Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Twilight, Final Bite

I finished Twilight last night, if anyone had any doubt. I really enjoyed it. The story captures you from the first page and holds on to you throughout the story. I found myself captivated by the vampire family, which is weird because I never thought I was into vampire stories. I know there are readers out there who just love vampire books - so maybe I've been missing something? Or maybe Harry Potter and the LOTR trilogy opened my eyes to fantastical story lines? Whatever it is, I liked the book for the romance, the suspense and the action.

There are so many people out there who love these books. If you peruse B&N customer reviews, nearly everyone gives is five stars. I do agree with some of the semi-negative things I've read about the book. Meyer tends to repeat aspects of the story; the characters seem to have similar conversations or arguments throughout the book. However, this seems to be a similar event with other teen books, especially series (Harry Potter, Traveling Pants, Sweet Valley Twins, etc. all "review" throughout each book and/or the series). I don't know if publishers think teens need the reminders (I don't think they do), but I'm not sure it should be considered bad writing necessarily.

I can also see the point that the all-consuming romance between Bella and Edward is a little unhealthy. If she were my daughter, at 17 I wouldn't feel she's ready to devote her life to a boy. However, we've all been teenagers ourselves and felt that pull toward friends or boyfriends or girlfriends. It's the hormones and I'm not sure anything can be done about it. (Fortunately, though I'm only through one book so I don't know for sure, I don't think the two can get too close and mistakenly have a little half-vampire baby!)

All that aside though, if you read this and just let your real-world thoughts leave your mind and don't think too hard about the logistics (I had to do this with The Time Traveler's Wife, too, before I could enjoy it), Twilight is a wonderful escape. Plus, it's gotten kids to keep reading after Harry graduated. I'm all for that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree - these books are a great escape if you don't think too much about it. There were several things, mostly having to do with Bella and Edward's romance, that annoyed me about the books. I've read all three, and I don't remember what happens in which books, so I won't say wait until you've finished! :)

I love the Cullens, though.

willikat said...

ok, now i feel like i have to read 'em with my two reader pals saying they mostly loved them.