At first, I really wasn't sure how I felt about having to read Twilight. I had heard a lot of bad things from my friends about the book, though I did hear some good things from other people. Most of the bad things I have heard came from my friends who read a lot and seem pretty knowledgeable about what is good writing, while the ones I heard good things from just seemed to be obsessed fan girls with no real reasons why they liked it, except for saying Robert Pattinson is awesome. Perhaps maybe I didn't ask them to go in detail, or that was their reasoning. I don't know.
When I finally started to read the book, I realized that my friends who said the book was not so great, were right. There a lot of reasons why I think this and I will go over them. First off, I think that what was most frustrating is that the book really isn't about vampires at all. It's simply a love story with vampires conveniently making Bella's love interest more than just that great guy she's in love with, to something more. I notice that just when you think something really cool and fantasy like is going to happen, they direct the action to something a lot less interesting. Just when you think it might be neat to see what happens when Edward goes out hunting animals, he tells Bella he doesn't want her to go, and then there is the boring story of her day at school. Because of this, I'm having a hard time figuring out why people are so obsessed with vampires due to Twilight. The books are hardly about vampires at all. Its more about Bella's boring dating life and high school relationships. Another thing is that Bella has a tendency to ramble on and on about how awesome Edward is. It makes me wish it was done in a different way, or at least that she would describe different parts of him each time. That way, we could get a more detailed picture of what he looked like as the book went on, opposed to getting a detailed picture of what the color of his eyes look like. To go with that, a lot the book is describing something, and not enough action. A lot of the chapters were just conversations between Bella and Edward along with some vaguely intimate moments. Most of the conversations entailed how much they loved each other, but it was forbidden, but it still needed to continue. That part just didn't seem to make sense. It seemed so contradictory. To sum up my thoughts, I thought the book was really cheesy and didn't make sense. There was so much they just seemed way too convenient, the conversations were really sappy, and there wasn't enough that really happened in each chapter except boring high school drama that I no longer relate to.
I think these are valid criticisms. We should speculate in class what makes this such a phenomenon, considering your (and other's) criticisms.
ReplyDeleteWhile I may disagree, I think you make some valid points. However, I do have actual reasons for enjoying Twilight, ones that dont involve Robert Pattinson :] I think there is something more than the "average love story" in Twilight than others find.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that this book was too much on the high school relationship part, but hey there's a reason it sold so well. I also was annoyed with Bellas constant rambling about how awesome Edward was.
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