Review by E. A Solinas for Twilight Rating:
Stephanie Meyer writes vampire fiction as many teenage girls do — overblown writing, sexy cold vampires, and a vacuously attractive heroine who serves as the readers’ stand-in.
And so it’s hardly surprising that her megahit debut “Twilight” is essentially a teenage fantasy about finding the Perfect Hot Immortal Coverboy Who Longs For You Alone. Innocuous sparkling vampires, buckets of pointless teenage angst and a plot tacked on at the last minute leave this one of the more bloodless examples of vampire romance.
Klutzy Bella Swan is oh-so-self-sacrificingly going to live with her small-town cop dad, and is appalled by the student body — all the local boys decide that (ick!) they like her, and all the girls are shallow idiots compared to her.
Then she’s struck by the ash-pale, vaguely incestuous Cullen family — an especially by the Hawt and Brooding Edward Cullen. Edward doesn’t seem to like her much, resulting in much Teen Angst. but when Bella is nearly killed by a runaway car, he somehow manages to zip across the parking lot and knock away the car. Bella eventually figures out that he’s a vampire– a “vegetarian vampire” with the power to read thoughts… except hers.
Despite his fears that he’ll hurt her, their smoldering chemistry (and Bella’s tantalizing smell) draws them into a relationship… at which point, since the plot has had zero non-teenybopper tension, three two-dimensionally evil vampires enter the scene, intent on hunting Bella. The Cullens whisk her away to keep her safe from this trio — but their enemies have more than one way to find her.
The book “Twilight” is essentially the eroticized fantasies of a teenage girl, purple of prose and taking itself hilariously seriously. In fact, reading this novel feels suspiciously like eavesdropping on Stephanie Meyer’s fantasies of having a hot, sparkle-skinned vampire stalking her on a nightly basis to show his undying love.
Unfortunately there’s not much more to the plot than that — most of it involves Bella and Edward smoldering at each other, and Bella’s contemplation of Edward’s “scintillating, incandescent” body and Greek-god hotness. Furthermore Meyer smears the entire book in wildly swinging emotions, tepid dialogue, and overly ornate, purple prose — the descriptions of Edward’s chest alone may induce choking and diabetic coma.
After a horrendously silly “meet the vampire family,” Meyer belatedly realizes that the book needs more than angst and sparkles and Edward is constantly shying away from Bella’s virginal neck (what does that imply about sucking blood from animals?). So she tacks in a contrived subplot about evil vampires who are hunting Bella. Just… because they want to.
And heroine Bella is truly an amazing character — she manages to be a blank slate for mass fantasy projection, while also managing to be whiny, selfish, snobby and superhumanly shallow (since the only person she cares about is the Hawt Rich Guy). Edward is a suitable mate for her — he broods, smolders and stalks her to show that he loves her eternally. After all, isn’t a bipolar stalker watching you sleep the very image of true love?
As for the other characters… well, we have quirky vampire Alice to add some humor to the story. But otherwise, none of them really matter much except to reflect how awesome Edward and Bella are — and the villains could not be any thinner if Meyer snipped them from sparkly incandescent skin.
Those who dream of eternal angsty love with an Immortal Hottie may find “Twilight” a delight, but it’s no more than a thin, flat guilty pleasure at best.
Review by Nathalie Wigmore for Twilight Rating:
I picked up this book once I heard the “Twilight” series had outsold the Harry Potter books in Canada. I had been avoiding “Twilight” for three reasons: 1) it is currently a massive blockbuster creating a buying frenzy that, quite frankly, I find borders on the ridiculous. Even grandparents have heard of it and know that it’s a “vampire story.” I tend to shy away from books that everyone and their dog says is “awesome; 2) it appeals mainly to late teenagers and tweens; and 3) for many people in my age group (40+), including myself, Anne Rice had set the standard for vampire literature two decades ago, and I was afraid to be disappointed by Twilight in comparison to such superb works as “Interview with the Vampire” and the “Vampire Lestat.”
So I finally decided to buy the first book and make my own opinion, to see what everyone was ranting and raving about. I went into it without any expectations, and I was both surprised and disappointed.
I don’t need to summarize the story. Everyone knows what it is. My biggest beef about “Twilight” is that Stephenie Meyer’s narrative description is very thin. She doesn’t really take the time to describe scenes and landscapes and character dilemmas; she pretty much glosses over them rapidly. To be fair to the author, I’ve noticed a similar trend in the fantasy genre over the last year or two. Narrative description seems to be falling out of grace in favour of plot-driven story-telling. I used to interpret such shallow narrative as a lack of imagination on the author’s part, but I realize now that this is not necessarily the case. Personally, I love description, and Stephenie Meyer doesn’t describe enough for my liking.
Except for Edward’s godlike perfection. When it comes to describing Edward through Bella’s eyes, the author is never short of quintessential superlatives. In fact, the reader is left with no doubt whatsoever that the character is agonizingly perfect. Whether this is good or bad I leave up to the reader. Personally, I found it irritating after a while.
Having said that, Bella’s unending praise of Edward’s unparalleled beauty was very successful in portraying the wonderful feeling of falling in love. Regardless of age, in the first stages of love, one always sees only the good and positive things about the object of one’s affections. Kudos to Meyer for doing a superb job conveying this feeling.
Another beef I have is the shining skin of the Twilight vampires. When they step into sunlight, their skin sparkles like tiny diamonds. I didn’t get the impression this characteristic was actually explained in the book. It seemed to me it was just something the author wanted to give her vampires, just to be different. I understand the desire to differentiate one’s characters from those of other well-known vampires in the genre, but as far as I’m concerned, such efforts are gratuitous and lack credibility if they’re not explained somewhere along the way.
And my last big beef is Edward. In my opinion, he is simply too perfect, and therefore not terribly interesting. I haven’t read the other books yet, but I sure hope for the sake of character depth and development that somewhere down the road, Edward falls off the abstinence wagon and gives in to his vampires urges. Just once would be enough. As he is now, with all his vampire traits and beauty and complete mastery over his desire for human blood, Edward is too perfect to be completely believable. Yes, I know he struggles against himself all the time to stay in control, but honestly, the author’s lack of narrative description fails to convey that in a convincing way.
I hope Alice gets to see more of the limelight in the following books. She’s the one character who truly grabbed my interest in “Twilight.”
On the plus side, I must say that Meyer is a master at driving a plot. She easily controls the tempo and keeps it upbeat and enticing enough to make the reader want to read “just one more chapter” before turning the lights out. She does a fantastic job at conveying teen life in all its many facets – life at home, at school, crushes, angst, girl friends and guy friends – in other words, the trials and tribulations of becoming a young adult. Meyer’s adeptness at portraying the teenage psyche in spite of lack of narrative description speaks volumes for her understanding of human nature and her treatment of it in the main plot.
To sum it up, I didn’t think “Twilight” was as awesome as so many people think it is, but it was better than I expected. In spite its flaws, it makes for a light enjoyable read. I still prefer Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles,” but I can appreciate Stephenie Meyer’s valian attempt at a different spin on the genre.
Now if she offers a plausible explanation for the “sparkling skin” somewhere in the next three books, it’ll be a step in the right direction.
Review by for Twilight Rating:
I’m not a huge fan of fantasy novels, but my friend convinced me that I just HAD to give ‘Twilight’ a chance…. and boy am I glad I did! Stephanie meyer’s Writing is seductively brilliant, and Edward is probably one of the most intriguing characters I have ever come across in a book. Anyone skeptical to read this novel because of the subject, trust me on this one…. if you give it a chance, you won’t be dissapointed!
Review by Saethryth of Fauentrei for Twilight Rating:
After hearing so much about this book, I finally was persuaded to read it. What a disppointment! I can’t believe this is being compared to the Harry Potter books, in fact, I’m surprized it got published at all. I would have to say I couldn’t imagine what the attraction is, except that I remember being eleven and so ‘in love’ with Donny Osmond, it hurt.
If you are not a googly-eyed preteen, or at least have the same mentality, you will probably not enjoy this book. 90% of it is just endless descriptions of Edward’s eyes, his hair, his chest, etc. etc, ad nauseum, complete with drawn out, boring descriptions of Bella’s longings for him. Written in an erotic style, it feels like reading porn, except there’s no porn.
The characters are two-dimensional and lacking motivation. What on earth would inspire a 100 year old ‘man’ to fall in love with an unnattractive, empty-headed, self-centered, 17 year old girl? Smell alone just doesn’t cut it for me. I also couldn’t stand Bella as the heroine. She is snooty, stuck up and shallow. I think Meyers tries to paint her as self sacrificing, but she just comes across as bitter. None of the humans, who actually seem like friendly people who treat her kindly, seem to be worthy of her attention. I found myself rooting for her death by the end.
Ah, the end – it came all too late for me. And could you BE more predictable? Not a plot twist to be seen anywhere.
This book could have easily been done as a Little Golden Book, and the audience would have been more appropriate.
Review by Voracious Reader for Twilight Rating:
Okay, so I’m a 35 year old, but I”ve got street cred to write this review…I read a LOT of teen fiction (or young adult as our library classifies it.) I always have, always will. And I love vampire novels, so I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.
But, since I am the ripe old age of 35, I’ve also read a lot of books for adults, and though it pains me to admit it, I went through a spell where all I read were Harlequin Romance Novels (don’t condemn me to the lowest reaches of Hades for it, I outgrew it.)
So, I was really disappointed to notice quite a few similarities between those bodice rippers and this novel.
The author uses a lot of over-the-top language…Bella is “in an agony of despair” over things that aren’t that big of a deal, and Bella seems to have not much of a mental life of her own after Edward is nice to her for the first time. I know that actually can reflect the teenage experience of first romance, I know, I know. But it could still be written with less stock phrases normally found in romance novels.
But what made me write this review was the part I got to this morning. Bella has just been saved from a potentially dangerous situation involving being “herded” and hunted by 4 adult men. And when Edward shows up in his shining car, he’s mad at her, and it becomes (once again, darnit) about how HE is feeling. And, though she was the one in danger, her first question to him is “Are you allright?”….but BELLA!! You are the one who has just been terrorized! Why are you turning to him like only what he thinks and what he feels matters? That happens over and over in this book (well, up to the part I’m at right now) and it’s really frustrating.
I’ll finish reading the book because it’s not that bad, it’s really not. And as every Vampire Novel loving person out there knows, we can’t be too picky, there isn’t an unlimited supply of these novels on our library shelves unfortunately. But I am really disturbed that someone who is writing for a teenage audience is portraying our heroine in some really contradictory ways. Strong on one hand, but then totally “devastated” on the other if she thinks the guy she likes might be mad at her. That’s not the kind of role model I want to read about, let alone let my daughter read about.
Okay, vent over.
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(out of 117 reviews)
Review by E. A Solinas for Twilight
Rating:
Stephanie Meyer writes vampire fiction as many teenage girls do — overblown writing, sexy cold vampires, and a vacuously attractive heroine who serves as the readers’ stand-in.
And so it’s hardly surprising that her megahit debut “Twilight” is essentially a teenage fantasy about finding the Perfect Hot Immortal Coverboy Who Longs For You Alone. Innocuous sparkling vampires, buckets of pointless teenage angst and a plot tacked on at the last minute leave this one of the more bloodless examples of vampire romance.
Klutzy Bella Swan is oh-so-self-sacrificingly going to live with her small-town cop dad, and is appalled by the student body — all the local boys decide that (ick!) they like her, and all the girls are shallow idiots compared to her.
Then she’s struck by the ash-pale, vaguely incestuous Cullen family — an especially by the Hawt and Brooding Edward Cullen. Edward doesn’t seem to like her much, resulting in much Teen Angst. but when Bella is nearly killed by a runaway car, he somehow manages to zip across the parking lot and knock away the car. Bella eventually figures out that he’s a vampire– a “vegetarian vampire” with the power to read thoughts… except hers.
Despite his fears that he’ll hurt her, their smoldering chemistry (and Bella’s tantalizing smell) draws them into a relationship… at which point, since the plot has had zero non-teenybopper tension, three two-dimensionally evil vampires enter the scene, intent on hunting Bella. The Cullens whisk her away to keep her safe from this trio — but their enemies have more than one way to find her.
The book “Twilight” is essentially the eroticized fantasies of a teenage girl, purple of prose and taking itself hilariously seriously. In fact, reading this novel feels suspiciously like eavesdropping on Stephanie Meyer’s fantasies of having a hot, sparkle-skinned vampire stalking her on a nightly basis to show his undying love.
Unfortunately there’s not much more to the plot than that — most of it involves Bella and Edward smoldering at each other, and Bella’s contemplation of Edward’s “scintillating, incandescent” body and Greek-god hotness. Furthermore Meyer smears the entire book in wildly swinging emotions, tepid dialogue, and overly ornate, purple prose — the descriptions of Edward’s chest alone may induce choking and diabetic coma.
After a horrendously silly “meet the vampire family,” Meyer belatedly realizes that the book needs more than angst and sparkles and Edward is constantly shying away from Bella’s virginal neck (what does that imply about sucking blood from animals?). So she tacks in a contrived subplot about evil vampires who are hunting Bella. Just… because they want to.
And heroine Bella is truly an amazing character — she manages to be a blank slate for mass fantasy projection, while also managing to be whiny, selfish, snobby and superhumanly shallow (since the only person she cares about is the Hawt Rich Guy). Edward is a suitable mate for her — he broods, smolders and stalks her to show that he loves her eternally. After all, isn’t a bipolar stalker watching you sleep the very image of true love?
As for the other characters… well, we have quirky vampire Alice to add some humor to the story. But otherwise, none of them really matter much except to reflect how awesome Edward and Bella are — and the villains could not be any thinner if Meyer snipped them from sparkly incandescent skin.
Those who dream of eternal angsty love with an Immortal Hottie may find “Twilight” a delight, but it’s no more than a thin, flat guilty pleasure at best.
Review by Nathalie Wigmore for Twilight
Rating:
I picked up this book once I heard the “Twilight” series had outsold the Harry Potter books in Canada. I had been avoiding “Twilight” for three reasons: 1) it is currently a massive blockbuster creating a buying frenzy that, quite frankly, I find borders on the ridiculous. Even grandparents have heard of it and know that it’s a “vampire story.” I tend to shy away from books that everyone and their dog says is “awesome; 2) it appeals mainly to late teenagers and tweens; and 3) for many people in my age group (40+), including myself, Anne Rice had set the standard for vampire literature two decades ago, and I was afraid to be disappointed by Twilight in comparison to such superb works as “Interview with the Vampire” and the “Vampire Lestat.”
So I finally decided to buy the first book and make my own opinion, to see what everyone was ranting and raving about. I went into it without any expectations, and I was both surprised and disappointed.
I don’t need to summarize the story. Everyone knows what it is. My biggest beef about “Twilight” is that Stephenie Meyer’s narrative description is very thin. She doesn’t really take the time to describe scenes and landscapes and character dilemmas; she pretty much glosses over them rapidly. To be fair to the author, I’ve noticed a similar trend in the fantasy genre over the last year or two. Narrative description seems to be falling out of grace in favour of plot-driven story-telling. I used to interpret such shallow narrative as a lack of imagination on the author’s part, but I realize now that this is not necessarily the case. Personally, I love description, and Stephenie Meyer doesn’t describe enough for my liking.
Except for Edward’s godlike perfection. When it comes to describing Edward through Bella’s eyes, the author is never short of quintessential superlatives. In fact, the reader is left with no doubt whatsoever that the character is agonizingly perfect. Whether this is good or bad I leave up to the reader. Personally, I found it irritating after a while.
Having said that, Bella’s unending praise of Edward’s unparalleled beauty was very successful in portraying the wonderful feeling of falling in love. Regardless of age, in the first stages of love, one always sees only the good and positive things about the object of one’s affections. Kudos to Meyer for doing a superb job conveying this feeling.
Another beef I have is the shining skin of the Twilight vampires. When they step into sunlight, their skin sparkles like tiny diamonds. I didn’t get the impression this characteristic was actually explained in the book. It seemed to me it was just something the author wanted to give her vampires, just to be different. I understand the desire to differentiate one’s characters from those of other well-known vampires in the genre, but as far as I’m concerned, such efforts are gratuitous and lack credibility if they’re not explained somewhere along the way.
And my last big beef is Edward. In my opinion, he is simply too perfect, and therefore not terribly interesting. I haven’t read the other books yet, but I sure hope for the sake of character depth and development that somewhere down the road, Edward falls off the abstinence wagon and gives in to his vampires urges. Just once would be enough. As he is now, with all his vampire traits and beauty and complete mastery over his desire for human blood, Edward is too perfect to be completely believable. Yes, I know he struggles against himself all the time to stay in control, but honestly, the author’s lack of narrative description fails to convey that in a convincing way.
I hope Alice gets to see more of the limelight in the following books. She’s the one character who truly grabbed my interest in “Twilight.”
On the plus side, I must say that Meyer is a master at driving a plot. She easily controls the tempo and keeps it upbeat and enticing enough to make the reader want to read “just one more chapter” before turning the lights out. She does a fantastic job at conveying teen life in all its many facets – life at home, at school, crushes, angst, girl friends and guy friends – in other words, the trials and tribulations of becoming a young adult. Meyer’s adeptness at portraying the teenage psyche in spite of lack of narrative description speaks volumes for her understanding of human nature and her treatment of it in the main plot.
To sum it up, I didn’t think “Twilight” was as awesome as so many people think it is, but it was better than I expected. In spite its flaws, it makes for a light enjoyable read. I still prefer Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles,” but I can appreciate Stephenie Meyer’s valian attempt at a different spin on the genre.
Now if she offers a plausible explanation for the “sparkling skin” somewhere in the next three books, it’ll be a step in the right direction.
Review by for Twilight
Rating:
I’m not a huge fan of fantasy novels, but my friend convinced me that I just HAD to give ‘Twilight’ a chance…. and boy am I glad I did!
Stephanie meyer’s Writing is seductively brilliant, and Edward is probably one of the most intriguing characters I have ever come across in a book.
Anyone skeptical to read this novel because of the subject, trust me on this one…. if you give it a chance, you won’t be dissapointed!
Review by Saethryth of Fauentrei for Twilight
Rating:
After hearing so much about this book, I finally was persuaded to read it. What a disppointment! I can’t believe this is being compared to the Harry Potter books, in fact, I’m surprized it got published at all. I would have to say I couldn’t imagine what the attraction is, except that I remember being eleven and so ‘in love’ with Donny Osmond, it hurt.
If you are not a googly-eyed preteen, or at least have the same mentality, you will probably not enjoy this book. 90% of it is just endless descriptions of Edward’s eyes, his hair, his chest, etc. etc, ad nauseum, complete with drawn out, boring descriptions of Bella’s longings for him. Written in an erotic style, it feels like reading porn, except there’s no porn.
The characters are two-dimensional and lacking motivation. What on earth would inspire a 100 year old ‘man’ to fall in love with an unnattractive, empty-headed, self-centered, 17 year old girl? Smell alone just doesn’t cut it for me. I also couldn’t stand Bella as the heroine. She is snooty, stuck up and shallow. I think Meyers tries to paint her as self sacrificing, but she just comes across as bitter. None of the humans, who actually seem like friendly people who treat her kindly, seem to be worthy of her attention. I found myself rooting for her death by the end.
Ah, the end – it came all too late for me. And could you BE more predictable? Not a plot twist to be seen anywhere.
This book could have easily been done as a Little Golden Book, and the audience would have been more appropriate.
Review by Voracious Reader for Twilight
Rating:
Okay, so I’m a 35 year old, but I”ve got street cred to write this review…I read a LOT of teen fiction (or young adult as our library classifies it.) I always have, always will. And I love vampire novels, so I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.
But, since I am the ripe old age of 35, I’ve also read a lot of books for adults, and though it pains me to admit it, I went through a spell where all I read were Harlequin Romance Novels (don’t condemn me to the lowest reaches of Hades for it, I outgrew it.)
So, I was really disappointed to notice quite a few similarities between those bodice rippers and this novel.
The author uses a lot of over-the-top language…Bella is “in an agony of despair” over things that aren’t that big of a deal, and Bella seems to have not much of a mental life of her own after Edward is nice to her for the first time. I know that actually can reflect the teenage experience of first romance, I know, I know. But it could still be written with less stock phrases normally found in romance novels.
But what made me write this review was the part I got to this morning. Bella has just been saved from a potentially dangerous situation involving being “herded” and hunted by 4 adult men. And when Edward shows up in his shining car, he’s mad at her, and it becomes (once again, darnit) about how HE is feeling. And, though she was the one in danger, her first question to him is “Are you allright?”….but BELLA!! You are the one who has just been terrorized! Why are you turning to him like only what he thinks and what he feels matters? That happens over and over in this book (well, up to the part I’m at right now) and it’s really frustrating.
I’ll finish reading the book because it’s not that bad, it’s really not. And as every Vampire Novel loving person out there knows, we can’t be too picky, there isn’t an unlimited supply of these novels on our library shelves unfortunately. But I am really disturbed that someone who is writing for a teenage audience is portraying our heroine in some really contradictory ways. Strong on one hand, but then totally “devastated” on the other if she thinks the guy she likes might be mad at her. That’s not the kind of role model I want to read about, let alone let my daughter read about.
Okay, vent over.