I don’t pretend to be a book critic (at least not in the same way I pretend to be a film critic), but I have just finished the final book in the Twilight series – Breaking Dawn – and the experience was so frustrating that I felt I had to share some thoughts on these books.
As everyone knows, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series has become the biggest book selling phenomenon since Harry Potter. True, Meyer’s books never moved nearly as many copies as JK Rowlings’, but they moved a whole hell of a lot more than anything else. Up until sometime in 2007, I was completely unaware of these books. Then I had the misfortune to be in a Chapters in Toronto one Friday night, killing time before a movie started. It so happened that Friday, Meyer was going to be in that store to sign copies of her books. Although I was in the store at least 2 hours before the signing was the start, you could barely move. The line stretched all throughout the store, packed mainly with teen girls, many of whom had donned shirts saying “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob” (the Edwards, of course, outnumbered the Jacobs). The place, in short, was a madhouse. I became curious as to why, although not curious enough at the time to pick up a copy of the book. I didn’t do that until early 2008, when the movie was announced. As someone who tries to read as many books that are being turned into movies as possible, it gave me an excuse to read the book. While it was a little embarrassing placing a hold on the book at the library, it is hardly my MOST embarrassing selection (that would probably have to be Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks, which reminds me I still haven’t seen that movie).
From the start, I have had a love/hate relationship with the series. My immediate response to the first book was that it was poorly written, and had WAY too much filling. The narrator, Bella, went off on too many rants and inner monologues about her feelings, and at times the insights into relationships seemed to little more than the wistful longings of a 13 year old girl. None of these things really changed throughout the four books – all suffered equally with these problems.
Yet, despite my complaints, and the obvious flaws, I couldn’t help but the keep reading. Normally, I read on the Go Train to and from work, and that’s about it. Even when I’m reading a truly great novel, I have no real problems putting it aside at the end of the train ride home, even on a Friday when I know I won’t pick it up again until Monday. Not so with Twilight. I found myself reading more and more of it at home. I didn’t really like it, but I couldn’t stop reading. That has been my experience with all four books.
The appeal of the books is obvious. They are wish fulfillment for teenage girls, who all want to see themselves as Bella, and all want to fall in love with Edward (or, if they’re smart teenage girls, Jacob). Bella is the perfect substitute for most teenage girls – she isn’t the smartest, the prettiest, the most athletic, the best at anything – she is simply a normal teenager. Edward is the perfect embodiment of the mysterious, brooding bad boy that teenage girls seem to fall for (which, of course, explains why I didn’t have a girlfriend in high school – I was too “nice”). He loves Bella unconditionally, is always there when she needs him, always supportive, and unlike most teenage boys, isn’t obsessed with sex. In fact, the whole first book (really the entire series) has the buried theme of abstinence, and saving yourself for marriage. And Edward doesn’t even do this to protect himself – but the protect Bella! He doesn’t want to hurt her. In short, Edward is everything a teenage girl wants, and cannot find in the boys her age.
The first three books in the series all have a definite structure, definite themes and styles, and
for what they are, they work fairly well. Twilight is about finding your true love, and not being too scared to give yourself into it. In New Moon, where Edward leaves (again, to protect Bella), the book becomes about losing true love, and trying desperately to piece your life back together again. This is when we truly get to know Jacob, who is there for Bella when she needs him. Bella needs a friend, Jacob wants to be more, but how can she when she cannot stop thinking of Edward? The third book, Eclipse, is about the difficult choices you have to make. Bella cannot have everything she wants. She wants Edward to be her husband AND Jacob to be her best friend. But she really cannot have both – it causes too much pain to the loser.
But the fourth book in the series flies of the rails early, and never really finds its way back again. The ludicrous honeymoon sequence, where Edward and Bella finally give in to their sexual desires, is quite simply appalling. Terribly written and conceived, the sequence had me rolling my eyes throughout. (Methinks Meyer will have to answer to a lot of teenage girls, who want their “first time” to be like Bella’s was with Edward, when in fact, that would be impossible – sex isn’t really good for anyone the first time, especially women, but hell, what do I know).
The book sort of gets back on track when Bella and Edward return to the States, her pregnant with a demon baby (although, of course, this leads to a section that is clearly pro-life, and anti-choice, but hey, we live in a free country, and Meyer has a right to be crackpot if she so chooses). It was nice to get out of Bella’s increasingly whiny head for a few hundred pages, and into Jacob’s, who is clearly the most interesting character that Meyer conceived. When we return to Bella, after her transformation into a vampire, and the birth of the perfect child Renesme, things don’t go as smoothly. Meyer builds up to an epic confrontation between Bella’s family, and the Volturri, that never really happens. There’s a lot of talk, and no action.
But there are deeper problems with the book as well. Meyer seems to be too in love with her own creation. She gives EVERYONE the happiest ending she can muster. No one loses anything, no one really suffers. Everything is so pitch perfect at the end, that it’s almost sickening. The exception maybe Rosalie, who becomes an important character in the books first half, and then is all but dropped in the second (seriously, what the hell happened to her? Did they mention her at all in the last few hundred pages? I’m sure she’s fine though, everyone else is).
Meyer stacked the deck from the beginning of the series, making Edward and his family into “vegetarians”, meaning that they only kill animals for food, not humans. She even makes Carlilse, the patriarch, into a humanitarian doctor, who uses his powers for good. There really is no sacrifice for Bella when she decides to become a vampire. Why wouldn’t she? She gets powers, gets Edward, gets immortality. She even gets to keep Jacob as her best friend, and her father Charlie, doesn’t even seem that upset by her transformation (you would think that a father would be upset that his daughter becomes one of the walking undead, but no, doesn’t happen). Imagine how much more interesting the series would have been had Meyer made the choice actually interesting. What if, vampires could ONLY survive on human blood, meaning that in order for Bella to get what she wants, she needs to become a murderer? Now, you have conflict and moral struggle. Otherwise, it’s little more than a game.
But my main problem with the book, and this goes for the whole series as well, as how the books seemed to get increasingly sexist as they went along. Bella becomes less and less of an individual as the series progresses. She becomes so completely devoted to Edward that it’s scary. She lives, it seems, only to please him at every turn. Giving her powers at the end doesn’t really change that. She becomes a character solely defined by the man in her life.
And Edward isn’t even all that interesting. He talks a good game, proclaiming his undying love on what seems like every page, but really, what does he do to show that love? In a different context, Edward would appear to be a crazed stalker, making Bella’s life miserable, and yet she allows it all to happen. There is something undeniably creepy about their relationship. This isn’t so much a love story, but one of crazed obsession.
Bella becomes increasingly annoying as the series wears on. She talks about all the pain she feels, all the suffering and the guilt, but for the most part I couldn’t understand why. Only Jacob really suffers in this series, and by making the decisions she does in the last half of Breaking Dawn, Meyer even robs him of the tragic heartache he feels. Like Edward, Jacob is the seemingly perfect man, and yet, there is something a little off in his devotion as well – not just to Bella but to Renesme as well.
Overall, I can’t say that I regret reading the books. I will be interested in seeing how they turn out in movie form. The first movie that came out last November was probably about as good as an adaptation of the book could be. Yes, some better special effects would have helped, as would a better, less emotionally stunted actor to play Edward. But Kristen Stewart made Bella her own, and a little more independent than she was in the book. We can only hope that she continues to do this in the future. As for me, I’m glad there isn’t another book in this series. It ended with a whimper rather than a bang, but at least it’s over now.
As everyone knows, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series has become the biggest book selling phenomenon since Harry Potter. True, Meyer’s books never moved nearly as many copies as JK Rowlings’, but they moved a whole hell of a lot more than anything else. Up until sometime in 2007, I was completely unaware of these books. Then I had the misfortune to be in a Chapters in Toronto one Friday night, killing time before a movie started. It so happened that Friday, Meyer was going to be in that store to sign copies of her books. Although I was in the store at least 2 hours before the signing was the start, you could barely move. The line stretched all throughout the store, packed mainly with teen girls, many of whom had donned shirts saying “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob” (the Edwards, of course, outnumbered the Jacobs). The place, in short, was a madhouse. I became curious as to why, although not curious enough at the time to pick up a copy of the book. I didn’t do that until early 2008, when the movie was announced. As someone who tries to read as many books that are being turned into movies as possible, it gave me an excuse to read the book. While it was a little embarrassing placing a hold on the book at the library, it is hardly my MOST embarrassing selection (that would probably have to be Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks, which reminds me I still haven’t seen that movie).
From the start, I have had a love/hate relationship with the series. My immediate response to the first book was that it was poorly written, and had WAY too much filling. The narrator, Bella, went off on too many rants and inner monologues about her feelings, and at times the insights into relationships seemed to little more than the wistful longings of a 13 year old girl. None of these things really changed throughout the four books – all suffered equally with these problems.
Yet, despite my complaints, and the obvious flaws, I couldn’t help but the keep reading. Normally, I read on the Go Train to and from work, and that’s about it. Even when I’m reading a truly great novel, I have no real problems putting it aside at the end of the train ride home, even on a Friday when I know I won’t pick it up again until Monday. Not so with Twilight. I found myself reading more and more of it at home. I didn’t really like it, but I couldn’t stop reading. That has been my experience with all four books.
The appeal of the books is obvious. They are wish fulfillment for teenage girls, who all want to see themselves as Bella, and all want to fall in love with Edward (or, if they’re smart teenage girls, Jacob). Bella is the perfect substitute for most teenage girls – she isn’t the smartest, the prettiest, the most athletic, the best at anything – she is simply a normal teenager. Edward is the perfect embodiment of the mysterious, brooding bad boy that teenage girls seem to fall for (which, of course, explains why I didn’t have a girlfriend in high school – I was too “nice”). He loves Bella unconditionally, is always there when she needs him, always supportive, and unlike most teenage boys, isn’t obsessed with sex. In fact, the whole first book (really the entire series) has the buried theme of abstinence, and saving yourself for marriage. And Edward doesn’t even do this to protect himself – but the protect Bella! He doesn’t want to hurt her. In short, Edward is everything a teenage girl wants, and cannot find in the boys her age.
The first three books in the series all have a definite structure, definite themes and styles, and
for what they are, they work fairly well. Twilight is about finding your true love, and not being too scared to give yourself into it. In New Moon, where Edward leaves (again, to protect Bella), the book becomes about losing true love, and trying desperately to piece your life back together again. This is when we truly get to know Jacob, who is there for Bella when she needs him. Bella needs a friend, Jacob wants to be more, but how can she when she cannot stop thinking of Edward? The third book, Eclipse, is about the difficult choices you have to make. Bella cannot have everything she wants. She wants Edward to be her husband AND Jacob to be her best friend. But she really cannot have both – it causes too much pain to the loser.But the fourth book in the series flies of the rails early, and never really finds its way back again. The ludicrous honeymoon sequence, where Edward and Bella finally give in to their sexual desires, is quite simply appalling. Terribly written and conceived, the sequence had me rolling my eyes throughout. (Methinks Meyer will have to answer to a lot of teenage girls, who want their “first time” to be like Bella’s was with Edward, when in fact, that would be impossible – sex isn’t really good for anyone the first time, especially women, but hell, what do I know).
The book sort of gets back on track when Bella and Edward return to the States, her pregnant with a demon baby (although, of course, this leads to a section that is clearly pro-life, and anti-choice, but hey, we live in a free country, and Meyer has a right to be crackpot if she so chooses). It was nice to get out of Bella’s increasingly whiny head for a few hundred pages, and into Jacob’s, who is clearly the most interesting character that Meyer conceived. When we return to Bella, after her transformation into a vampire, and the birth of the perfect child Renesme, things don’t go as smoothly. Meyer builds up to an epic confrontation between Bella’s family, and the Volturri, that never really happens. There’s a lot of talk, and no action.
But there are deeper problems with the book as well. Meyer seems to be too in love with her own creation. She gives EVERYONE the happiest ending she can muster. No one loses anything, no one really suffers. Everything is so pitch perfect at the end, that it’s almost sickening. The exception maybe Rosalie, who becomes an important character in the books first half, and then is all but dropped in the second (seriously, what the hell happened to her? Did they mention her at all in the last few hundred pages? I’m sure she’s fine though, everyone else is).
Meyer stacked the deck from the beginning of the series, making Edward and his family into “vegetarians”, meaning that they only kill animals for food, not humans. She even makes Carlilse, the patriarch, into a humanitarian doctor, who uses his powers for good. There really is no sacrifice for Bella when she decides to become a vampire. Why wouldn’t she? She gets powers, gets Edward, gets immortality. She even gets to keep Jacob as her best friend, and her father Charlie, doesn’t even seem that upset by her transformation (you would think that a father would be upset that his daughter becomes one of the walking undead, but no, doesn’t happen). Imagine how much more interesting the series would have been had Meyer made the choice actually interesting. What if, vampires could ONLY survive on human blood, meaning that in order for Bella to get what she wants, she needs to become a murderer? Now, you have conflict and moral struggle. Otherwise, it’s little more than a game.But my main problem with the book, and this goes for the whole series as well, as how the books seemed to get increasingly sexist as they went along. Bella becomes less and less of an individual as the series progresses. She becomes so completely devoted to Edward that it’s scary. She lives, it seems, only to please him at every turn. Giving her powers at the end doesn’t really change that. She becomes a character solely defined by the man in her life.
And Edward isn’t even all that interesting. He talks a good game, proclaiming his undying love on what seems like every page, but really, what does he do to show that love? In a different context, Edward would appear to be a crazed stalker, making Bella’s life miserable, and yet she allows it all to happen. There is something undeniably creepy about their relationship. This isn’t so much a love story, but one of crazed obsession.
Bella becomes increasingly annoying as the series wears on. She talks about all the pain she feels, all the suffering and the guilt, but for the most part I couldn’t understand why. Only Jacob really suffers in this series, and by making the decisions she does in the last half of Breaking Dawn, Meyer even robs him of the tragic heartache he feels. Like Edward, Jacob is the seemingly perfect man, and yet, there is something a little off in his devotion as well – not just to Bella but to Renesme as well.
Overall, I can’t say that I regret reading the books. I will be interested in seeing how they turn out in movie form. The first movie that came out last November was probably about as good as an adaptation of the book could be. Yes, some better special effects would have helped, as would a better, less emotionally stunted actor to play Edward. But Kristen Stewart made Bella her own, and a little more independent than she was in the book. We can only hope that she continues to do this in the future. As for me, I’m glad there isn’t another book in this series. It ended with a whimper rather than a bang, but at least it’s over now.
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