If curious, see previous entries for thoughts about the first two Twilight books.
There will probably be plot spoilers.
Whew! I am so glad that the books improved. The relationship drama of the first two books drove me batty; there is still relationship drama in these books, but it is entertaining relationship drama. I actually laughed out loud while reading these two, and it wasn't in a "ha! the vampires sparkle!" sort of way. It was genuine "haha! Good one, [insert character's name here]!"
The main difference between the first two books and the last two books is that there are multiple plot lines happening at once, so the relationship plots happen alongside other action. This takes it away from the tailspin moments of narcissistic romantic problems that made me continually think, "Maybe I am too old to read this book."
Another thing that helps: Meyer got out of Bella's head for a while and into another character's mind. This broke up the monotony of Bella's thoughts (Oooh, vampires are so awesome! They are the only thing that makes me happy...except Jakob. He makes me happy. Ooooh, Edward. He's the best person, er, vampire, ever to exist. Except for Carlisle. He's so benevolent. But Edward is like marble. And he has topaz eyes. I love him irrevocably.)
The last two books were good because they were delightfully complicated with a couple of possible outcomes. It didn't seem like everything was driven by inevitability or teenage love/lust.
Some random thoughts:
Wolf packs have some pretty serious relationship drama of their own. And it must get very tiring trying to feed and clothe wolf boys.
I don't get Jasper's character at all. I feel like there is supposed to be something more to him, but when his back-story is given, it was like, "meh, okay...I guess that explains him a little...I guess." I felt like his story was given just to make the possibility of Bella becoming a vampire seem more dangerous, but the loose ends just didn't come together for me.
Is it supernatural canon that every character who receives a superpower must receive the superpower that their personality craves or life circumstances demand? I first noticed this when watching the show Heroes. Characters that are prone to receiving superpowers for whatever reason (spiderbites, lab accidents, genetic mutations, etc) get the ones that most fit them or that they most need. In Heroes, when she was a small child, Claire was in a house-fire and her body became impervious to lasting injury. Peter was a nurse and could heal people. In Twilight, Alice was born into vampirism without a past, so she is able to see the future. Jasper apparently was around a whole bunch of volatile newborn vampires, so he can control the emotional vibe and get them to chill out. (This theory is especially entertaining when applied to the characters in The Incredibles.)
Victoria has to be the most two-dimensional character ever. "Edward kill my vampire love. Must make Edward hurt. Have nothing else to do. Must swim through the ocean with my hair flaming red like Merida's unruly mane in Brave." I don't know why Victoria sounds like a cave woman in my head. I don't think she had many real lines.
Is the vampire house all white and glass because Carlisle likes being a doctor?
What the heck is up with the golden king-sized bed? Fantasize much, Stephenie Meyer? Were there mirrors on the top? Was there a champagne-glass-shaped-bathtub nearby? The cheese factor just went up too high there for me. Don't get me started on the bed-breaking sex scene. Because, of course, vampires have to have super sex too. Enough with all of the hyperbole!!!! (There was enough hyperbole to merit those 4 exclamation points, trust me)
Supposedly, everyone thought Renesmee was the most wonderful child ever, but I'm thinking creepy. That may just be me still trying to get over her birth scene, though. Ick.
I like that Bella gets her own kind of strength in the final book, but it was too little too late to reverse all of the codependency throughout the rest of the three books. And it only took its true shape after she gave her life completely over to the Cullen family.
Jakob's imprinting= gross. (PLOT SPOILER-- hover over the next part with your cursor to read it)
It seems a little incestuous too...not that that is the right word for this. He was in love with Bella, so he imprints on her newborn daughter. Does this mean he was in love with part of Bella's essence that carried through completely to Renesmee? Or does that mean he was in love with one of Bella's eggs? And Edward didn't want to kill him?
I think Charlie and Carlisle were the only characters that I liked completely. But what tragic last names. An author can create any name combinations in the world and she chooses Charlie Swan and Carlisle Cullen?
And one last thought: referring to classic literature like Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights does not give a story literary heft unless the story has been imbibed with that heft. It seemed like a cheap move, especially after all of the hyperbole.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Twilight: New Moon
(See previous ranting post about Twilight for what I thought about the first book)
(Plot spoilers, blah blah blah)
This is the first and only time I will read the Twilight saga. I will say that it gets better as it goes along....which is a good thing...because New Moon was the Moon Moon of the Twilight books.
It begins with Bella almost being killed/eaten/attacked/whatever by Edward's vampire family over a paper-cut. Edward then breaks up with her in order to save her from further life-threatening situations. Little does he know that this will send her into an impossible vortex of drama from which her life will never recover. She is depressed. Woefully depressed. So depressed that I wanted to shake the ever living life out of a fictional character and tell her to snap out of it. (Yes, I know that is NOT the way to treat a person who is depressed in real life).
Anyhow...the only way out of her depression is re-kindling a friendship with Jakob, a 15 year old man-boy who has a crush on her. So, basically, she makes herself feel better about feeling unloved by allowing a boy three years younger than her to crush on her big time. Good going there, Bella. Great idea!
Then comes a bunch of stuff that is supposed to be suspenseful, except there's no way that it can be because I already knew the basics about Twilight before reading it (sparkly vampires and half-naked wolf tribe and irrevocable teenage drama-y love). The whole middle part of the book was drudgery. Bella toys with Jakob. And the reader is supposed to care about the disappearances of unnamed characters and wonder what has happened to Jakob and other man-boys from his tribe (sorry, I am not sure how to refer to a 15 year old who is often described in hunky beefy ways. Maybe this would be different if I were reading the book as a 15 year old instead of a 35 year old).
Then Bella does other stupid stuff in order to hear Edward's voice in her head once more. Apparently, his voice appears as an apparition any time she puts her life in danger. Hey, Bella, maybe that's not Edward. Maybe that's just common sense speaking to you. Just a thought.
So fast forward a bit and Bella does something so stupid that it plunges Edward into suicidal thoughts via a psychic. And now the reader forgets all about the other plots that have been established for the prior 2/3s of the book and gets immersed in vampire action (so...basically the same set-up as the last book's pace). And that's how I got hooked into continuing to read the Twilight saga even though I was about 95% done with Bella for 75% of Moon Moon....er, New Moon.
My verdict remains the same from the first book: this is a fun read when it is about vampire wars and whatnot, but as a love story, it makes me want to gag myself at times. As a werewolf story: snooze fest.
P.S. I saw 10 minutes of this movie on t.v. once and could not discern a plot other than "Let's get Jakob to take his shirt off again!"
(Plot spoilers, blah blah blah)
This is the first and only time I will read the Twilight saga. I will say that it gets better as it goes along....which is a good thing...because New Moon was the Moon Moon of the Twilight books.
It begins with Bella almost being killed/eaten/attacked/whatever by Edward's vampire family over a paper-cut. Edward then breaks up with her in order to save her from further life-threatening situations. Little does he know that this will send her into an impossible vortex of drama from which her life will never recover. She is depressed. Woefully depressed. So depressed that I wanted to shake the ever living life out of a fictional character and tell her to snap out of it. (Yes, I know that is NOT the way to treat a person who is depressed in real life).
Anyhow...the only way out of her depression is re-kindling a friendship with Jakob, a 15 year old man-boy who has a crush on her. So, basically, she makes herself feel better about feeling unloved by allowing a boy three years younger than her to crush on her big time. Good going there, Bella. Great idea!
Then comes a bunch of stuff that is supposed to be suspenseful, except there's no way that it can be because I already knew the basics about Twilight before reading it (sparkly vampires and half-naked wolf tribe and irrevocable teenage drama-y love). The whole middle part of the book was drudgery. Bella toys with Jakob. And the reader is supposed to care about the disappearances of unnamed characters and wonder what has happened to Jakob and other man-boys from his tribe (sorry, I am not sure how to refer to a 15 year old who is often described in hunky beefy ways. Maybe this would be different if I were reading the book as a 15 year old instead of a 35 year old).
Then Bella does other stupid stuff in order to hear Edward's voice in her head once more. Apparently, his voice appears as an apparition any time she puts her life in danger. Hey, Bella, maybe that's not Edward. Maybe that's just common sense speaking to you. Just a thought.
So fast forward a bit and Bella does something so stupid that it plunges Edward into suicidal thoughts via a psychic. And now the reader forgets all about the other plots that have been established for the prior 2/3s of the book and gets immersed in vampire action (so...basically the same set-up as the last book's pace). And that's how I got hooked into continuing to read the Twilight saga even though I was about 95% done with Bella for 75% of Moon Moon....er, New Moon.
My verdict remains the same from the first book: this is a fun read when it is about vampire wars and whatnot, but as a love story, it makes me want to gag myself at times. As a werewolf story: snooze fest.
P.S. I saw 10 minutes of this movie on t.v. once and could not discern a plot other than "Let's get Jakob to take his shirt off again!"
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Upon Rereading The Lord of the Rings
The first time that I read The Lord of the Rings, I did so in three pieces. I think I read each before each movie was released. What struck me then was the change in Aragorn and Frodo over time. And then, there was also that moment in the third book when a lightbulb went off and I thought to myself, "Huh...who knew all along that it was Samwise Gamgee who was the real hero of these books?"
This time around, I read the whole thing as a book of its own instead of split into three parts. That changes it somehow. This time, I was struck by the four hobbits. The movies have an influence on this too. In the movies, Merry is sort of the calm peacemaker. He's just sort of there to keep Pippin out of too much trouble and support Frodo along the way. Pippin is an immature kid in the movies. He is the one who will always stumble into trouble. Sam is the doting friend who is loyal in an almost dog-like way. Frodo...well, Frodo seems like an elf in hobbit disguise.
In the books, Merry and Pippin are both brave and do their own part to save Middle Earth. In both the movie and the book, Pippin is drawn to the palentir. In the movie, Gandalf yells at him and then drags him off for an epic ride on Shadowfax. While this is true of the book too, in the book we see into Pippin's thoughts and how this moment changes him. He doesn't want to be the goof off anymore. He wants to play his own part, but not in a selfish way. When he volunteers his service to the king in the movie, it looks impetuous, but it makes more sense in the book. He is responding to the king's pain and doing what he feels he can to help. Gandalf takes it for an impetuous move, sure, but he also responds to it with much the same surprise that he felt when Frodo said, "I will take it, though I do not know the way."
Merry has his own moment of feeling left out and wishing he could help. In some ways, his character serves to further emphasize things that are happening with other characters. He is sort of a book end to Pippin in that he also ends up as a knight or servant to the king of Rohan. Merry sort of feels like he is nothing more than a court jester kept around to keep things light-hearted for the king. While it is true that the king of Rohan wants to hear Merry's tales and songs, I am sure that the king also benefits from Merry's fresh perspective. Everyone else in the kingdom has just seen the king wasting away and losing his mind for the past however many years. Merry sees him as he is now. He is also able to see Eowyn as she is now, as Eowyn is able to see Merry for who he is. Both want to help fight because they cannot stand to be left behind to do nothing but worry. If everyone they love is off fighting, then that is where they want to be too even though they are both seen as less than able. Both characters have their moment where they save Middle Earth in dramatic fashion and in a way that Sauron would never have anticipated because both Eowyn and Merry are easy to overlook and underestimate.
Both Frodo and Sam continue the "everyman" hobbit theme. The whole point here with the hobbits is that they were not destined for greatness in anyway. The ring came to Bilbo in the most unexpected way, and then it was given to Frodo. When trouble came, Frodo didn't say, "It's not fair. It's not my problem. What am I supposed to do about it?" He said, "I will do what I can." Sam assumed he was without talent and just went along to assist Master Baggins in any small way possible. These small ways end up saving everything.
When the hobbits return to the shire is when they are able to shine on their own in their own homeland. Merry and Pippin have grown in stature both figuratively and literally. The water the Ents gave them to drink allowed them to grow, but that growth is representative of how they have grown up and become leaders on their own. Frodo is now the ultimate pacifist after witnessing too much violence for a life-time. And Sam just wants to settle down and have a family and be a gardener. It always takes me forever to get through the last 100 pages or so of the book because after all of the main battles, it feels like the story has already ended. But the story of the hobbits has not ended until those last 100 pages have been read. And The Lord of the Rings is really the story of four hobbits who ended up immersed in an adventure and battle much bigger than they are who held their own anyway.
This time around, I read the whole thing as a book of its own instead of split into three parts. That changes it somehow. This time, I was struck by the four hobbits. The movies have an influence on this too. In the movies, Merry is sort of the calm peacemaker. He's just sort of there to keep Pippin out of too much trouble and support Frodo along the way. Pippin is an immature kid in the movies. He is the one who will always stumble into trouble. Sam is the doting friend who is loyal in an almost dog-like way. Frodo...well, Frodo seems like an elf in hobbit disguise.
In the books, Merry and Pippin are both brave and do their own part to save Middle Earth. In both the movie and the book, Pippin is drawn to the palentir. In the movie, Gandalf yells at him and then drags him off for an epic ride on Shadowfax. While this is true of the book too, in the book we see into Pippin's thoughts and how this moment changes him. He doesn't want to be the goof off anymore. He wants to play his own part, but not in a selfish way. When he volunteers his service to the king in the movie, it looks impetuous, but it makes more sense in the book. He is responding to the king's pain and doing what he feels he can to help. Gandalf takes it for an impetuous move, sure, but he also responds to it with much the same surprise that he felt when Frodo said, "I will take it, though I do not know the way."
Merry has his own moment of feeling left out and wishing he could help. In some ways, his character serves to further emphasize things that are happening with other characters. He is sort of a book end to Pippin in that he also ends up as a knight or servant to the king of Rohan. Merry sort of feels like he is nothing more than a court jester kept around to keep things light-hearted for the king. While it is true that the king of Rohan wants to hear Merry's tales and songs, I am sure that the king also benefits from Merry's fresh perspective. Everyone else in the kingdom has just seen the king wasting away and losing his mind for the past however many years. Merry sees him as he is now. He is also able to see Eowyn as she is now, as Eowyn is able to see Merry for who he is. Both want to help fight because they cannot stand to be left behind to do nothing but worry. If everyone they love is off fighting, then that is where they want to be too even though they are both seen as less than able. Both characters have their moment where they save Middle Earth in dramatic fashion and in a way that Sauron would never have anticipated because both Eowyn and Merry are easy to overlook and underestimate.
Both Frodo and Sam continue the "everyman" hobbit theme. The whole point here with the hobbits is that they were not destined for greatness in anyway. The ring came to Bilbo in the most unexpected way, and then it was given to Frodo. When trouble came, Frodo didn't say, "It's not fair. It's not my problem. What am I supposed to do about it?" He said, "I will do what I can." Sam assumed he was without talent and just went along to assist Master Baggins in any small way possible. These small ways end up saving everything.
When the hobbits return to the shire is when they are able to shine on their own in their own homeland. Merry and Pippin have grown in stature both figuratively and literally. The water the Ents gave them to drink allowed them to grow, but that growth is representative of how they have grown up and become leaders on their own. Frodo is now the ultimate pacifist after witnessing too much violence for a life-time. And Sam just wants to settle down and have a family and be a gardener. It always takes me forever to get through the last 100 pages or so of the book because after all of the main battles, it feels like the story has already ended. But the story of the hobbits has not ended until those last 100 pages have been read. And The Lord of the Rings is really the story of four hobbits who ended up immersed in an adventure and battle much bigger than they are who held their own anyway.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Girl in Translation and Cutting for Stone
Girl in Translation
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Translation-Jean-Kwok/dp/B005IUH24O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364096324&sr=1-1&keywords=girl+in+translation+by+jean+kwok
This book truly helped me step outside my own world and into a world of poverty that I haven't seen. I wondered, though, how much of it perpetuates Asian-American stereotypes. The protagonist didn't seem as real to me as the other characters in the novel. I could picture them. I had trouble picturing her. And I also had trouble understanding her decisions at times. E. M. Forster (this is roughly paraphrased from memory) said that a round character is one who we feel like we know thoroughly and will be able to predict his or her behavior or reactions and yet he or she is also capable of surprising us effectively. The protagonist in this novel had some surprising behavior or decisions, but they always seemed somehow removed from all of the rest of her behavior, and it felt "off" to me.
Cutting for Stone
http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375714367/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364096693&sr=1-1&keywords=cutting+for+stone
This is a relatively long book-- somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 pages. I burned through it in 2-3 days. The book took me to another world. At first, the structure seemed sort of different, like it was repeating in circles as the birth story was referred to several times but always explained with new information the next time. I liked that sections were told from different character perspectives. It was also refreshing that the loose ends were tied up by novel's end but not in a way that was rote or predictable or freaking ridiculous or cheesy.
The story is set in a hospital and it involves multiple surgeons. The medical parts were fascinating and clear (which is saying something as I do not usually enjoy medical information).
At least one thing distracted me from the story: the actual physical connection that Shiva and Marion had in the womb. Shiva and Marion are identical twins who were conjoined. Their conjoinment (if that can be a word) consisted of a stalk or tube that connected their scalps/heads. After they were delivered by C-section, this thread was cut and a little stump was left on each boy's head. Marion describes how during the birth, he pulled Shiva back up into the womb (yes, the book goes all Tristram Shandy on us and gives us information about his birth from the grown narrator's perspective because he remembers being in the womb). The first twin is presenting head down and the other twin is up above that. How long is this stalk/tube/thread that connects the boys? How can they be head to head in the womb most of the time and yet one is able to present and crown while still connected to the other one? I know this connection is needed in order to represent the other connection the twins have to one another, but it all seems a little impossible to me.
The other thing...no one knew Sister Mary Joseph Praise was pregnant. She was 8 months pregnant with conjoined twins and she was a petite woman. She assisted during surgeries all that time. Seriously? I don't care if she was wearing a habit, that had to be one large belly and she had to have been tired and need to pee constantly. I know I should just suspend reality here given all that happens in the book, but these two things really got to me (the conjoining at the head and the unknown pregnancy).
On the plus side, the characters were all well-developed. The plot kept moving and complicating in unexpected ways. The really intelligent characters were also capable of true lapses in judgement that were spot on for believability. Little vignettes of the characters' lives were woven into the tale at times to help explain the person each had become.
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Translation-Jean-Kwok/dp/B005IUH24O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364096324&sr=1-1&keywords=girl+in+translation+by+jean+kwok
This book truly helped me step outside my own world and into a world of poverty that I haven't seen. I wondered, though, how much of it perpetuates Asian-American stereotypes. The protagonist didn't seem as real to me as the other characters in the novel. I could picture them. I had trouble picturing her. And I also had trouble understanding her decisions at times. E. M. Forster (this is roughly paraphrased from memory) said that a round character is one who we feel like we know thoroughly and will be able to predict his or her behavior or reactions and yet he or she is also capable of surprising us effectively. The protagonist in this novel had some surprising behavior or decisions, but they always seemed somehow removed from all of the rest of her behavior, and it felt "off" to me.
Cutting for Stone
http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375714367/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364096693&sr=1-1&keywords=cutting+for+stone
This is a relatively long book-- somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 pages. I burned through it in 2-3 days. The book took me to another world. At first, the structure seemed sort of different, like it was repeating in circles as the birth story was referred to several times but always explained with new information the next time. I liked that sections were told from different character perspectives. It was also refreshing that the loose ends were tied up by novel's end but not in a way that was rote or predictable or freaking ridiculous or cheesy.
The story is set in a hospital and it involves multiple surgeons. The medical parts were fascinating and clear (which is saying something as I do not usually enjoy medical information).
At least one thing distracted me from the story: the actual physical connection that Shiva and Marion had in the womb. Shiva and Marion are identical twins who were conjoined. Their conjoinment (if that can be a word) consisted of a stalk or tube that connected their scalps/heads. After they were delivered by C-section, this thread was cut and a little stump was left on each boy's head. Marion describes how during the birth, he pulled Shiva back up into the womb (yes, the book goes all Tristram Shandy on us and gives us information about his birth from the grown narrator's perspective because he remembers being in the womb). The first twin is presenting head down and the other twin is up above that. How long is this stalk/tube/thread that connects the boys? How can they be head to head in the womb most of the time and yet one is able to present and crown while still connected to the other one? I know this connection is needed in order to represent the other connection the twins have to one another, but it all seems a little impossible to me.
The other thing...no one knew Sister Mary Joseph Praise was pregnant. She was 8 months pregnant with conjoined twins and she was a petite woman. She assisted during surgeries all that time. Seriously? I don't care if she was wearing a habit, that had to be one large belly and she had to have been tired and need to pee constantly. I know I should just suspend reality here given all that happens in the book, but these two things really got to me (the conjoining at the head and the unknown pregnancy).
On the plus side, the characters were all well-developed. The plot kept moving and complicating in unexpected ways. The really intelligent characters were also capable of true lapses in judgement that were spot on for believability. Little vignettes of the characters' lives were woven into the tale at times to help explain the person each had become.
Reading Wicked
I am trying to use this blog to keep track of some of the books I have read. For a book club, I read this over Winter Break.
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Life-Times-Witch-Years/dp/0061350966
I usually ramble on and on, but all I am going to say here is: do not read it!
1. It was vulgar. I am not generally what I would call prudish. This book was awful for just how grossly vulgar it got for no reason whatsoever.
2. Lots of red herrings. Tons of things were brought up in ways that seemed important at the time only to lead to nowhere, or at least to nowhere conclusive or cohesive.
3. The characters were not likeable. Parts of the book appear to be about redemption but in the end none of them were redemptive people.
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Life-Times-Witch-Years/dp/0061350966
I usually ramble on and on, but all I am going to say here is: do not read it!
1. It was vulgar. I am not generally what I would call prudish. This book was awful for just how grossly vulgar it got for no reason whatsoever.
2. Lots of red herrings. Tons of things were brought up in ways that seemed important at the time only to lead to nowhere, or at least to nowhere conclusive or cohesive.
3. The characters were not likeable. Parts of the book appear to be about redemption but in the end none of them were redemptive people.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Thoughts about Twilight, Hunger Games, and Teen Love
For about three or four years now, I have had friends ask me to read Twilight. At first, I out and out refused because I do not like teenage melodrama. My friends would respond that it was indeed teenage melodrama, but I just had to read it. I knew I was being a literature snob, but I felt a certain amount of pride in not reading it.
Last semester, a colleague gave me a free copy of the book, and I found myself nearing the end of a semester and wanting to escape the fact that I would soon have an insurmountable pile of student papers to grade. Yes, I escaped with Twilight. I started reading it around 4 p.m. and finished 'round about 3 a.m. So...there. You got me. It is a highly readable book with a fast pace.
When people ask me what I thought of it, I don't know how to respond. I liked it for a quick read, a fleeting escape sort of thing. It is not something I would ever reread, but I will probably read the rest of the series, in part because I cannot help but finish what I have started with reading.
*Blah, blah, blah, plot spoilers-- but if you don't know any of this stuff about Twilight already, you're probably not going to read the book anyway, right?*
There were moments in the book where I just sort of smacked my head and said, "Really?!?" Two months later, the one I recall most vividly is when Bella figures out that Edward is probably a vampire and says that she is now deeply, irrevocably in love with him. Seriously? She's now somewhat afraid but even more attracted to him than ever. Had I not already known that Stephenie Meyers' vampires are sparkly, that would have been another memorable moment. Edward sparkles in sunlight. Like a million diamonds. He has bronze hair, a chest that is solid like steel, and his skin sparkles in sunlight. And he's oppressively stalkerish. And that makes her love him even more. I think this is why I kept flashing back to The Hunger Games. Gale and Peeta were both looking really good in comparison, and yet Katniss struggled with feelings of confusion, not a foolish, deep, irrevocable love (withasparklyvampire!).
Here's the thing. I should have related to Bella. At the age of 14, I moved from beautiful, wonderful San Diego to the St. Louis area. My dramatic 14 year old self, upon being told we were moving to Missouri, said, "But, Dad, we can't move to Missouri! Even the name sounds like 'misery'!" So, I get the melodrama and the misery of being the new kid from a warm place in a strange land of different, miserable climate. I was also a petite, very skinny girl who did not garner any attention from boys in San Diego and then suddenly received weird attention from them all at once in college (I know, I know, Bella's change happened much more quickly than mine). You would think I would relate to Bella, but I didn't. And as I read Bella's terse responses to everything, all I could think was, "Wow, Katniss does terseness so much better than Bella."
Even though I did not relate to Katniss (a strong girl who survives near starvation and can hunt and doesn't like to explore her emotions), I could completely see where she was coming from. Her relationship dilemmas made sense. Conflicting emotions for both Gale and Peeta? Yup, my teenage self would have gotten along with Katniss, even though the game-makers would have given me a 1 for a training score.
More than any other thought (well, maybe not more than repeated admonitions that both irrevocable love and sparkles are too much) was that I really hope this is not the sort of book my daughter likes when she is a teenager. I do not want her to read a book that makes it appear dreamy and wonderful to fall in love with someone who is dangerous. I mean, really, dangerous= bad, not sexy. And I really, truly, deeply, maybe even irrevocably, hope that my daughter doesn't like romance novels. Irritating man from a different social world turns suddenly attractive after woman is placed in some ridiculous peril. Wait? What's that? That's the plot of Twilight? And that plot repeats within itself several times over? Yep. Oh, wow, now I've just figured out why I won't be rereading Twilight.
The part that really got me, though, was the part that I read as a mom. I am telling you right now that if my daughter did what Bella did at the end, I would smack her upside the head and send her to a military school in Alaska. And if they don't have military schools in Alaska, I would go up there and start one just so I could send her there. This is all because once she falls in love with Edward, it's like he is the only thing that exists anymore. Oh, sure, she thinks of her mom and her dad the tiniest little bit, but it pales in comparison to how Edward fills her every waking moment (haha, pales...the pun was completely unintentional, but I'm keeping it!). Anyhow, the point here is that she is completely subsumed by teenage melodramatic love. That love doesn't seem real to me. For that reason, I can read Twilight as a book with a plot about vampires, but I'm not into it at all as a love story. As a love story, I keep reacting to it with intermittent facepalms and bizarre little furball noises. Blech. Smack. And then I'd get back into the action story of vampires. I'm not sure anymore if this is a review of Twilight or too much of a revelation of my psyche. Oh, well. I really did enjoy the vampire action story when not distracted by sparkles and stalkers.
Last semester, a colleague gave me a free copy of the book, and I found myself nearing the end of a semester and wanting to escape the fact that I would soon have an insurmountable pile of student papers to grade. Yes, I escaped with Twilight. I started reading it around 4 p.m. and finished 'round about 3 a.m. So...there. You got me. It is a highly readable book with a fast pace.
When people ask me what I thought of it, I don't know how to respond. I liked it for a quick read, a fleeting escape sort of thing. It is not something I would ever reread, but I will probably read the rest of the series, in part because I cannot help but finish what I have started with reading.
*Blah, blah, blah, plot spoilers-- but if you don't know any of this stuff about Twilight already, you're probably not going to read the book anyway, right?*
There were moments in the book where I just sort of smacked my head and said, "Really?!?" Two months later, the one I recall most vividly is when Bella figures out that Edward is probably a vampire and says that she is now deeply, irrevocably in love with him. Seriously? She's now somewhat afraid but even more attracted to him than ever. Had I not already known that Stephenie Meyers' vampires are sparkly, that would have been another memorable moment. Edward sparkles in sunlight. Like a million diamonds. He has bronze hair, a chest that is solid like steel, and his skin sparkles in sunlight. And he's oppressively stalkerish. And that makes her love him even more. I think this is why I kept flashing back to The Hunger Games. Gale and Peeta were both looking really good in comparison, and yet Katniss struggled with feelings of confusion, not a foolish, deep, irrevocable love (withasparklyvampire!).
Here's the thing. I should have related to Bella. At the age of 14, I moved from beautiful, wonderful San Diego to the St. Louis area. My dramatic 14 year old self, upon being told we were moving to Missouri, said, "But, Dad, we can't move to Missouri! Even the name sounds like 'misery'!" So, I get the melodrama and the misery of being the new kid from a warm place in a strange land of different, miserable climate. I was also a petite, very skinny girl who did not garner any attention from boys in San Diego and then suddenly received weird attention from them all at once in college (I know, I know, Bella's change happened much more quickly than mine). You would think I would relate to Bella, but I didn't. And as I read Bella's terse responses to everything, all I could think was, "Wow, Katniss does terseness so much better than Bella."
Even though I did not relate to Katniss (a strong girl who survives near starvation and can hunt and doesn't like to explore her emotions), I could completely see where she was coming from. Her relationship dilemmas made sense. Conflicting emotions for both Gale and Peeta? Yup, my teenage self would have gotten along with Katniss, even though the game-makers would have given me a 1 for a training score.
More than any other thought (well, maybe not more than repeated admonitions that both irrevocable love and sparkles are too much) was that I really hope this is not the sort of book my daughter likes when she is a teenager. I do not want her to read a book that makes it appear dreamy and wonderful to fall in love with someone who is dangerous. I mean, really, dangerous= bad, not sexy. And I really, truly, deeply, maybe even irrevocably, hope that my daughter doesn't like romance novels. Irritating man from a different social world turns suddenly attractive after woman is placed in some ridiculous peril. Wait? What's that? That's the plot of Twilight? And that plot repeats within itself several times over? Yep. Oh, wow, now I've just figured out why I won't be rereading Twilight.
The part that really got me, though, was the part that I read as a mom. I am telling you right now that if my daughter did what Bella did at the end, I would smack her upside the head and send her to a military school in Alaska. And if they don't have military schools in Alaska, I would go up there and start one just so I could send her there. This is all because once she falls in love with Edward, it's like he is the only thing that exists anymore. Oh, sure, she thinks of her mom and her dad the tiniest little bit, but it pales in comparison to how Edward fills her every waking moment (haha, pales...the pun was completely unintentional, but I'm keeping it!). Anyhow, the point here is that she is completely subsumed by teenage melodramatic love. That love doesn't seem real to me. For that reason, I can read Twilight as a book with a plot about vampires, but I'm not into it at all as a love story. As a love story, I keep reacting to it with intermittent facepalms and bizarre little furball noises. Blech. Smack. And then I'd get back into the action story of vampires. I'm not sure anymore if this is a review of Twilight or too much of a revelation of my psyche. Oh, well. I really did enjoy the vampire action story when not distracted by sparkles and stalkers.
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