D+
Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publication Info: Little, Brown Young Readers 2006
ISBN: 0316015849
Genre: Young Adult
To say I was angsty as a teenager is something of a majestic understatement. I was miserable, for a host of reasons. And I had suitably angsty intense relationships with really awful, unsuitable, self absorbed guys who were interested more in screwing with my already ruffled emotions than they were any genuine efforts at being a couple. One particular guy was an absolute waste, and I am horrified that I spent so much time trying to make this fool happy.
Reading Twilight reminds me heavily of my angsty teen self, and how ridiculous it was that I expected rainbows and happiness when, let’s be honest, teenagerdom is pretty fucking miserable all around. It makes me think of a really old, navel gazing Alanis Morissette song wherein she says, “You were plenty self-destructive for my tastes at the time/ I used to say, the more tragic the better.” Yeah. That about sums up my teen years, and this book.
I’m still reading this thing, persevering to the end, trying to figure out what all the fuss is about, why so many people absolutely adore this book to the point that they set up bulletin boards and fan sites and, for God’s sake, whatever you do, don’t search “Bella” or “Twilight” on Etsy or you’ll get so much jewelry with swans and crap you’ll want to set your eyeballs on fire. The Twilight fandom is a serious fandom.
In case, like me, you’ve been under a rock for awhile (how’s your rock? Mine’s awesome!) and haven’t read or heard of this series, here’s the nutshell: klutzy teen Bella Swan moves to exceptionally small gloomy town in the Pacific Northwest to live with her father, who is so absent he might as well not be a parent so much as a chaperone who falls asleep or, in this case, goes fishing a lot. Gloomy, Abercrombie-gorgeous Hottie McVampire Edward is playing at being a high school student with his adopted family, and seems profoundly disturbed by her presence, only to experience equally profound mood swings which allow him to pay extreme attention to her. Commence panting courtship.
I do get the elements that are so sultry and seductive about the plotline: he’s over the moon about her; he can’t stop thinking about her. He’s mysterious, he’s dark and gloomy, he’s like angst and sexy rolled up in a sparkly taco shell. He’s isolated and longing for her, yadda yadda yadda. And I can see why some readers adore the plotline where she reveals him and gains solo entrance into his world, is the only one to make him smile, etc.
But what I don’t get is the degree of isolation that accompanies that entrance. I can’t even explain how uncomfortable their self-imposed alienation makes me feel. The former angsty teenager in my shriveled, echoing heart is all over it, because dude. Hot angst biscuit wants her and only her and after six weeks let’s make declarations of loooooove. He’ll watch over her while she sleeps, he’ll sneak into her home, he’ll insert himself silently into every part of her world. Former Angsty Sarah can see why that’s incredibly seductive, especially when one is feeling lonely and without anyone who truly understands.
Currently Adult Sarah, who is a lot older and one would hope marginally wiser than F.A.S. is majorly squicked out. The imbalance of power between these two characters is significant, and his moodswings don’t help much. He’s annoyed, he’s irritated, he’s blissful! He’s sparkly, he’s angry, he’s irritated again. But what really bothers me is the degree to which Bella subsumes her identity at every turn. She inserts herself into her father’s home by doing the things that will make him happy (cooking, laundry, making herself scarce when he wants to go fishing and is troubled by feelings of potential parental responsibility) with minimal fuss. She inserts herself into Edward’s world by doing the same – the biggest show of spine she has (so far, I’m on page 3,546,775 of 7,532,668) is asking a shit ton of questions, but mostly only with his permission to do so. She’s a mismatched dichotomy of the teen no one notices and the teen everyone notices and it doesn’t fit well on her, nor does it make for an interesting character. Even her name as a reference to her character is klunky: Bella Swan? COME ON NOW AND I MEANT IT.
Meyer’s writing is nothing to hyperventilate over, in my opinion, except for its tendency to hyperventilate in moments of drama. That said, I don’t necessarily see the point in condemning a book and saying no one should read it, it’s awful, omg, alert the vampires that a terrible insult has been laid upon them. Meyer definitely taps into the dark, mysterious tortured hero, one of my personal favorite archetypes, but the degree to which Edward’s intensity is focused on Bella, and the degree to which he shifts in mood and action (he’s here! He’s gone! He’s back! Whee! Do vampires get frequent flyer miles because damn, he gets elite status in, like, a week.) doesn’t seem to level out. And while Edward is a 9.0 on the Richter scale in terms of mood variations, Bella mopes from meh to meh. I’m curious about the movie, simply because the actress playing her is exceptionally talented, and could revive the character to a more vibrant portrayal. The book’s version of Bella and Edward reads to me like pairing lukewarm milk with a Red Savina pepper.
My wishlist for this book is a mile long in terms of things I wished had been a little different, a little better, a little more sparkly, if you’ll pardon the pun, but mostly I wish I could understand what it is about the book that sends so many people over the moon in terms of their adoration and pursuit of more. Either way, if this book makes people sunny and moony at the same time, more happiness to them. Whatever floats your boat. Or sparkles your vampire.
Just like guy’s, there’re some books you want to date, and some books you want to marry. I’m having a quick fling with this book, and I’m enjoying the twist. True, with a newborn, I have zero attention span and my sleep-deprived life can only take something as deep as a mud puddle. I mean really, at 3am feedings its not like I could concentrate on War and Peace, something flighty for me please. When its over, I’m guessing Twilight and I will go our separate ways without any regrets. Until then I’m enjoying the brief affair.
Uhm…wow.
to all the reasons NOT to read this series. I’m way too old for such nonsense and the doctor told me I had to watch my blood pressure. I get the feeling that Bella would just piss me off. Royally.
SBSarah and Leslie Dickenson, our rocks must be in the same neighborhood. *waves* Howdy, neighbors! *happily crawls back under mine*
Darn clicked to fast. Meant to say I think Sasha may have something there considering Pattinson’s remarks.
Haven’t read the book but angsty teenager is long gone.
You might be interested in seeing a take on the book which explores Mormon influences on various characters and their behaviors (the review is chock full of sparkles—and Bjork— what’s not to love?).
Between Stoney’s review in that link and the others I’ve seen like this one, I feel like I’ve been granted a few hours of life that might otherwise have been spent introducing a book to a wall. Now I just have to figure out something extra fun I can do with my un-Twilight time.
I think Jez may have been my favourite! But I liked the one with pancreatic cancer, and the rogue vampire sisters too. And the witch sistercousins. And the revenge-crazed vampire hunter. I think the only ones I didn’t really like are in the econd omnibus, the one whose dead cousin speaks to her and the one with all the past lives, each lamer than the last.
I love LJ Smith so very much. I would pay money to see the Forbidden Game series reviewed here. Or the series with all the vaguely incestuous multiple witch-cousin happenings. Or the Vampire Diaries! It’s like Twilight, but the heroine knows all the boys are love with her and is an obnoxious bitch. And everyone acknowledges her shallowness.
Maybe I’m not selling these well?
ILU RPattz.
I’m curious to know whether the moms who love the series and Edward find it a tad bit disturbing the Bella loses herself to him so badly. She turns into a completely different person once she starts falling for him and seems to lose her identity one small bit at a time. Now, with Jacob, she seemed to be a little more believable and self-assured, but it was ridiculous to think she might chose the right kind of guy instead of the one she falls in lust for.
I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that whole teenage angst and worrying about the possibility of my daughter going through all this crap. These books are for pure entertainment and it’s one thing for girls to lose themselves in them, but when their moms are behaving worse than they are, well, that’s even scarier! I read someplace that the women were the bigger fans and were making the most noise at the Twilight events. Did any of them get the real message or were they so in love with Edward that they didn’t see the problem with the message in these books?
I’m not going to say too much, because I’m reading the series and then am going to write a long piece on it, but I think the draw of Twilight is in the fact that Bella can have this guy in her life who continues to insist on how dangerous he is but who also—we know—will always act to protect her.
Now that may backfire in all sorts of spectacular ways, but I think that cocktail of danger and safety is a powerful draw in Romance, and IMO, Twilight is one of THE MOST CONVENTIONAL ROMANCES I have ever read. In fact, I think it’s more conventional than most adult paranormal Romance (in fact, I keep joking that I can no longer say I don’t read inspy Romance). And in it you have the typical geeky, angsty girl and the brooding, beautiful, isolated and wounded male, and voila! true love (innocent love, at least sexually).
It’s an added bonus that Edward finds himself so objectionable, because it creates the urge on Bella’s part to insist that he is not a bad guy, and by extension, for the reader to embrace Edward and to see the depths of goodness in him despite his own sense of self. So you have all that, plus the sexual innocence (Edward barely allows kissing!), the whole outsider thing, and the intensity of the coming of age stuff, and I think Twilight serves up core Romance .
Now, if you make it to book two, you get the Bella who uncritically defines herself solely by all the men in her life. And then the overt Wuthering Heights parallels start rolling out. That’s when things really get scary, lol.
I’m still under my rock…I love it here. Nope, haven’t read it although I have bought this one.
I keep hearing people rave about it, but I just haven’t worked up the enthusiasm to try it. I will, sooner or later.
I am still waiting to read Twilight (only 22 people ahead of me at the library)…
I won’t buy it because of all the reasons stated above, I’m afraid I won’t like it and then I’ve just wasted my precious money. I buy books I love so I can read them over and over and over until their covers fall off… I don’t see that happening with this one, but I can’t help myself, I have to see what the hype is all about…
I think I married Edward though, even though I am nothing like the descriptions of Bella… 🙂 Thankfully he doesn’t watch me as I sleep (creepy alert!) but he is moody as all get out and def that guy I never thought I could get that all the other girls want, and he does live up to the hype in the ways that REALLY count >:)
Still, I would hope that no one uses my own (or Bella’s) dysfunctional relationship as an example of what to hope for, and it bothers me that so many girls are going apeshit about this series…
Love your site btw, only just discovered it about a week ago, my kind of gals
This is my current situation with DD2. Over the past two years, she’s become a child I don’t know as she’s let her boyfriend consume her life to the point where, at 19, she’s moving in with him.
Mind, I’m disgusted with DD2 more for the fact that she’s not grown one iota since meeting this boy and for that fact is not ready for any kind of adult commitment. Were she more mature, more willing to accept responsibility rather than his word for everything, it might be different.
I’m guessing they’ve totally overlooked everything in these books that says it’s okay to be so submissive to the guy you lust for that you’re willing to give up yourself, everything you are, to be with him.
Yes, yes, yes. The covers are stunning. I’m partial to the red-ribbon one. Can’t for the life of me tell you which book that is, but it’s beautifully nonspecific and evocative. Romance novels ought to look like that.
Even my most angsty teenage self would never have wanted a relationship with a vampire. Real boys, as I recall them, were complicated and challenging enough.
You just described my 4 years of high school. Oh, I dated a couple of normal guys, but I spent 4 YEARS angsting over my BFF Jason. I had to save him from himself you know! GAH!
The only good thing that came out of that experience is I knew what NOT to look for in a boyfriend!! I married the exact opposite of “you are my best friend, let me tell you about myself. Oh no, I revealed too much I must ignore you for a month” Jason!
I wouldn’t go through high school again for a million bucks. Srsly!
This book will not be on my TBR list b/c like damn, high school was hard enough as a teen, I’m 35, I’m too old for that crap!
I’ve a theory about the book’s appeal to teenagers.
My 13 year old still plays with dolls (Bratz, so according to internet wisdom, a career as hooker awaits) and my 17 year old plays with Boyz. My fifteen year old has given up dolls and is interested in boys in a theoretical sense. She’s the one that likes Twilight.
I read a research paper on the internet, which talked about the reasons teenage girls put posters of boys on their bedroom walls, and the author argued that it’s part of a specific developmental stage – where girls almost rehearse feelings of what it might like to be in love – imagine caring for someone.
My guess is that for my fifteen year old, and her friends, Edward Cullen = the Bay City Rollers. A safe figure to focus those adolescent yearnings on.
I read the whole series so she could talk to me about them – and honestly, I thought they were fine. Not for me, but I’m not YA. I’d more difficulty getting through the Libba Bray book which everyone seems to love.
I believe it was an article in Entertainment Weekly that was mentioning the number of women going to these signings thanking Meyers for her books, blah, blah, blah and then presenting her with their babies named Bella! They credited the books for bringing romance back into their lives (I guess because Edward didn’t touch Bella in that special kind of way that it got readers hot and horny!) After reading that section of the article I fet a little creepy—don’t know why exactly except if the older women are doing this, I hope young girls don’t follow in the same path!
Normally, I’m not this critical of books and their messages, but this was geared to the younger group and girls need as much guidance as they can get at that impressionable age. I used to be a Bella and trust me—I was so misguided. I’m glad I got my sh** together after high school.
True about the covers. They’re absolutely gorgeous, and the first thing that made me take notice of them.
LA> Thank you for answering my question.
katiebabs> If we’re talking R.L. Stein then it has to be the Fear Street books! Don’t even get me started, they’re still a guilty pleasure, if in a different way. I have a secret stash that I use to cleanse my literary pallette inbetween meatier books.
Erin> A fling, yes, exactly. That’s the perfect way to put it.
This is the thing that makes it the archetypal teenage romance, and the reason that so many of us got chided for reading romances at too early an age on account of it would give us unrealistic expectations.
I’ve been reading Romance Manga lately (thank you onemanga.com), which are mostly aimed at teenage girls. So, so many of them have the hero being:
– 17, or at least in the Senior year of high school
– yet somehow emancipated from parental control (so mature!)
– class president
– a self-made millionaire
– a genius
– a rock star (or model, or actor)
– a martial arts expert
– ridiculously good looking
– the object of every other girl’s lust and obsession
– and sometimes all of the above
And the heroine being:
– ordinary
This is the teenage girl fantasy of ordinary ol’ me being the Chosen One for the guy who’s SO MUCH BETTER than all the losers I go to school with. But, I’m in school. How do I meet this paragon? (Being ordinary, I never go anywhere besides school.) Why, he must go to my school! I shall ignore any gyrations that make his attendance at my school unrealistic.
I haven’t read any Meyers, and probably won’t because my silly quotient is being filled by manga, but I can (from a distance) see the appeal.
The review in the Washington Post was hysterical.
Reminds me of The West Wing episode which examines the impact of abstinence-only education. The briefing memo that went around was nicknamed, “Everything But(t),” full of suggestions to keep randy teens happy but baby-free.
Waiting for someone to write slushy paranormal YA about anal.
That reminds me: Vampire Knight. It’s everything that Twilight fails to be.
This article explains it all:
“There are a bunch of other SEXY VAMPIRES and a few other humans in the series, but they’re not important – the point of Vampire Knight is for Yuuki, Kaname, and Zero to be involved in the most gasp-worthy, gut-wrenching love triangle EVAR. Kaname saved Yuuki from a much more evil vampire when she was a child, so she’s in love with him, but he’s a gentleman vampire who won’t bite her no matter how much he wants to. Zero comes from a family of vampire hunters, and since a vampire killed his family, he hates vampires more than anything – and thus hates Kaname. But Zero was also bitten by a pureblood vampire, so he’s turning into a mindless vampire himself, meaning he’s physically and emotionally tortured 24-7. Yuuki’s his friend, and they have sexual tension, but she also has sexual tension with Kaname, who has mutual hatred (and sexual tension!) with Zero.”
Ok, having read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and now Breaking Dawn, I think as a writer I’ve figured out why readers are hooked on Stephenie Meyer’s books like addicts on book crack.
While Edward is a vampire, and that just brings in a whole slew of readers right there, he’s also got the whole bad-boy-who’s-still-safe thing going for him. He’s older (though not in physical years, if you aren’t counting not aging the nearly 100 years he’s been changed), he’s smart, he’s got money, he’s got a dangerous edge about him with his supernatural strength. But he’s also not going to initiate anything physical with Bella (in order to protect her). It’s a safe protective relationship for a girl who’s never really been around her father much…makes sense. All the other stuff, money, power, total adoration, cool factor, belonging to the “other”, what’s not for a tween-teen girl to fantasize about?
The thematic that love is self-sacrifice only adds to the whole deal. He’s sacrificing his desire, his need to eat, to save her mortal life. She’s sacrificing who she is to fit into his immortal world. Jacob is sacrificing his whole culture/world for Bella’s happiness. Bella is sacrificing her former love of sunshine to keep her flaky mom happy. Bella’s father is sacrificing his better instincts to keep his daughter happy. Bella and Edward are sacrificing themselves for…you seeing a pattern here?
Reader excuse Bella’s whining, her fit of utter morose depression, her near cultish following of the Cullens, because dammit, it’s for love. And love is worth any price (see references to Romeo and Juliet between the pages of Meyer’s books for further explanation.)
But what really struck me was how completely wrapped up my tween and a fifty-year-old step-father could be in the same set of books. Meyer’s (and I am NOT saying this because our names are so similar – and we are NOT related – I’ve got an “s” on the end of my married name) excells at bringing people to the base level of their emotions that can cut across gender, age, ethinicity and class. Beyond fear, anger and love (as basic as you get) there is guilt, sorrow, pain, trust, devotion and hope.
As writer’s we really get into what makes readers experience the book like we see it in our heads. As readers, well hell, we just get into the story and appreciate one that makes people start talking.
Not everyone is going to move beyond the multiple squick factors in this book (domination, age-differences, self-sacrifice like WTFBBQ). I get that. I also get that she did something right in causing such a hate/love reaction in readers. If you can polarize people you’ve hit something right.
dear god – spaminator – father44…they always said daddy issues sells, guess this is a good example.
And this oh so neatly sums up why I will never read the series.
Oh, as well as Cleolinda’s summerizations.
God, thank you. I was unable to finish the first book. Then, after listening to a friend rave about the last book in the series (Breaking Dawn – link to ebooks version, which is priced pretty well), I purchased it. Breaking Dawn is better… to an extent, because the storyline actually progresses. However, this is not a book I could justifiably recommend to my teenage cousins, because the main character is weak and whiny and incredibly immature (even though she gets married – right out of high school – and has a BABY). I hope that the teenage girls who comprise the majority of Meyer’s fan base are able to distinguish the difference between things that work for idiotic characters in fiction and behavior that will only attract the dumbest of men.
I have to say that in general I liked Twilight…and the rest of the series as well.
I think they are light and frothy, fun and readable and sweet…and about as deep as a sheet of notebook paper. It’s all surface. There’s no complexity to the characters or to the overarcing storyline. Nobody particularly changes and grows. The initial conflict of human-girl-falls-in-love-with-a-vampire never really amounts to much because, of course, the Cullens are all good. They are intrinsically kind, decent, God-fearing, thoughtful, generous people who happen to have REALLY white skin and keen senses. They have no real vulnerabilities and pose no threat to anyone. Like I said…superficial.
But when I (finally) got around to reading the first one, I read it quickly and happily went and picked up the others. Again: light and frothy, fun and readable and sweet. Angsty? Oh, sure. (Especially the third book, which felt way forced to me with all that manufactured love triangle crap.) But I thought “angst” was pretty much synonymous with “teenager”?
Anyway…some of the reviews and comments I read online make me wonder what people expected these books to be. I can totally get that they’re not everyone’s cuppa…and I can’t understand really why anyone over the age of about 17 would think these were the Best Books Ever (unless they just didn’t read a lot)…but the disappointment and the tenor of the criticism of this series by adults at times bewilders me.
I liked Twilight. New Moon wasn’t bad – I would have rather Bella ended up with Jacob than chasing after Edward. Eclipse was all backstory, and Breaking Dawn – ugh. Yes, I find Edward creepy and controlling. And as someone else commented earlier, Bella has been taking care of her mother and being more responsible than most of the adults in her life. I don’t see her as spineless, just a teenaged girl. I think we should remember that Twilight is marketed for the Young Adult, in other words tweens and under 18 year old girls – who those 62K+ fan sites or whatever it was, prove it is LOVED.
I just finished this on Sunday on a flight from NYC to LA. Apparently, I’m the only person on earth who hadn’t heard of Stephanie Meyer, then my husband heard about it on NPR and suggested it. (It’s a romance – you like romance). A few weeks wait and my copy arrived from the library. Other than the endless control issues, I found the writing stilted. He gulped. She winced. He sighed.—it was endless taglines. I also couldn’t find the plot. He’s moody. He saves her, She finds out he’s a vampire. He saves her. They fall in looove. She gets trapped by another vampire, he saves her. I just kept reading in case something happened. Since other reviews indicated it just gets worse from here. I’m going to stop now. There are too many other books and too little time.
I just read this. Had the same reaction as you, Sarah. I disliked the main characters—particularly Bella. She seriously irritated me. So it was hard for me to engage myself in the story.
Plus, I just didn’t get it.
Seven out of eight of the class of 15 year olds I taught last year were crackwhores for the Twilight series, so I bought Twilight and number 2 (eclipse?) to see what the fuss was about. Read Number 1 but number 2 is still there in the TBR pile and I can’t seem to find any enthusiasm for it at all. I had just read Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, which I found much more interesting, and as a big Buffy fan, Bella Swan left me totally WTF.
As an ex-angsty teen myself, I thought I would feel more sympathy for her, but by the end of Twilight, I wanted to slap both Edward and her. She was beyond TSTL, but I was always conscious that this was just a dumb book and that Bella Swan was the uber-Mary Sue (especially when I found out that she first featured in the author’s dreams).
When my lovely students asked me what I thought, I glossed – it was fine, but I am a died in the wool Buffy addict and found Bella and her vampires too vanilla. In my view, vamps can’t do sunshine and Bella needed more of a spine.
As for the role model for abstinence business, well. That’s a bit like thinking that reading Lolita is going to turn us all into Humbert Humberts. Books don’t get people to do anything except think.
The thing that really does worry me about the Meyers fanbase is the adult women who are getting all tingly about Edward. That’s what I find even more icky than his stalker-schtick.
The Salon.com review is very perceptive on both the romance and the fantasy aspects of the books. Note the *appropriate* use of the placeholder theory to describe *teenagers* (not all women, or all romance readers) trying on different possibilities—much like Marianne McA’s reading on developmental stages.
But the best part of the review, I think, is the understanding of fantasy’s allure:
I didn’t like the book. It had too settings, in my opinion, and they were ‘boring’ and ‘oh fercryinoutloud’. However, I do have a somewhat knowledge of the fandom from witnessing a few hilarious fandom wars.
A few MONTHS ago a webcomic artist made a parody comic that is still getting her praised and bashed all over the internet on a regular basis:
http://shinga.deviantart.com/art/Head-Trip-Twilight-Sucks-85504254
She hadn’t read the book at the time of making the comic, so the fandom called shenanigans and told her to read it. So she did, and created a summary of each chapter that while being absolutely hilarious is also still getting her praised and flamed to no seeming end:
http://shinga.livejournal.com/478415.html
Based on observation I’ve noticed four distinct groups in the Twilight fandom. There may be variations within the categories, but these are the general ones:
1- the hardcore Meyers can do no wrong, or at least not wrong enough to turn away from, but they’re under the age of seventeen so we just smile and hope they grow in taste eventually.
2- the crack readers, who know it isn’t good, but still read it anyway because they either want to know what happens next, or they find it hilarious
3- the hardcore reader who hates one of the characters. Aparently a lot of fans hate Bella because of her whining/uselessness/MarySue qualities or an umber of other reasons the least of which being she’s an annoying narrator
4- the ‘Twilight Moms’, women who by all acounts are old enough to know what both a good book looks like, and what a good relationship looks like, but for some reason think Twilight is the best thing ever and want to go cougar on Edwards seventeen year old body (but its okay, because really he’s older)
Many times I’ve run into the teenager with low self esteem who says she likes Twilight because it gives her hope that even though she doesn’t think she’s pretty or popular or talented, she can still find true love. But the book doesn’t teach anything like confidence, it just says that if you move to a new town the boys will suddenly be all over you and you’ll get your very own stalker just for showing up. Through no effort of your own will you become popular, and you’ll still have no self esteem to speak of even with the boyfriend.
Personally, the reason I think it’s so popular is because it’s fun to be part of a fandom. It’s reached the point where the group mentality has made people interested, like a joke everyone knows but you, and teens are very prone to cliquing and finding outside reinforcements to combat their trying years with. It’s like how watching a bad movie with a group of friends makes it about fifty times more fun than watching it alone, and the fun of watching it makes the movie seem better than it really is.
Eventually most of these girls will either grow into better reading or not, but most of them will eventually grow bored with Twilight. In years to come, some may look back at the book with embarassment and think “Why did I like this?” and others will just have happy memories of being a part of something that gave them and their friends a lot of good times.
–
LOLsecurity text: always94 “How long have you been 94?” “A very long time”
karmelrio said:
And I agree. Edward = stalker = creepy = I’m way out of touch because if any guy had pulled that shiz when I was in school my mom would have kicked the crap out of him, my brother would have killed him, and my daddy would have buried him (of course being a vampire it would have been ash I suppose, but whatev).
My rock is nice and comfy, thanks! I haven’t read any of the series but my book friends are all over them with varying opinions. If I was F.A.C., I’d be all over them like a bad rash as well. Angst, vampires, lurve! Swoon!
I just read The Silver Kiss, by Annette Curtis Klause, 1992. Angsty teenage vampire meets soul mate in mortal girl who’s mother is dying. They bond over death. A gorgeous little book with a strong heroine.
Just offering it up as a palette cleanser.
Evie
judging by the snippets I’ve seen, and the description from my friend who read it, the plot is sound, but the author isn’t and needs to take both English and Creative Writing again. We’ve both concluded that the vast majority reading it, outside of those who recognize it’s bad, but like it anyway, are a bunch of morons who wouldn’t know good writing even if it slapped them repeatedly…. which would incriminate a bunch of teenagers and tweens because almost everyone as a teenager and a tween thinks this sort of thing is OMG!~ SO DEEP!
also… look it up on fandom wank wiki.
How much of it was Cassie Clare’s own voice, and how much of it was “borrowed” from other sources?
/cattiness. Sorry. CC was at the heart of what I’m pretty sure was the first really major plagiarism scandal in the Harry Potter fandom. It annoys many that she went on to become a published writer.
(Whatever you think about fic, know that the overwhelming majority of the fic community is *violently* anti-plagiarism. You can borrow characters and worlds, but you do. not. touch. others’ words.)
Can I recommend PC and Kristin Cast as a great alternative for angsty kids who are a little too smart to buy Edward’s stalkerific 105-trapped-at-18-so-I-aint-a-pedo deal?
Haven’t read the books, but am enjoying the hell out of all the parodies. My oldest girl isn’t quite old enough for the series, as boys are yucky and vampires would give her nightmares.
Peaches said:
This struck a chord. How many of us in our 30’s/40’s devoured early Rosemary Rogers, Johanna Lindsey, Kathleen Woodiwiss and the ilk when we were teens? Edward Cullen don’t have nothing on Steve Morgan in the dysfunction sweepstakes. (Although the infant imprinting thing described in many reviews skeeves me out like nails on a chalkboard combined with cotton out of an aspirin container all wrapped in metal chair dragged across a hard floor.) We look back and laugh, mock, and groan at our insipid adolescent taste that forgave Brandon for raping Heather because he was rich, hawt, frothing with jealousy, and eventually good in bed.
Me!
But they weren’t aimed at us and we knew that. I didn’t know anyone else who read what I read, adult or teenager, so I also had no chance to work myself into a fanwanking frenzy.
Add me to this small, baffled group! Seriously, when one of my Twilight-loving friends tried to get me to read this series, I stopped her at this point in her summary. Why, I asked her, would a hundred-something year old choose to spend all of eternity in high school? Was high school not four years of Hell on Earth? Who would choose to relive that forever? Whereas college was the best four years of our lives – a feeling shared by many of the twenty-somethings we know. (She conceded that I had a point). If Edward were smart, he’d spend eternity college-hopping and lettin’ the good times roll!
I agree with your review – these books (and I’ve read them all) pretty much make me want to spork my eyes out.
MMMMmmmm, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin. Immortal boys in college. Angst. Magic. Melodrama. Personal growth. Read it.
And since someone else is groovin’ on Annette Curtis Klause, Blood and Chocolate is The. Best. Paranormal. YA. Novel. Ever. Werewolves instead of vampires, but OMG! angst, self-centredness, horniness! I was so there. I wanted to be Vivienne so badly. (And I was WAY past teenagerhood when I read it.)
Also,
I love-love-LOVED Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books as a tween. Reading one of them again in my early twenties, I wanted to go back in time and choke the prissy little git. Did not like the characters AT ALL.
passed21: a long, long time ago. But I still loves me some YA romance. Went out of my way to watch High School Musical. *ducks head and blushes*
This may be mean of me, but I really want you to keep reading and reviewing until you get to Breaking Dawn. I can never get too much of reading about peoples’ reactions to parts of that book.