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juushikaTitle: Twilight (Twilight Saga Book One)
Author: Stephanie Meyer
Published: New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006 (2005)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 498
Total Page Count: 62,882
Text Number: 180
Read For: curiosity following the release of Breaking Dawn, checked out from the library
Short review: Bella is a new student in high school when she meets inhumanly handsome Edward. Despite their initial antagonism, the two are drawn inexorably into a passionate romance with one major complication: Edward is a vampire. The Twilight saga is a recent young adult phenomenon with a bastion of rabid fans as well as many critics. Personally, I found Twilight neither good enough to love or bad enough to joyfully mock. Although it is fluffy and immature, the book begins well—but midway through it takes a sharp turn into the absurd and quickly degenerates. As a result, this book is entirely mediocre, and I don't recommend it.
The tragedy of Twilight (for me, at least) is that it's an enjoyable book go horribly wrong. That isn't to say that the premise is brilliant, but there is something good there. The book begins with a standard "new student" YA trope, and Bella is an unremarkable and vaguely irritating protagonist. But things turn around when she meets Edward. Enigmatic and mercurial, he is immediately attractive and secretive enough to be fascinating. The early stages of his relationship with Bella is also intriguing—his vampirism is comically predictable, but the gradual revelation of his personality is much more complex and interesting. So the first half of the book goes on: the protagonist is annoying, the prose is lengthy fluff in dire need of an editor, but Edward is intriguing and the story captures the reader's interest.
Until the middle of the book, that is. Almost exactly halfway through, Edward steps into direct sunlight and sparkles. Sparkling vampires epitomizes the Twilight saga's foolish fluff, but it also marks the change in Twilight from enjoyment to pure absurdity. Edward sparkles, and then in quick succession Edward cleanly dumps his entire life story on Bella, Edward turns out to be a creepy stalker, Edward and Bella fall madly in love, an antagonist shows up for a long slew of action sequences that feel out of place against the rest of the book, some predictable and exaggerated angst ensues, and then Bella begins her campaign to have Edward turn her into a vampire before she gets "old." The protagonist remains irritating, the prose is still rambling fluff, but there is no longer a fascinating character or any gradual developments to make the book worthwhile or even enjoyable. Even the absurdity is more frustrating than it is funny: unrealistic, stereotypical, and (in Bella's premature, all-consuming love and Edward's stalkerish tendencies) a bit disturbing.
I liked Edward in the first half of the book, and wish that the second half continued in the same vein. Failing that, I wish that Twilight were as wonderful as fans claim or as laughably bad as detractors say. If it were either extreme, it might be fun to read. As it is, Twilight is enjoyable and then absurd without reaching an extreme at either end. It is conflicted. It is middling. It is average and entirely mediocre. It certainly doesn't deserve the fervor that it's received, but it's not particularly fun to mock, either. I'm not sorry to have read this book, and there's no strong reason to avoid it—there are worse novels, and this one is a brief waste of time. Neither do I recommend it. The book just isn't worth reading and there are many better YA and vampire novels out there.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Related the first: I have no real desire to continue on to New Moon. However, I can be argued otherwise. I put it on hold before reading Twilight (because the hold list was dozens long, and I wanted an early start in case I chose to continue the series), so I'll have it waiting for me soon. If you've read it, do you you think I should bother?
Related the second: My Amazon reviewer rank just passed into the top 10,000! 9,897, to be precise. Considering my total involvement in the Amazon community is to post reviews and respond to the comments they receive, that's a nice number. It's good to know that my reviews are useful.
Author: Stephanie Meyer
Published: New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006 (2005)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 498
Total Page Count: 62,882
Text Number: 180
Read For: curiosity following the release of Breaking Dawn, checked out from the library
Short review: Bella is a new student in high school when she meets inhumanly handsome Edward. Despite their initial antagonism, the two are drawn inexorably into a passionate romance with one major complication: Edward is a vampire. The Twilight saga is a recent young adult phenomenon with a bastion of rabid fans as well as many critics. Personally, I found Twilight neither good enough to love or bad enough to joyfully mock. Although it is fluffy and immature, the book begins well—but midway through it takes a sharp turn into the absurd and quickly degenerates. As a result, this book is entirely mediocre, and I don't recommend it.
The tragedy of Twilight (for me, at least) is that it's an enjoyable book go horribly wrong. That isn't to say that the premise is brilliant, but there is something good there. The book begins with a standard "new student" YA trope, and Bella is an unremarkable and vaguely irritating protagonist. But things turn around when she meets Edward. Enigmatic and mercurial, he is immediately attractive and secretive enough to be fascinating. The early stages of his relationship with Bella is also intriguing—his vampirism is comically predictable, but the gradual revelation of his personality is much more complex and interesting. So the first half of the book goes on: the protagonist is annoying, the prose is lengthy fluff in dire need of an editor, but Edward is intriguing and the story captures the reader's interest.
Until the middle of the book, that is. Almost exactly halfway through, Edward steps into direct sunlight and sparkles. Sparkling vampires epitomizes the Twilight saga's foolish fluff, but it also marks the change in Twilight from enjoyment to pure absurdity. Edward sparkles, and then in quick succession Edward cleanly dumps his entire life story on Bella, Edward turns out to be a creepy stalker, Edward and Bella fall madly in love, an antagonist shows up for a long slew of action sequences that feel out of place against the rest of the book, some predictable and exaggerated angst ensues, and then Bella begins her campaign to have Edward turn her into a vampire before she gets "old." The protagonist remains irritating, the prose is still rambling fluff, but there is no longer a fascinating character or any gradual developments to make the book worthwhile or even enjoyable. Even the absurdity is more frustrating than it is funny: unrealistic, stereotypical, and (in Bella's premature, all-consuming love and Edward's stalkerish tendencies) a bit disturbing.
I liked Edward in the first half of the book, and wish that the second half continued in the same vein. Failing that, I wish that Twilight were as wonderful as fans claim or as laughably bad as detractors say. If it were either extreme, it might be fun to read. As it is, Twilight is enjoyable and then absurd without reaching an extreme at either end. It is conflicted. It is middling. It is average and entirely mediocre. It certainly doesn't deserve the fervor that it's received, but it's not particularly fun to mock, either. I'm not sorry to have read this book, and there's no strong reason to avoid it—there are worse novels, and this one is a brief waste of time. Neither do I recommend it. The book just isn't worth reading and there are many better YA and vampire novels out there.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Related the first: I have no real desire to continue on to New Moon. However, I can be argued otherwise. I put it on hold before reading Twilight (because the hold list was dozens long, and I wanted an early start in case I chose to continue the series), so I'll have it waiting for me soon. If you've read it, do you you think I should bother?
Related the second: My Amazon reviewer rank just passed into the top 10,000! 9,897, to be precise. Considering my total involvement in the Amazon community is to post reviews and respond to the comments they receive, that's a nice number. It's good to know that my reviews are useful.
