Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unoriginal teen chick-lit: read Margaret Mahy's 'The Changeover' instead, 7 Jun 2009
This is very average teen chick-lit with a basic plot, shallow characterisation and minimal charm. It's also highly unoriginal: Margaret Mahy's fantastic teen novel 'The Changeover' (written several decades earlier), features a romance between a teenage girl and a male witch (ok, not a vampire, but still a dangerous 'other' with supernatural powers).
However, in The Changeover, there's a compelling main plot, with the romance as the sub-plot. This builds up interest and sexual tension in a way that cannot happen in Twilight, where the romance is the main course (literally!) The Changeover is multi-layered, turning the fairy tale on its head; championing feminism (unobtrusively); and introducing characters that you really miss at the end of the novel.
By contrast to Laura Chant and Sorensen Carlisle, the heros of The Changeover, Twilight's Bella is a tedious, self-absorbed, one-dimensional wimp and Ms Meyer doesn't 'show' us how sublime Edward is through clever writing, she just goes on and on telling us that he's perfect and beautiful (if a little bit dangerous). Bella's one unusual feature is that she's clumsy, but does Meyer need to tell us this repeatedly? If she simply fell over a few times during the novel, we'd get the point without it being spelt out.
Whether or not you loved Twilight, please try reading The Changeover, it's really in a different league in terms of writing; plot; originality; themes; and memorability. Sadly, I doubt it has made Ms Mahy as many squillions of dollars as Twilight has made Ms Meyer.
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49 of 57 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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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good idea, poor writing, 9 Jun 2009
I bought the Twilight Saga after I watched the film; mainly because of curiousity as to what happens next. So far, I've read 2 of the 4 books in the series.
Everything happens quite fast and can keep you reasonably interested but,sadly, the writing is so bad and so poorly put together that this would probably be the one and only situation where I would really recommend that people watch the film first and then read the books. The film will set a nice scene for you to fall into if you like... Otherwise, I can easily imagine how these books could be unbearable.
The first two are full of, "I love you, you love me, we love each other... and it's forever" ... I've just started part 3 and, frankly, cannot either see how much longer this can be sustained or where the author is heading with this. Her vocabulary and use of adjectives seems pretty limited and she appears unable to keep up any reasonable descriptions of feelings with words other than, "glared and growled". Neither can she portray people with phrases beyond "ice cold, marble white, looked perfect or Adonis like". This gets very tiring and repetitive after about 3rd time she says, "He glared at me and growled and his face was ice cold". It may sound like an exaggeration but the author truly seems to repeat this in almost every chapter!
All 4 books are pretty thick. On average, well over 550 pages each. And trust me this is a lot of glaring and growling! At the start of book 3, it's still not apparent to me what Edward Cullen is like apart from the fact that his skin is marble white and ice cold, he is a reincarnation of Adonis, he can fly through the forests, and, of course, glare and growl! Similarly, it's not obvious what Bella is as a person apart from the fact that she smells nice, studies well and cooks for her dad.
Before anyone points it out to me, I do fully understand that love is meant to be unconditional and, in reality, it's exactly that. Most of us can't explain why we fall in love with someone and how it keeps going but we also ought to admit that some of us just would like that little bit more from a book.
There are positives to this story. The idea is quite good and could have been a fantastic story had it been written by someone with a bit more talent for it. Instead, it's just an enormous 4 volume set that's written with a "talent" that would make Mills and Boon stories seem eligible for the Booker Prize.
All in all, giving it 1 star purely for the idea and the effort that has clearly gone into it. Also, I can see how certain type of teenage girls can gasp and be mad about this but, generally, I still stand by my recommendation to stick to the films. You won't miss anything at all and at least there will be something nice to look at in the shape of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, both of whom are pretty good looking. At least, you will be able to get some satisfaction from all the glaring, growling and brooding!
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