Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
Book Review: A waste of time and money. Why is this popular?
Summary: 1 Stars
Please don't buy this book. Please. I'm begging you.
I honestly don't know why it's so popular. The writing is juvenile and feels extremely unedited; Stephenie Meyer really isn't a very good author. And the main character, Bella, is a mary sue (an "ideal" character, generally seen in bad fanfic). Nothing action-wise really happens, besides Bella falling into oh so dramatical and unlikely problmes (such as almost being hit by a van and almost getting mugged/raped) only to be saved by Edward Cullen, the main fanservice, who really only likes her because she smells delicious. I was cheering for him to tear her throat out and just leave it at that through the ENTIRE story.
So again, please don't buy it. Really. Don't waste your money.
Book Review: Melodramatic But Quite Good
Summary: 4 Stars
As an adult man, I'm sure I don't belong to this book's target audience. I suspect its intended audience will find it even more compelling than I did.
That said, I did enjoy this book. But I also recognize that it's not for everyone. Other Amazon reviewers have already pointed out how melodramatic it is, and how repetitive the dialogue and emotions might seem. For one example, you might notice how frequently Bella's dialogue and thought go like this: Edward, you are perfect and beautiful, and you mean everything to me.
If simple characters, melodrama, repetition, etc. will irritate you, then I don't recommend this book. I, personally, thought the book was very fun. The melodrama worked for me.
I found myself caring for the characters. I also found myself reading for hours on end, involved in what was going on. I found the love between the characters very compelling - perhaps because of its blind intensity and melodrama. I liked the simplicity of the writing, combined with the complexity of a relationship marked by strong feelings and the possibility of violence.
If this had been a mere love story, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. But it had a clear element of suspense, which propped it up.
Again, this book is not for everyone. It has elements that other readers might consider flaws. But it worked for me.
Book Review: This book should not be as popular as it is.
Summary: 2 Stars
this is the first book i have read in a long time that i did not like. i chose to read this book, since there is so much hype about it, and after reading a pro/con review in the new york times.
first of all the main character is absolutely pathetic. she moves to a new town, and basically becomes the most popular girl in the school, all the boys the auther mentions, except the vampires, are in love with her, and she makes a few good girl friends right away. if this had happened to me i would be pretty excited about it, but she doesn't really express any happiness about being this popular. secondly, i don't see any reason she should be this popular in the first place, since she apparently falls down when standing on two feet and not moving. if i knew someone in real life with a problem like this i would be seriously concerned that they have some kind of muscular disability, and should be evaluated by a doctor. also, this whole town is full of idiots, since they don't realize these "kids" are not normal, since they are never seen to eat, they don't come to school when the sun is out, they are incredibly pale dispite there love of the outdoors, hello people it's pretty obvious. also, how would they not get in trouble for missing so much school in the first place. i also agree with some other reviewers that this relationship it very unhealthy, and sets a bad example. when she first met edward he was a complete jerk, and yet she falls in love with him anyway. he tells her his instinct is to kill her, and she still wants to be around him. why would anybody want to be with someone that is mean to you, and wants to kill you. i could go on and on about the rediculous plot and idiotic characters, but i will finish with the opinion that all these characters have no depth, and this plot is totally unbelievable.
Book Review: Rife with amateur mistakes
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is great -- for people who don't write or who don't know what good writing looks like. Teens will love it.
Twilight is a mess, to put it bluntly. Smeyer is a fanfiction-level writer whose work should never have seen the light of day in its current condition. Did this book even HAVE an editor? Perhaps the editor had taken a vacation when this book somehow missed the slush pile.
Some issues:
1. Bella comments on the weather too much. Yes, we know you like the heat and don't like the rain.
2. Bella hammers it home that she's clumsy. How many times do we need to see her getting dizzy or falling over?
3. Her friends (Mike, Eric, Jessica, Angela et. al.) aren't real friends. They are just there to play off of. She's not really interested in or close with any of them. In fact she seems more annoyed by their existence than anything else.
4. Every male in school was hot for Bella when she got there. MarySue, there's a phone call for you.
5. Edward is too perfect.
6. There's no good reason for Edward to truly love Bella. He likes the smell of her blood, that's all. That's kinda shallow to build a relationship on, no? And Bella -- she doesn't seem to truly like him, she's "dazzled" by him and unable to resist him. Is pretty much having no will of your own in his presence equal to loving him?
7. Bella is never frightened of him enough. Because if she were, that would be very inconvenient for the plot.
8. Edward is always laughing, chuckling, amused etc. The whole thing's getting old.
9. Bella has an extraordinarily good relationship with her parents; she even chose to go to Forks to let her mom spend time with Phil. What 17 year-old would do something like that for her mom and stepfather, anyway? Take into account that Bella doesn't like the dreary weather in Forks; why would she go there? I couldn't see ME doing it, even if I was on great terms with my parents. Maybe for a week, but not any great length of time. What exactly is the motivation there? Did I miss it?
10. There's too much time spent telling me about all the little things Bella does. What she cooks and how, when she showers, more about the loudness of the truck, etc.
11. Edward can't read Bella's thoughts. There's no good reason for this except that again, it would really screw with the plot if he could.
Stephenie is so arbitrary with things. She seems unapologetic about not giving us good reasons for her choices. I want things to make sense! In the words of the X Files or something, "I want to believe"! I don't want to be sitting there wondering why Edward lights up like a disco ball when the sun hits him.
Another thing Smeyer did in the book was write, "My eye fell on the book on the table." Ack. Poor Bella's eyeball fell out! It would have been better to say, "My gaze fell..." Not the eye itself. There are jokes about this ... "She cast her eyes out to sea..." stuff like that.
My next technical problem is that at the end (SPOILERS AHEAD), Bella goes unconscious and when she wakes up she asks what happened to James and is told, "We took care of him." I'm sorry but I would have liked to have experienced the ACTION here. Show, don't tell! One of the main rules of writing. She made her main character UNCONSCIOUS in a first person story exactly at a time when the action was finally happening! We want to see the villain get his! we want to see it all happening -- Edward rescuing her and all! Can you imagine if the movie fades out when Bella does and comes back to have them say, "Oh, the whole action sequence was awesome but you missed it!" No, they're going to have a huge drawn out fight scene! People like that. And with Twilight, it has to be building up to SOMETHING. But it falls flat right at the end. Right when things should be gripping and fantastically fun, it's absolute nothingness!
JK ROwling plodded me through Chamber of Secrets until about 3 quarters of the way in, when everything started happening and when I got to that point it was great fun to read to the end. She has a habit of doing that in the HP books, but I know I'll get that good, fun ending. Look at Goblet of Fire -- all leading up to THAT ENDING! And what an ending it is. Exhilarating and gut wrenching. I *cried*! But with Twilight, I just find repetition (even in these last pages Edward is still chuckling and Bella is still talking about being uncoordinated) and blank spaces. The characters are good but not fleshed out enough.
This book is like a huge outline for a book -- so many good elements but very bad execution. I read it because I like the characters and want to know them better, but Smeyer seems to be stingy with their details. We learn more about Carlyle than Edward or anyone else. I'd like to know each of them better. Some of her explanations are just lame, too. What is with Bella (SPOILERS AHEAD) being all, "I don't care if I have to go through 3 days of agony to turn into a vampire and forsake my whole family -- I just want to beee with yooou!" That's a huge choice to make and she makes it so easily. She's like a stubborn child.
This could have been a good book if only a team of editors ripped it apart and took out all the fluff, filler and cliched writing. With so many truly obvious mistakes, I can't believe Smeyer has a degree in Literature.
Book Review: LOVE LOVE LOVE
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a simply phenomenal book! Well written, interesting, and spectacular! It is so much more than a "vampire romance".