BOOK #4: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Ok, folks: there's a lot of hype and hate about the Twilight series, but I believe that you can't judge a book by its cover. Usually. Seriously, though: before you pass judgement on a book, you should read the whole thing.
This is not the first time I have read Stephenie Meyer's young adult vampire novel: my junior year of college, a friend with whom I had a lot in common (at least regarding the books and tv shows we enjoyed) lent me her hardcover copy, assuring me I would love it. I did not--I made it halfway through and ended up returning the book.
Time passed, I graduated, and moved to New York. The first week in my apartment, my box o' books sent from home had yet to arrive, so I ambled on over to B&N to find some pages to occupy my mind. For whatever reason, I picked up a paperback copy of Twilight, deciding to give it a second chance.
Second time was the charm: I fell in love with Twilight. It's not a particularly well-written book, nor is it terribly original, but there is just something about a sparkly vampire and eternal love that gets to me! From a technical standpoint, Meyer does very well when describing places, but with people she falls into a rut of repeated adjectives; the build of the story is slow, but as soon as she hits a major conflict, the pacing becomes far too rushed for its own good. This is where I'll give credit to the screenplay of the movie adaptation for spacing things out a bit more realistically.
Well, as realistic as you can get when we're talking high school vamps.
On the upside though, I really do enjoy the romantic aspect of it all: in Meyer's premiere novel, she's managed to capture the "first love" feeling of youth, where merely standing next to the fellow of your dreams made your heart get all a-tingly. Cheesy, yes--but it doesn't lessen the fact that the simpler times of having a kiss as the be-all, end-all were awesome.
Final round-up: This is a book you have to read one and a half times before you can judge. Yes, Twilight is a relatively immature, definitely mushy, fabulously teeny-bopper book. But it's awesome, even in spite of its flaws.
Hell, let's just say it sparkles.
No comments:
Post a Comment