My Love Hate Relationship with Twilight

(Warning! There will be spoilers.)

I read Twilight for book club a few months ago. I hadn't really heard of it before then, except for my youngest sister maybe mentioning it in passing. I didn't really know what to expect; I had no interest in vampire books. Boy was I in for a ride.

I couldn't put it down. I tore through the first book in a few days, picked up the next three and subsequently read them each in a day or two. I've irritated M with my alternating pratter and criticism of the series, so I thought I'd put all my thoughts down in one place.

The good
It's an engaging love story with fascinating characters. I love the idea of vampires who refuse to drink human blood because they believe it's wrong and that they can rise above. Each of the Cullens have compelling histories that provide a strong basis for their characters. Bella and Edward feel so strongly about each other that it's difficult not to become emotionally invested in their relationship. Besides, when I was in high school I was the same way... it was zero to sixty in no time flat. The little piece of teenage girl in me gobbled this book up.

But really for me the draw is the vampires and their world. They are immortal, so vampires like Carlisle Cullen who were born in the 1700's have experienced so much and seen so much progress. M and I used to have conversations about what time period we'd like to go back and visit, and we always choose ours based on the achievements of the time. Could you imagine being able to see the Wright brothers perform their first flight, the first flight across the Atlantic, man on the moon, civilians in space... all of them! Or seeing Mozart, Beethoven, Gershwin, early jazz in New Orleans, the Beatles... all in concert! Since they don't need to sleep, they can all work on their skills during that time. One of my favorite things about Edward is that he plays piano and composes his own pieces. Superhuman strength, speed, senses and abilities (reading minds, telling the future, controlling the emotions of the room) are just icing on the cake compared to the experiences you could have if you had all the time in the world. And all the good things you could do. :)

The bad: Twilight as a fantasy novel
Reading through Twilight, I could tell that SM was a new writer. The plot was completely predictable. The writing style was amateur; the structure and phrasing was cliche. It was like something I would have written when I was a teenager. It read more like a romance novel than a fantasy; she was constantly describing Edward's looks (his marbly chest, sultry voice, amazing bronze hair, etc.) and how Bella forgot to breathe when she gazed upon his lovely face. /gag The writing improved bit by bit with each book in the series, though.

Twilight was entertaining, yes, but does not compare with the other fantasy series that I've read. It's missing a few elements - death of good guys (or heck, even a main character), epic battles, good old fashioned dueling. George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series are all at least ten times better than the Twilight series. Even Robert Jordan with his repetition of character descriptions is better because the world is so. freaking. cool. (Sidenote: I really really recommend HDM, has the most intriguing characters of any series because they're all flawed and nobody is clearly good or bad.)

The bad: Bella as a heroine / role model
The feminist in me can't stand Bella. She's pretty wimpy as a heroine. Her strongest trait is that she's a caretaker. She is good at science but never really pursues it. She cooks, cleans, and does laundry for her dad (not that it's bad, just... meh). She doesn't really have any convictions except that she's madly in love with Edward. You can't even claim she threw away her future to be with him, because you don't know anything about her future. She has no college plans, no career aspirations, no particular skillset she's working on. This is not someone that I want my younger sister to look up to or to want to be. Not to mention she forgets to breathe when she gets wrapped up in Edward's good looks. Come on!

Her relationship with Edward isn't healthy, either. He is overprotective and controlling. They are terrible at communicating with each other and end up bickering over stupid things. Edward wants to make Bella's decisions for her (she doesn't put a lot of thought into them anways, IMO). Bella's friendship with Jacob was open, they shared their feelings with each other, were honest and comfortable with each other. That could evolve into a great romance.

My last beef with Edward and Bella is that their relationship is complete wish fulfillment. Bella is your everyday plain girl who doesn't fit in anywhere (sounds like how every teenage girl feels). And then she meets this perfect guy who is incredibly good looking and not interested in anyone but her. He is chivalrous, very attracted to Bella but refuses to have sex, attentive, and interested in her thoughts and feelings. He is willing to deny himself his most base instinct (to drink her blood, because she smells better than anyone else, ever) and put himself in agony to be with her. I don't know ANY guy like that (besides the vampire part). And now all these little teenagers (and many grown women) are lusting after their own Edward and have unrealistic expectations.

All in all, I did enjoy reading them but I'm not sure I'd let my (non-existant) daughter read them. I'll talk about the movie in another post, because this one is already too long. ;) I think that's all, but sometimes in my excitement I forget things. Look out for edits, there may be some. And I'll probably want to add more pictures. whee!