Friday, September 5, 2008

The following is the result of what happens when I have too much time on my hands...

The Reasons Why I didn’t Like the Twilight series
Put down your pitchforks and hear me out!


1. First and foremost, Edward is NOT a nice guy! Ok, pretend that he’s not a hot vampire for just a minute. The first time he meets Bella, he is really mean to her. Then when he finally does start talking to her he lies to her. Then he goes around staring at her and physically forcing her to do things that she doesn’t want to do. (Making her ride in his car when she wants to walk home, etc.) Once they start dating, Edward interrogates Bella for hours and hours and then spies on her at night when she’s sleeping. CREEPY! If this were a book about just a regular guy and girl in high school, we’d all be yelling, “Run away, Bella! He’s a crazy stalker!” Now that I think about it, this sounds like the premise of a bad Lifetime movie. Please explain to me why everyone thinks that overbearing behavior in a man is romantic?
Also, once Edward left Bella in New Moon I was completely and totally finished with him. In my mind that was absolutely unforgivable. It wasn’t the fact that he left her that bothered me, but the way that he left her.

2. Bella is annoying. She spends the first 50 pages of the book complaining about the weather in Forks. And then she spends the next 50 pages complaining about high school and all of the boys who are infatuated with her. During the whole first book, I was like what’s wrong with Mike Newton? It just really bugs me that Bella is so shallow that she overlooks Edward’s temper and the way he treats her because he is hot. Well, I can appreciate a hot guy just as much as the next girl, but at the end of the day you want to end up with a man who’s not going to beat you in 10 years for overcooking the pork chops, you know what I mean?

3. The fact that Bella doesn’t end up with Jacob. I LOVED the book, New Moon. I totally and completely fell in love with Jacob. He is a sweet, receptive, reliable guy that becomes Bella’s sunshine. He picks up the pieces of Bella’s broken heart and loves her completely knowing that she may never love him back. (Sigh…) He is her soft place to fall. He tells her the truth, whether it is hard for her to hear or not. Bella can have a normal life if she chooses him. When it became apparent that Bella and Edward were getting married, I just really didn’t care about the story anymore.

4. The fact that the books are marketed toward young adults. I would not want my teenage daughter to read these books. The book Twilight basically conveys the message, “Go ahead and trust your teenage boyfriend to stop himself when he needs to. Don’t worry about taking any precautions for keeping yourself safe.” Ok, I realize that this story is just fantasy, but does a 12 year old girl really get that? Not to mention all of the secrecy from Bella’s parents, and how much time Edward spends in her room and in her bed.

5. The fact that despite all of the reasons listed above, I still got sucked into the books. (Can you tell?) I am a little embarrassed to admit that I really did enjoy them. When I first read Twilight, I just didn’t get what all the hoopla was about. But I decided to try it out again, since everyone else seemed to love the series so much. I decided not to be critical of the writing style and some of the messages portrayed and just to make them my guilty pleasure. Once I did that I really did get into the books. I thought that Bella was really relatable (albeit, stupid) and some of the storylines really reminded me of high school. And when the whole Jacob thing got going I was really hooked. I didn’t like Breaking Dawn though- that was just a little too over the top for me. But overall I thought the books were entertaining and a nice break from reality. And in the end, isn’t that what a book is supposed to be?

5 comments:

Melody said...

Yeah, at first I thought Edward was creepy, too! One other result of insomnia is that I spend an inordinate amount of time perusing www.stepheniemeyer.com- and I found it pretty enlightening. She explains how she meant for things to be seen, and there's Q&A's for every book. It kind of changed the way I looked at a lot of things about them. But over all you're right- they are a nice little escape and that's the best part.

Marianne said...

Yeah, I've read a little bit on her website too, and it has made me feel better about the characters and her writing style. When I consider that these books were written by a stay at home mom in such a short period of time, I am so impressed by how good they are. It really is incredible.
And to be fair, Edward did grow on me as the books went along; especially in Eclipse when he made a conscious effort to give Bella more freedom. And of course, he is tasty.
I do love the story even though it didn't turn out how I wanted. I can't wait for the movie!

Sally said...

Hey there! I found your blog on Piele's new blog--your fam is darling! I hope y'all are well.

And I agree with what you said esp about the subject matter and it being geared to youth--it drives me nuts that my beehives are reading/addicted to these books! But at the same time, so am i! We haven't read the last yet, happily--Joe is too busy right now, and we like to read them together. :)

corinne and paul said...

Hi Marianne! Glad I found your blog. So I also got completely sucked into these books this summer and read them all in about a month. I have many of the same feelings as you do. Breaking Dawn was a big disappointment for me based on all of the potential the story had. I mean, it was BORING at the end. I was tempted to skip pages. Plus, everything got tied into too neat of a package at the end. All truly great novels deal with themes of sacrifice, growth, and overcoming adversity. I was annoyed that Bella basically just gets EVERYTHING she wants without giving up ANYTHING - even Jacob. How convenient for him to 'imprint' on Renesme. I guess I could rant about this forever, but I just wanted you to know you are not alone. I hated Edward in the first book too and thought Jacob was a much healthier relationship choice. On a final note, I got really tired of reading about how hot vampire lovemaking is. No way would I let my kid read that last book. Sorry, I got a little carried away here.

Nonie said...

If ever I feel the itch to read them, I'll just come read this post again which doubtless exceeds the books in entertainment value.

:)