Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Twilight series review


I finally read these three books the first week of Dec. but am just now getting around to my review of them. December gets kind of crazy that way.
Every single girl at the jr. high (or so it seems) is either in the process of reading, waiting for, just finished one or more of these books. It seems to be a favorite topic of discussion. In August and September Twilight, Bella, Edward, Jake seemed to be all that you heard. The series was on the best seller lists, copies at the library were hard to come by and you had to be on a waiting list that was almost as long as a Harry Potter waiting list.
With all of that I was ready to be blown away with a great series. I wasn't. Don't get me wrong, it was a good story though it did follow the formula for this type of story- girl moves to new town, falls in love with the outcast boy, they break up she pines for him, they get back together, face danger and resolve it by the end of the third book.
Stephanie Myers tells a good story, I did get roped into the story and want to know what was going to happen next. And her conversations did not sound written, scripted or stilted, they sounded real. But really, that many people live in a town and have no clue whatsoever that it is populated by vampires and werewolves. Bella is the only one in how many years to figure this out? Are the people in Forks really that stupid?
Twilight- I read it in 2 days. I felt like there was a good story there, but I got so sick of Bella's constant whining. As a friend of mine said, "90 pages of good story and the rest is just stupid teenage angst".
New Moon- I could have totally skipped this book. I found it kind of pointless. Again Bella spends the book either moping around feeling sorry for her self and obsessing over Edward (signs of a destructive and unhealthy relationship, some one intervene please!) or she is bent on destroying herself with Jacob's help. I think this entire book could have been 3-4 chapters in the beginning of Eclipse.
Eclipse- Again with the incessent whining and self sacrificing. Come on- Edward is how many hundreds of years old, but he hasn't learned anything about relationships in that time. Surely he watched a few episodes of Oprah or Dr. Phil somewhere along the line. At least he still has his Victorian standards. And Jacob, please, enough of the feeling sorry for ourselves and the macho I know more than my elders and will save the world all by my self.
In the end, these three books were an ok read, an ok story but didn't live up to their hype for me. And they made me so glad that I am no longer in high school and having to deal with the insecurities and cockiness of that age.
Would I recommend these books. Yes.
Would I say that they are a "must read"? No And I would say, borrow them, don't buy them.




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I summed them up to Sharon like this: good story, horrible writing & typos but somehow you wanted to keep reading and see how it ends. Even through her horrid writing, she still taps into that teenage girl fantasy with the story.

I hated Jacob as a character and thought New Moon was pointless, didn't mind Bella as much as others did, thought Edward was a good character. Esme and Alice were my favorite, though.

As for the holes in the story - I thought the town not seeing the vampires was ok. Lots of kooky things happen that I ignore & you tend to see what you want to see. Not a big stretch to me. Besides. We're talking vampires. A little suspension of disbelief is needed, right?

Teenage love angst? Again, pretty realistic, but WAYYYYYY overdone. Not to mention that a high school girl is the least likely to see a 'destructive' relationship (not that I agree with you on that point...not every high school fling needs intervention!).

You aren't the first one to mention how Edward is 100+ old & should 'know' better. I didn't get that at all. Yes, he's been around awhile, but how do your sensibilities stop when you are made into a vampire at 17? He isn't really a 100 year old. He's still 17 in many ways. No matter how many years have passed.

And I'm hoping a little of Edwards Victorian standards are throw out the window with the next one...

ShazBraz said...

WOOOO HOOOO!!!! Sandra, you are my hero!

kris said...

Hi Sandra - I just caught up on all of your posts - my blogging over the holidays was pretty sad. I loved your descriptions of Christmas at your house! We gave a digital photo frame to one of our kids - but I think I may have to get one for here too. It's so true that seeing photos jogs the memories. We received a webcam so we can keep in touch with our new family member when he arrives - I think that will be great (wonder if I can firm up the double chins by April - lol)

Best wishes for the new year!

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!
I think I am the only girl in my high school that would agree with what you said.

It didn't turn out as great as what everybody said.