MAIN TITLE Book Reviews
Article Title Twighlight - Stephenie Meyer
Alright, so I had bought Twilight when it first came out, and at fifteen I thought
it was one of the best works of literature I had ever read. I was among those screaming
fan girls who thought Edward, with his charming personality and that deep, dangerous
secret was the ultimate man. And Bella, with her narrative, was the perfect protagonist.
My opinion of the book changed very quickly.
Before I begin, I'll give a brief overview
of the book. Bella is a seventeen -year old girl who, after much deliberation decided
to move to Forks, a dreary place in Phoenix, with her father in order to allow her
mother to travel with her boyfriend. There, she sees five beautiful people who quickly
fill her thoughts. One in particular, Edward, behaved in a very hostile manner toward
her, and later she finds out that he, among with his family, are 'Vegetarian Vampires'.
Que the dramatic monologue and Mary-Sue-sh tendencies.
Firstly, the story itself
was horribly cliched; Now I understand that in this day and age originality is difficult
to insert into any story, as most concepts have been overused, but please, could
Stephenie Meyer have not try just a little harder to pump some into her plot? The
plot was contrived and annoying. Good Vampire falls for food. Difficulty and sexual
tension, followed by vampire-saving-human situations ensue. Now I have a gripe with
this 'Good' Vampire BS. Vampires, by nature in fiction, are supposed to be the embodiment
of everything bad in humanity. At least, that is how I see it. They are meant to
be dark and evil, and seductive. The whole legend of Vampires, and Vampire folklore
all hover around the fact that these creatures are bad. Really and utterly bad. It
is simply their nature: they kill humans to survive for Pete's sake! And yet, here
we have this morally correct Vampire and it irked the Hell out of me.
This leads
me onto the second point: Characterisation. Or rather the lack of it. Edward was
the most boring, colorless, annoying, little doormat-of-a-character I have ever had
the misfortune to read about. There was no real struggle of his Vampire side, and
it was merely 'Oh Bella, I want to kiss you but I can't, I'll rip your head off.
Oh woe is me'. I felt like the struggle was merely superficial, as we ever actually
see him lose control. Granted, he's had plenty of time to control his urge to kill
but Bella's apparent maddening scent should have made him a little wilder, no? After
all, Emmett killed his first smellerific human didn't he? so why should Edward be
any different? He is such a weak person that I berate myself for even thinking that
he was a sexy, hot, man. He is neither. We are told over and over and OVER that he
is gorgeous and bla bla bla yet we are not shown anything apart from the fact that
his eyes go from 'onyx' to 'amber' to 'butterscotch' to God knows what else.
Then
there's Bella. Bella Swan, 'beautiful swan', the protagonist of this story. She is
ignorantly beautiful, thinks only of others, is clumsy as a personality fault, slim,
smart, is loved my all boys alike and even the evil-guy has a thing for her scent.
What a textbook example of a perfect character. How can anyone even begin to identify
with somebody like that? She has no real faults apart from the fact that she is 'clumsy
enough to be disabled' which, by the way is a convenient set-up for awe-inspiring
saves by Edward Prince Charming. Here are some real faults in her annoying character.
She is stupid. Seriously, she would put half the population of dumb-people to shame;
she goes to meet the baddie blindly, with no regard for herself or the fact that
she has a hoard of super-powered vampires to look for her mother,all of whom have
better resources, better strength, intelligence and power than her. But no, she has
to save her mum herself, because she's really strong herself. Right. Not to mention
she is stuck up, has no qualms about wanting to be a monster, gives no thought to
the fact that she would be a danger to the human population should she turn and is
overall very selfish. Bella Swan is a most detestable character.
Now, at sixteen,
I see that this book misrepresents the whole YA genre. It depicts immorality, and
although the writer attempted to write a sort of clean, 'virgin' vampire novel, she
merely ended up with a book that will, in a few years time, be forgotten completely.
I am ashamed to think that girls my age and older will think that this book is anything
less that a piece of well-written trash. I understand the pull that this book has;
it's a romance for young teenagers who are bored with their life and want a romanticized
version of theirs but really, there are books out there with much better substance.
Everything about this book was luke-warm. There was no scorching-hot themes that
were explored or Ice-cold concepts that were shown. It was nothing more than an attempt
at being good.
What irks me is the comparison with J.K Rowling. It is truly pathetic.
Granted, Rowlig isn't the best writer but the world she had created was beautiful,
and comparing Meyer with her is an insult.
I hope that young, intelligent people
my age will not be sucked into this lie. There are far better writers out there who
can execute their novel explosively and give you something to think about, rather
than a sour taste in your mouth.
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