Twilight: Adam's Book Review
I finished reading Twilight last night. I picked it up sometime in August and never got a chance to start it, and then Katy read it and liked it, and since then it has taken off in popularity and it seems like everyone and their mom (literally) has read it. I lost interest in it then, thinking it was just “the next Harry Potter.” Not saying that’s a bad thing, but if everyone else is going to tell me the story do I really need to read it myself?
I’m glad that I did. Because if I had waited, I’d be forced into hearing the actors’ voices and picturing their faces instead of developing a picture of them in my mind all by m’self. Not to mention if I had waited, all the books would have “Now a Major Motion Picture!” plastered all over the cover and, well, I hate that.
So, what did I think? I really, really liked it. It’s target audience is teenage girls, so at times I felt that I should be hiding the cover from view when reading in public. But I felt like I enjoyed the story just as much as they did, and if that and listening to the new Taylor Swift album makes me a bit effeminate, I guess you can call me Queen Mary Polesmoker. But maybe it also means that females are putting out better stuff than any dudes right now.
Speaking of, I think the differences between females and males is kind of what makes this story and consequently is part of the reason why it’s so popular among teenage girls who are trying to figure all that stuff out on their own. Therefore the book should probably be liked just as much by teenage boys, and for that matter the rest of us who are still trying to figure out women (or men), but it’s not as well received with that demographic probably because we’re too busy playing with our dicks to talk about feelings.
I found the theme very disturbing but at the same time very erotic, and I think that’s why women are falling in love with the male lead character, Edward. This is a phenomenon… girls and their mothers around the world are falling for Edward, a fictional character! And I think it’s because what I find so disturbing can also be seen as dangerous. And we all know women love a disturbed, dangerous, sexy guy. ::puts on a tie::
My question, though, to anybody reading who has read the book, is this (and from here on out, there be spoilers, so tread carefully): are the scenes of Edward tracing his nose along her body, stopping at the wrists and neck to smell her blood, and constantly having to pull away from her because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from killing her, supposed to be sexy?
Katy thought not, and made me feel like a perv for thinking so. I see it like this: it’s not necessarily about drinking blood, but more about how Bella is so alluring and tempting that he had to constantly restrain himself around her. Replace “blood” with “sex” (or, to an unwilling prey, “rape”) and you see the point.
The ultimate danger was kind of illustrated early on when they made the trip to wherever they went when she saw his skin sparkle (totes awesome, BTW). He said to her before they left: “let your dad know where we’re going, so I have some incentive to bring you back alive.”
If a normal guy said this, it would be creepy. If a serial killer said this, you’d shit your pants and run the other way. But if a vampire says this, you lean in closer and get all moist because it’s just so dangerous. And more than just the danger—it’s something that makes HER unique, it’s HER smell that’s doing this to him and she loves it.
You would, too.
The one thing that irritated me about the story—but not so much as to take away from the enjoyment—was the fact that Edward is really 107 years old. Vampires don’t age, so even though he appears 17, he’s been alive since 1901 and has the mind of a 107 year old.
Why is no one besides me upset by this? Just because Edward looks 17 doesn’t mean he is. If we picture Edward looking like his true age, the story just gets perverted.
My point is that a 107-year-old man has nothing in common with a 17-year-old girl. I get the whole “love is ageless” thing and understand it, and that’s fine… at first. But when the initial lust wears off, what are they going to talk about?
“Remember the Spanish Flu?” Edward might say. “The Great Depression? World War I, and II? Those were horrid! Do you remember how we had to…?”
“No, Grandpa, I don’t,” Bella might reply, “let’s go drive a hybrid car and Google it.”
Megan brought up a good point to me. She said:
During my reading of the book, I kept wondering if the reason I was falling in love with Edward was because of the type of narrative. I mean if the book had been written in third person-omniscient would I have loved him so intently? Or is the only reason I love him because the narrator (Bella) loved him so much?
How do you feel about Edward? Do you see him as someone you’d like to emulate? Or do you, as a male, fall for him with the same veracity that I, as a woman do? Or are you somewhere in between?
Edward is not someone, as a male, I’d like to emulate. Not just because I don’t really have any appetite for blood, but because he’s the embodiment of an “old fashioned” male. He lifts Bella up and carries her around, attends to her every need, tells her exactly what to do and yells at her when she doesn’t but then immediately forgives her and tells her he loves her anyway. It’s this assertiveness, danger, protection, and forgiveness that I think women (or anybody) find attractive, but a year into the relationship can just be seen as being an overbearing asshole.
Then again, he is a vampire, so human characterists may not be applicable.
In the end, it’s just that he’s a bad boy that you can’t bring home to mommy and daddy.
But I do think Megan has a point in that if the story were written from a third-person perspective, it wouldn’t have been as effective. I’d be curious if the series would have been as successful if you weren’t constantly inside Bella’s head. I’d be willing to bet it would tank, because, really, it’s pretty easy to fall in love with Bella, too.
The bottom line: Stephanie Meyer is one of those authors who truly has “the gift,” and has created a very powerful world with very real characters and done it at a “teenage” writing level so it’s not bogged down with big words for the sake of big words. And that’s something that anybody—male or female—can appreciate.
