[stylist] Book review on the Twilight Series

Tue Jan 3 14:05:21 UTC 2012

I find on the other end, I got into the movies over the book and now reading the books, they are very different, also I feel that it doesn't fall on the coattails of Harry Potter, the original book for Twilight was for more of older teens more like early 20s and the movies were suppose to have an R rating, but due to the fact that they wanted a younger audience to see the movies they tamed the movies down a lot. Harry Potter on the other hand was supposed to be for the younger crowd and early teens. So the stories were not suppose to follow each others coattails.
We love vampire stories in this house, I find the movies quite cheesy, and so does my daughter, who has read all the books, but find the movies lacking quality. Dina is 22

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> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> From: loristay at aol.com
> Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 21:23:01 -0500
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Book review on the Twilight Series
> 
> If the Twilight series aspires to ride the coattails of the Harry Potter series, it fails miserably.  That might be one to review.  I had tried to read the first book of the Twilight series, and gave it up as a bad job.  It appeals to teens, period.  Thanks, Bridgit, for an execellent job.
> Lori
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Donna Hill <penatwork at epix.net>
> To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List' <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Mon, Jan 2, 2012 2:22 pm
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Book review on the Twilight Series
> 
> 
> Hi Bridgit,
> First, you've done an excellent job on this review! I like the fact that you
> not only read the books, but you read about the books as well, and you
> looked at them from so many perspectives. Second, a special thanks for
> saving me the trouble of reading them myself. I've long toyed with the idea
> of finding out what the fuss was all about. As a JK Rowling fan, though, I
> was plagued by the notion that this series was a bit of a "coat-tails"
> series, inspired more by the popularity of fantasy that the Potter books had
> generated than a stand-alone literary contribution. Sounds like I might not
> have been too far off the mark.
> Cheers,
> Donna
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
> Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 5:25 PM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [stylist] Book review on the Twilight Series
> 
> I don't usually jump on board pop-culture bandwagons until well after
> the fact, but in light of the continuing, seemingly never-ending,
> popularity of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, I decided to read
> through her series to see what the commotion is all about.
> 
> The Twilight series by Meyer is made up of four books: Twilight, New
> Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. The entire series revolves around the
> teenage love-triangle between Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black.
> Bella is a human girl who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her
> bachelor father. She meets Edward, who, as it turns out, is a
> ninety-year-old vampire who appears to be only seventeen. Edward and his
> vampire "family" are non-human eating vampires, vegetarians as they
> jokingly call themselves. The Cullen's choose to live off of animal
> blood as opposed to human blood, and they practice being good, able to
> follow a morality not usually an option in most vampire tales. Jacob is
> the son of a chief to a local native-American tribe, some  tribes
> members having the ability to shift-shape into over-sized wolves in
> order to protect their land against the Cold Ones, or vampires, Jacob
> being one who can shape-shift. Edward and Jacob are both in love with
> Bella, but her choice is Edward, though she does harbor feelings for
> best-friend Jacob. The series revolves around whether Bella will join
> Edward's world, A. K. A. becoming a vampire, or if they can live
> happily-ever-after until Bella grows old and dies while Edward remains
> young and immortal, or whether she will choose Jacob, who she loves too,
> but not as intensely as Edward, but Jacob is the "human" choice since,
> though he can shape-shift, he's wholly human.
> 
> Upon cracking the first book open, so to speak, I had to stick with it
> since it had a slow start. Though popular in young adult literature, the
> first person narrative bogs the story down a bit in my opinion. Except
> for the final book, when the story switches briefly to Jacob's POV, we
> are only privy to Bella's, the main character, side of the story. The
> entire series relies heavily on Bella's inner thoughts meaning we end up
> with more of the proverbial "tell" rather than an equal exchange of
> "show." And in this instance, I'd rather have engaged with scenic
> development instead of Bella's thoughts.
> 
> When Meyer decides to actually use some senic development, she ends up
> with descriptions and writing that isn't half bad, but before we can
> revel in this new contribution to the plot, she places us back into
> Bella's swirling, angsty thoughts; actually, it's a bit like finding the
> gate to the yard  finally unlocked, and you step out into freedom,
> taking a deep breath, enjoying the change of pace, but being violently
> yanked, snapped back into the house by a jumbo rubber band.
> 
> For a story about vampires and werewolves, there's very little action.
> I'm a girl, and even I want action. For anyone waiting for a showdown
> with some ass kicking, you will only get a tiny helping in the third
> book, Eclipse, and you will be totally let down at the end of the final
> book, Breaking Dawn, which has a huge build-up with no release by the
> conclusion. Meyer does not stick to traditional concepts of vampires and
> werewolves, and though theoretically the concept behind her inspiration
> seems like a good one, it does not work out in the end. Virginal
> vampires, humans tempting mythic logical creatures, the power of love,
> acceptance... It's just too much and doesn't lend itself to creating
> great young adult literature in Meyer's case.
> 
> Meyers does create characters with complexities, however, unlike J. K.
> Rowling, who Meyers is often compared to, the complexities are too
> obvious, to distinct from one another instead of a blurring of traits.
> Characters don't always feel organic though they are chalk full of
> complexities, as though Meyers is trying to make a point, which she is,
> but it's to obvious to endear these characters to readers, obviously not
> a view held by everyone though, hence the immense popularity of the
> series. It is like when artist skillfuly use shading to create
> dimensions with pictures which blend into one another unable to separate
> from one image to the next. Meyer does not create this allusion,
> however, with attempting to layer complex emotions, thoughts and actions
> in her characters.
> 
> The closest she comes to with accomplishing this feat is in her
> character Carlisle Cullen, leader of the Cullen vampire clan, or family,
> as they think of themselves. Carlisle is a hundreds-year-old vampire who
> has only sired other vampires in order to save them from excruciating
> deaths as he does with Edward who at seventeen, is dying from the
> Spanish flu during the early nineteen hundreds. He teaches them, though,
> and expects them to drink only animal blood and not human blood, which
> is apparently a hunger that disipates after time. Carlisle is a doctor
> who has learned to work around not only humans as a doctor, but to be
> around blood constantly without his animal vampire tendancies being a
> temptation. I found myself more intrigued by this character and wanting
> more, but we learn little about Carlisle other than what I have already
> mentioned here. Meyer's depictions of her other characters fall short of
> the mark in terms of three-dimensional characters though.
> 
> Meyer credits such books as Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet and Anne
> of Green Gables as being her inspirations, and she attempts to employ
> each as literary references to create metaphors, but it's blatant,
> poorly done and usually there's a weak thread connecting her Twilight
> series to these literary giants.
> 
> Controversy  has plagued Meyer's series including teenage abuse,
> manipulative relationships and anti-Feminist ideas. I will not go into
> debating this, though to be fair, some critics take elements of the plot
> out of context making, in my opinion, a weak argument associating
> certain behavior and ideas to such things. That being said, contrary to
> what Meyer has said during interviews, Bella Swan comes across as a weak
> person, not even female, but just person, who is easily manipulated by
> others. Meyer tries crafting moments to enlighten the reader to Bella's
> alleged independent nature and unwillingness to follow anyone other than
> herself, but these moments are eclipsed (ha-ha) by her actions that
> suggest a nature more inclined to following and participating in
> one-sided relationships. And this is not playing to heavily on Feminist
> ideals, though I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with
> that, but Bella is not a great role model for young girls, or any age of
> girls for that matter. In my opinion, I see no redeeming qualities in
> most the characters but Bella in particular. Meyers wants us to believe
> that Bella is a vibrant, independent young woman who actively makes her
> own choices, but this is not how it translates onto the page. She is
> overly concerned with aging, hence a leading reason she wants to become
> a vampire along with loving Edward; she allows others to exert certain
> ideals onto her and she often comes across as the submissive one in each
> of her relationships, and not always in a good definition of the word
> submissive. And while Meyer's characters exhibit moral qualities such as
> abstaining from sex and drugs or vampires who don't want to hurt humans,
> Bella comes across as a weak character unable  to make good, independent
> decisions, and she is so single-mindedly focused on being with Edward,
> she thinks of nothing else, has no other goals, and even Edward tries to
> get her to have more than one goal to work towards.
> 
> Review after review criticizes the series for this very reason, not
> displaying the equality in a partnership, but depicting a young woman
> whose only goal in life is to be with her boyfriend at any cost to
> herself or others, and she sees no other ambition in life. She refuses
> to consider university, though even Edward pushes this idea; she has no
> sense of priorities; she is ready and willing to give up her human
> family, never to see them again, in order to become a part of Edwards
> vampire family; she even stops cultivating any relationships with other
> people her age including Jacob and focuses solely on Edward. Not traits
> I wish my daughter to pick up, and yet millions of teenage girls pour
> over the pages of these books romanticizing the characters and their
> situations.
> 
> Over-all, I found the Twilight series to be to big of a literary concept
> and it just can't live up to it's own expectations. And quite frankly, I
> found it boring. Grant it, this is geared towards young adults, but
> anyone seeking an Anne Rice vampire will be sorely disappointed. Though
> it has its moments, the writing is poor, the characters aren't
> three-dimensional enough and the plot over-extends itself leaving
> readers wanting at the end. I don't recommend this to anyone, young or
> not so young.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
> Read my blog at:
> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>  
> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
> 
> 
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