They don't go in the sun cause their skin will shine like diamonds? What the heck is that!! And Vampires weren't good enough for her to ruin with her eleventeen -year-old love story; now she's written "The Host" and ripped of a sci-fi theme from "The Invasion of The Body-Snatchers" (or any other type sci-fi alien invasion movie, but specifically the aforementioned one). What's next Frankenstein? zombies? what monster isn't safe from Stephanie Myers? So, that's why I won't read her series. But Heidi, congrats on finding some kind of book you can enjoy. Love you!
P.S. sorry for the tirade
PS: this is what the alphabet would look like without Q and R
I agree with Scott on this. I am ok with creative license, but create your own monsters and stop ruining all the ones I so dearly love. Next thing you know she will be writing a book on ZOMBIES that no longer want to eat brains (they will be vegetarian kinds of ZOMBIES), and she will have a ZOMBIE fall in love with a human that has the most exquisite brain, and instead of rotting flesh the zombies will twinkle.
I need to go watch Army of Darkness and Night of the Living Dead to rid myself of the Stephine Meyer contamination in my family.
ok ... i finished the book today, and i agree ... #4 was better than the other 3, but i agree with scott you shouldnt have to read 4 books to just barely start liking the characters.
having said that, i enjoyed reading it at the point where i am in my life, it was interesting.
and i totally agree about renesmee ... UGH! i'd rather say nessie too ...
but i'm reading dracula right now ... so i know it will be a change.
there are definately other books out there that i would recommend people read before this ... but i know that its great for people who don't normally read ... so whatever.
oh send nicole your copy (or get the url from derek ... so she doesn't waste $ on a book she'll regret ... or have to wait to borrow it from me ... i know she wont be up here anytime soon
have you read eragon? i bet you'd like that one ... i'm reading the 2nd book in that trilogy right now as well
There is much of your book review that I can appriciate. Edward is far too over protective for my taste, that would drive me nuts. I was a Jacob fan, but knowing that there was no way that she was going to have them end up together.
I watched an interview with Meyer recently and she said that she didn't think Edward was the perfect boyfriend like many of her fans like to say. And that she believed her characters were melodramatic, they're teenagers.
I know you don't agree with this one, but until four, New Moon was my favorite. There is something about the despair that I could get behind. When I read it we were on month seven of the deployment or something.
I am a book lover, I liked her books, all of them, even The Host. But I agree with Nicole on Withering Heights, I did not like that one. Want to read some Bronte, try another sister, go with Jane Eyre.
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