I guess I've always had a little bit of a thing for vampire stories. Other than the Anne Rice books, (shocking, I know-I'm not sure why I never got to them) I have always liked vampire stories, ever since a wise English teacher (and author of his own horror novel) decided to cover Dracula in 10th grade English. I loved Salem's Lot, and The Historian, which came out a few years ago, was also marvelous.
So with all the fuss and fanaticism about the Twilight series, especially since the release of the film, I had been thinking about trying them out. Put off by their hyper girly reputation, though, I kept holding off. For reasons I cannot explain, I finally pulled out the first one, "Twilight", and decided to give it a shot this morning. (My wife bought and devoured all four some time ago. At the moment, books 2, 3, and 4 are on loan to her sister. This has been causing me no small amount of panic, since I am not completely positive I can wait to read the next one.)
A few thoughts-
1. As an adult, there are some groanworthy passages. Teenagers talk with all the heavy, weighted speech of Shakespearean lovers. But when you're a teenager, love is freighted with the weight of tragedy, isn't it?
2. This is the sexiest book with no sex in it that I have ever read.
3. The heroine, Isabella Swan, is utterly precocious. She is much more mature and responsible than, say, Carrie Bradshaw, while only being seventeen.
4. I found a lack of description in places to be puzzling. Things and people are said to be beautiful without really saying why or how they are beautiful.
5. It is easy to see why it is so powerfully compelling to young girls.
All that being said, it is a marvelous story. I loved every second of it, I am utterly hooked and plan to begin reading the second without delay.
It was the author's first novel, banged out in just a few months. She'd never read "Dracula", and never been anywhere near Forks, Washington. I think I even read somewhere that she had not even read Rice, but I am not sure at all on that.
ReplyDeleteI read them all in one shot, ebooks, without a break in between.
Came to your blog by Dmarks. While I'm no longer a teenage girl, I felt like one at the movies watching this.
ReplyDeleteI read all four books in a week, I didn't want to put them down. On the Stephenie Meyer's website, she has Midnight Sun in a pdf file. It's a book written from Edward's side of the story. She was writing it, when the first portion of it was leaked online, and has since stopped writing it. I'm hoping she finishes it up.
Melissa-Thanks for stopping by. I had the same reaction-I pounded through Twilight in a frenzy Friday morning, and am now waiting anxiously for my sister in law to finish the next one so I can pounce on it.
ReplyDeleteDMarks-what E Book reader do you use? I've been thinking about getting one.
Michael: I use a Sony ebook reader, because it was given to me free. But if I were to buy one, I'd get Kindle. I blogged about it here. For one thing, I understand that the Kindle books are cheaper.
ReplyDeleteFor another, it comes with free nationwide wireless Internet and a keyboard, so you can do email and blog with it. The Internet is free, too. The sony has nothing like that at all.
I've been thinking Kindle, too.
ReplyDeleteThey're just so goshdarn expensive.
Wow- you are of one male humans who have read it. I say it that way because I am not sure if this other male could be considered a man. He is a bit... odd. But, you know, not bad really. Just a bit weird. But I do believe that you liked it better than he did.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am indisputably male.
ReplyDeleteMy humanity is sometimes up for debate.
Wow, I'm actually considering reading it because it passed your test...
ReplyDelete