It turns out, preemptive does not did a hyphen. Weird.
Well, in the interest of full disclosure:
- I have read the Twilight series before, so there will probably be some spoilers for the future books, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.
- I hate these books. A lot.
- I'm not wearing shoes right now.
Seriously though, I can't stand this series and not because of some obsessive fan-girl reason like 'it's not as good as Harry Potter'...although it isn't. And I'm not saying it's subjective either, the series has underlying (and blatant) themes of pedophilia (shown in a positive light), misogynistic views and there was no epic vampire battle at the end; whatever people say about the writing I don't get what makes this okay.
I know it's bad, but the absence of vampire battle probably bothers me most. well....second most. They were there. Battle lines were drawn. It was going to make everything better. It never happened.
However, that's later. As I recall this first book wasn't half as bad as the rest of the series, so I'm going to try and keep things separated in my brain and not hold the future against it.
One final point: Although, I dislike (read: hate) Twilight I actually don't think Stephanie Meyer intended to write Gothic fiction. I think she intended to write smut and she succeeded in that goal. (Good job? I guess?) This book was inspired by a dream, not a scary dream, a dream of two people talking about how it was dangerous to be together...not really dangerous though, because the worst Bella suffers in these books is a paper cut. (okay, that's a total lie, she even gets hospitalized in this one.) My point is that I think it was always intended to be a pure romance, maybe even supernatural fiction but I really don't think her intention was to incite fear, a feeling of creepiness or even a thought. I don't think she's a good writer (you really don't have to be one to get published, it just helps) but I will defend her in that.
And only that.
There's 24 chapters in this book, not counting the preface *cough*prologue*cough* or epilogue, but as the preface is a paragraph I'm not counting it.
If I read a chapter a day starting tomorrow I'll be done by about October 7th.
I would also go completely insane, so I'm going to space these out a little.
By the way, a very funny guy named Dan Bernstein read and blogged the whole series for sparknotes, it might be a fun read: http://community.sparknotes.com/index.php/2009/05/06/the-twilight-experience/
- Sarah Ybarra
The dramatic lead up to the battle in "Breaking Dawn" was annoying, Jacob's portion was the best out of that entire book (the sex scenes were surprisingly intense, mainly the first time when Bella no longer needs to breath).
ReplyDeleteYea, I can see the pedophilia portion with Renesme (and really, that's a cop-out of a name, come up with something unique don't just shove to names together).
I can't wait to read your views.
Sarah, thanks for your bravery in being the first to post. You've given us lots to think about, and your points about genre (gothic vs. romance) are especially intriguing. I think this is a really IMPORTANT aspect of thinking about fiction. I also admire your willingness to put your uncensored opinion out there for everyone to consider. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteWhat puzzles me about Renesme's name is that Carlisle and Charlie merged make 'Carly' a totally normal girl name. :/
ReplyDeleteI liked Jacob, hence the anger at Meyer's treatment of his character...More than anything the last book was a cop-out. All of a sudden these aren't werewolves and the Volturi are understanding people. :P