To Read Or Not to Read: Twilight
Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown
October 2005, 360 pages, $12.99
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight is more than a book series. It’s a lusty demon, I tell you, bent on making me bite into its shiny red apple-butt. Why, you ask, when I have free will… and absolutely no interest in a puffy high school vampire love story written by a Mormon?
Huge sigh.
Well, there was a time, see, when I was the authority on books in my environment. I knew the newest, best, most arresting works that everyone just had to read. You like her? You should read this. Into him? Try her, now she’s really something. And then my followers would go off and read my brilliant recommendations and on we would go, debating, into the night, the world of the book. And I would sit back, feeling wonderful that I had sparked such debate, stirred others’ romance with words.
Now, suddenly, something has invaded my Book Queen territory. And it’s big and red and evil. So popular, so inescapable, so everywhere.
I’m coming to this late, right? Well, this is where it gets interesting ... and annoying. Though Twilight has been around a while, it has only recently found its way over to my circle of friends. And all at once, right now. My best friend, her sister, my junior at work, even my very own sister—are all suddenly buried in the plights of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. And they have four whole books to discuss—massive books, that I know nothing about. See, usually, if a book comes along that takes the group fancy that perhaps I just don’t want to read, I might know enough about its author or plot to scrape by in conversation, hoping that the topic of discussion might shortly shift back to something I’ve read. But it’s just impossible to try and discuss Meyer’s series with my pathetic knowledge that comes pretty much from the film adaptation, which I saw, enjoyed despite the cheese, thought about for a bit—(She’s his heroin?)—and then viciously hated.
I just can’t go on hearing this anymore: “Yeah, but the movie’s different. You’ve got to read the books.”
“Do I?” I scream in my head at these women I no longer recognise, as horns begin to emerge from there earholes. “Do I really?”
And it’s not just Twilight. They all read Meyer’s The Host, too. And sat around discussing its apparently super-amazing ending that I now know, but have no idea what makes it so amazing. It’s killing me, this inability to weigh in on the debate. You just can’t steer a discussion from Stephenie Meyer to Jane Hamilton the way you might get a Patricia Cornwell discussion over to Dennis Lehane. I don’t quite know what to do with myself. It’s like The Da Vinci Code all over again. And, yes, I cracked on that one and suffer to this day.
Do I do it again? Do I—gasp, swallow, choke—read the books myself?
Could I?
What harm would it really do?
Comments
The first book is actually not bad, and the movie adaptation did condense things a bit too much. Speaking of heroin, Meyer must sprinkle some in her ink because once you start reading the book, you are compelled to finish them come hell or high-water.
I however, dropped out with the second book. While I got through the first without noticing any sexist, outdated ideals, they are bright red flags of them in the second book. And, the story just isn’t interesting after that.
If you want to talk about things with your friends, let me tell you the ending to the series (I know it, thought I don’t care).
“And they all lived happily ever after.”
There you go.
Comment by Brandon from NC — July 15, 2009 @ 10:07 am
I didn’t even realize these were *books* when I saw them stacked up in bookstores everywhere (long before the movie); I thought they were just decorative tchotchkes for teenage girls’ bedrooms. For the life of me I can’t imagine how the series could possibly be good to anyone with real taste and experience in literature, except as the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Meyer herself said she knows nothing about the vampire genre, barely even able to tell the difference between Lugosi and Lestat and The Lost Boys. Ugh. From the bits I’ve read—in reviews on Amazon—they sound like 10-generation Anne Rice fanfic written by subliterate 12-year-olds. Good luck on your decision.
Comment by Will E. from Raleigh NC — July 15, 2009 @ 10:08 am
Hold out. I still haven’t read Harry Potter, and it’s because in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s safer to be the only person who hasn’t read something than the only person who read it and hated it.
Comment by Rachel Balik — July 15, 2009 @ 10:33 am
The books really won’t take you that long. I enjoyed the first one, disliked the second one pretty intensely, yet hung in there to finish out the series before the first movie came out and distracted everyone. They are indeed a guilty pleasure, and over pretty quickly if you just set aside a bit of time.
Then again, I feel confident that the next big thing in teen fiction will be here before we know it. So you could hold out and start scouting for that so you can be ahead of the next curve.
Comment by Lara from Halifax, NS — July 15, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
The first novel is a swirling vortex of boredom with moments of eddies of skin-crawling (and probably unintentional) creepiness. The characters also came off as somewhat more likable people in the movie, too.
Comment by Amy from Houston, TX — July 15, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
As your sister, I’m not sure how I feel about you mentioning me in your article as obsessed with this series! Heh heh, nah, not fussed. But now I feel the need to add my two cents: I enjoyed the Twilight series for its entertainment value and that, at first, it took me back to the self-centered, self-labelled martyr filled with teen angst (read hormones)I think I was at 17. And, yeah, I wanted to know what happened next. However, I worry about the influence Stephanie Meyer’s narrowly defined gender roles have on today’s teens who are obsessed with her books. And these continue in The Host. Is this a product of her religion? I don’t care what religion you are, but I do worry about the messages others take from your work when you are so popular with an audience who might not understand where you are coming from and take your word as gospel (so to speak). We just seem to take steps forward and back in the whole gender role thing and I realise this has been happening since ancient times and will likely continue, so who can blame Stephanie Meyer? She is just as much a product of her environment as the rest of us are. If I can let this slide for a minute, I will say that the best thing about these books is that KIDS ARE READING! And my friend’s 13 year old and I have had some interesting discussions about the content of the Twilight series, including discussions about religion and philosophy. So that’s what I’ll try to focus on.
Comment by Kelli from Vic Aus — July 16, 2009 @ 6:15 am
I do think it’s interesting that you would give the fact Ms. Meyer is a mormon as a reason not to read her book.
Let me restate your statement to illustrate
I have free will… and absolutely no interest in a puffy high school vampire love story written by a Mormon?
I have free will… and absolutely no interest in a puffy high school vampire love story written by a Jew?
I have free will… and absolutely no interest in a puffy high school vampire love story written by a black person?
Comment by Mark from Alaska — July 17, 2009 @ 11:28 pm
I suggest you start where I started, with “The Host”. It’s one book instead of four. If you don’t like it, you likely won’t like the “Twilight” series either, which I read after “The Host”.
The emotional power of “The Host” took me quite by surprise. I don’t recall ever getting so wound up in the fate of a character. I nearly took a day of vacation to avoid having to take a break reading it. I have never done THAT before.
I enjoyed the “Twilight” series, too; although, I didn’t react to it as strongly. I think “The Host” is a better written book with more compelling themes, especially what it means to be human. The main protagonist is an alien who slowly, but surely learns just that.
Comment by George from TX — July 29, 2009 @ 4:27 pm
I like the way you write. And yes, I too understand your apprehension about falling prey to the charms of Bella and Edward. I fought it for a long time and finally succumbed but promised myself that I would approach the whole thing from a strictly intellectual angle. What interests me the most is why so many women actually LIKE Bella. I mean, she is not exactly a stellar example of feminism or for that matter exceptionally talented or witty. And then I came across a discussion on Shmoop (by the way an excellent site for other more weighty novels as well) that mentioned that Stephenie Meyers had in fact purposely created Bella to be so – well, ‘average.’ For the author, this was her stab at ‘Everyman.’ The fact that Bella was just an ordinary teen with an exceptionally extraordinary love interest is what gets the reader hooked. The possibility of this happening is what drives her millions of fans onwards and makes <a href=“http://www.shmoop.com/twilight”>Twilight</a> the unprecedented hit that it is.
Comment by Jady Card — August 21, 2009 @ 7:55 am