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153 of 173 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bite me!................, 7 May 2009
This is YA fiction and I'm not even close to the target audience. It's been a lot of years since I belonged in the 'teen' category BUT... despite that, I loved this book! I think it might be because the 17 year old that I once was is still fresh in my mind, and if I squint when I look in the mirror I can still see her (she just got better looking over the last couple of decades *grin*).
A five star book for me is one that I have to tear myself away from and this has to be one of the better 5 star books I've read recently. I could not put it down, regardless of whether I fit in the target deomographic or not. I have no idea why I was so enamoured with this particular story but it just grabbed me, literally from the first chapter. It has it's flaws, and at times those flaws tried to pull me away from the pages while I wrestled with my beliefs but never did I feel like I couldn't go on. I'm actually mystified why this is such a great book, I wish I could put my finger on it but it escapes me. I am fond of a bit of vampire lit, it's true, but this goes beyond that....I think. I can't say the writing is superlative so it's not that.....but what is it? I wish I knew. Answers on a postcard, please.
Bella is a complete feminists' nightmare and I can see why that would put a lot of people off of her, but at 17 love is blind so I'm willing to forgive Bella on that score. Edward is so uber male that he fairly reeks testosterone and again, that may grate on some readers but lets put things in perspective, he's the ultimate predator and has had nearly a century of dominating his prey so on that score I'm willing to forgive him his overly masculine nature for now, this nurture/love thing is new for him too.....he'll get it right eventually I expect.
Ultimitely, lets not forget that this is a tale of vampire love which is aimed at teens/young adults and the usual complexities and concerns that come with real life won't apply here. I for one am glad to slip into Bella and Edward's world and remember what it was to be young and in the throes of first love. If you have an imagination and are willing to suspend your disbelief then you might enjoy this story. It's an enjoyable bit of fulff to while away a few hours/days but if your usual reading material tends to be the classics and nothing more, then you probably will feel the need to return here with you own 1 or 2 star review.
I have books 2, 3 and 4 lined up here, ready to devour and if they go as quickly as Twilight then I'll have completed all 4 in about 3 more days. I want to tell everyone to read this as I loved it so much, but I realise that everyone has different tastes so all I can recommend is that you read the reviews and make your own mind up from there.
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55 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed, but enjoyable., 31 Aug 2008
Now let me give Twilight haters this. Almost every single thing the negative reviews said about this novel is true. It really is. What are the negative things said about it, you ask? These are the most common observations I read when I read countless negative reviews and things I had also picked up myself whilst reading:
* It's unoriginal.
* The prose is overly filled with adjectives, mostly describing how beautiful Edward is, and constantly reminding us of that fact on every single page.
* The narration is overly detailed. e.g. the narration tells us that she gets up, brushes her teeth, what tooth paste she uses, what corners she drives round, which parking place she takes, what she has for dinner, how she cooks the dinner, and the list goes on.
* The vampire myth, or its world, does not have very much depth.
* We are reminded, far too often, how dangerous Edward is.
* We know at the very first page that Bella hates rain and cold, and that she is clumsy, and yet the author insults are intelligence, also reminding us of this on every page as if we might forget.
* Bella has no personality.
* Edward has no personality.
* Actually, nobody has a personality.
* The love that Edward and Bella share is completely superficial.
* The tone of the novel is inconsistent (pages 1-300 are completely different to the pages 301-430)
There is an element of truth in all of these points, though I would like to contest some of them, if only a bit mildly. The first and most common criticism is its unoriginality. At its bare bones, it is a teenage romance novel. It is what it is. Yes, it is unoriginal, but it was not trying to be anything new and amazing, and why is it things have to be original these days, anyway? I commend anyone that can come up with anything completely original, but also I'm not sure why unoriginality equates bad quality and vice versa. It boggles my mind.
The second point I want to contest to is Bella having "no personality". I cannot help but think that it is up to the reader to see something in her, or to relate to her somehow, because I did not see the non-personality. I saw a frustrated, lonely, but, emotionally, a typical teenager. I do not know what her haters problem is, I can only guess, I only know that I disagree. As to the rest of the characters, the narration did keep mentioning different names and I could not determine the difference between them all - they were pretty lifeless. Character development is not this novel's strong point.
The third and final I part I want to disagree with to a degree is that Edward and Bella's relationship is completely superficial. I am not disagreeing on the grounds that they fell in "love" with one another because of appearances, but I am disagreeing to the point that their romance is typical of teenagers. Meyer is not writing about two adults in their forties falling in love, she is writing about two hormone raged adolescents. What do you expect? Even so, their conversations do begin to progress into deeper meaning behind their attraction for one another; think to when Edward explained why he would never hurt Bella. He explains that her personality, and her nature is unusual, and that is what attracted him to her, why he cannot read her mind, and why he could not bare to lose her - because her mind works differently to everybody else's.
Now, before you think I am flanking to this novel's defense, I will say this simply: This novel is an enjoyable read, but it is very, very flawed for the reasons listed above. The author is far too repetitive and tangential. She seems unable to develop her characters, or give good reasons for their actions; the last 100 pages of the novel feel like they are tacked on from a completely different novel. The "threat" that Bella comes under is too coincidental, out of nowhere and stupid to believe. The author seems to think that her readership are stupid and need reminding of certain things on every page (Bella's clumsiness, Edward's beauty, Bella hates rain, Edward is dangerous), there's no depth to any characters but the protagonist, perhaps Edward too, if we push it. The exclusivity of this novel is also a problem. With Harry Potter I recommended to anyone from my grandparents, to my best friends. Twilight? Would not feel right recommending it to a male. Men reading Twilight and enjoying it seems implausible to me. It really hits its market dead on centre. Everything about this novel is girly, and I think that is a major flaw (only on an aesthetic level, it is obviously very good for marketing and business).
But this book is enjoyable. There must be a reason. Quite frankly, to be overly bothered about its flaws is missing the point a bit. It is just a teenage novel. You would not go and read a Point Horror book and then write negative reviews for it saying how badly it is written, or how obvious the twist was at the end, because most people accept the Point Horror books for what they are, and hey, no one is talking about a Point Horror book, or making a film out of it! People's problem with Twilight is that it is popular, but it is no different to the Point Horror books. It is a novel aimed at teenage girls. Think of a milder and ever so slightly better written Mills & Boon novel, only with vampires, and that is Twilight.
I noticed the many drawbacks the novel had, but I still enjoyed it, because I am one of those people that like to fall into a nice romance. The writing is easy and accessible, you turn the pages, you're drawn in whilst you're reading it, you want the protagonists to just flipping kiss, you finish it, and you want the next book. Is that not what enjoying a book is all about? It is just a nice light read to tune your brain off too. Who cares if it will not win the next Booker prize? I would fully recommend this to anyone who enjoys a cute little romance and quick, gliding read.
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83 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Twinkle twinkle little vampire, 16 Jan 2009
Stephanie Meyer writes vampire fiction as many teenage girls do -- overblown writing, sexy cold vampires, and a vacuously attractive heroine who serves as the readers' stand-in.
And so it's hardly surprising that her megahit debut "Twilight" is essentially a teenage fantasy about finding the Perfect Hot Immortal Coverboy Who Longs For You Alone. Innocuous sparkling vampires, buckets of pointless teenage angst and a plot tacked on at the last minute leave this one of the more bloodless examples of vampire romance.
Klutzy Bella Swan is oh-so-self-sacrificingly going to live with her small-town cop dad, and is appalled by the student body -- all the local boys decide that (ick!) they like her, and all the girls are shallow idiots compared to her.
Then she's struck by the ash-pale, vaguely incestuous Cullen family -- an especially by the Hawt and Brooding Edward Cullen. Edward doesn't seem to like her much, resulting in much Teen Angst. but when Bella is nearly killed by a runaway car, he somehow manages to zip across the parking lot and knock away the car. Bella eventually figures out that he's a vampire-- a "vegetarian vampire" with the power to read thoughts... except hers.
Despite his fears that he'll hurt her, their smoldering chemistry (and Bella's tantalizing smell) draws them into a relationship... at which point, since the plot has had zero non-teenybopper tension, three two-dimensionally evil vampires enter the scene, intent on hunting Bella. The Cullens whisk her away to keep her safe from this trio -- but their enemies have more than one way to find her.
The book "Twilight" is essentially the eroticized fantasies of a teenage girl, purple of prose and taking itself hilariously seriously. In fact, reading this novel feels suspiciously like eavesdropping on Stephanie Meyer's fantasies of having a hot, sparkle-skinned vampire stalking her on a nightly basis to show his undying love.
Unfortunately there's not much more to the plot than that -- most of it involves Bella and Edward smoldering at each other, and Bella's contemplation of Edward's "scintillating, incandescent" body and Greek-god hotness. Furthermore Meyer smears the entire book in wildly swinging emotions, tepid dialogue, and overly ornate, purple prose -- the descriptions of Edward's chest alone may induce choking and diabetic coma.
After a horrendously silly "meet the vampire family," Meyer belatedly realizes that the book needs more than angst and sparkles and Edward is constantly shying away from Bella's virginal neck (what does that imply about sucking blood from animals?). So she tacks in a contrived subplot about evil vampires who are hunting Bella. Just... because they want to.
And heroine Bella is truly an amazing character -- she manages to be a blank slate for mass fantasy projection, while also managing to be whiny, selfish, snobby and superhumanly shallow (since the only person she cares about is the Hawt Rich Guy). Edward is a suitable mate for her -- he broods, smolders and stalks her to show that he loves her eternally. After all, isn't a bipolar stalker watching you sleep the very image of true love?
As for the other characters... well, we have quirky vampire Alice to add some humor to the story. But otherwise, none of them really matter much except to reflect how awesome Edward and Bella are -- and the villains could not be any thinner if Meyer snipped them from sparkly incandescent skin.
Those who dream of eternal angsty love with an Immortal Hottie may find "Twilight" a delight, but it's no more than a thin, flat guilty pleasure at best.
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