Finished!
That's not quite the same relief I felt on finishing the Tales of the Otori series, which was a release from a tale that had become somewhat tedious and slogging. Finishing the Twilight series was more like getting to the end of a particularly terrifying zip line--it was exhilarating, crazy, and impossible to escape, but in the end, great to have your feet on the ground again.
This massive final volume is actually broken into three books, a change of format from the other three, which were one book each. It's a little discordant, and I wonder if Meyer was caught unaware by her success and ran overboard, trying to up the ante to something more epic. One example of this is when she used a quote from Empire, a recent military thriller by Orson Scott Card, to open a new section. I can't fault her taste in literature, OSC is one of my favorite authors, but for me the quote was not only jarring (I'd just finished reading Empire), but inappropriate. The conflicts in the two books are of different scales and different focus, and it feels like Meyer is trying to borrow gravitas. On the other hand, the three-book format gives us a nice long escape from Bella's head when the second book is narrated by Jacob. This is very welcome, so I'm not going to complain too much.
Meyer reminds me a bit of the fantasy author R.A. Salvatore. They both tell engaging stories that capture the imagination and create memorable, fun characters. And they both have serious failings in the prose and dialogue department.
One more rant, and then I'll let it rest: I heard a rumor that for Meyer's next book, she was working on a point-of-view switch, where she told her original story from another character's point of view. Okay, so she's an Orson Scott Card fan, and that worked really well for him in Ender's Shadow. So I was thinking, what would be a good character for a retelling of this series? It should be someone who can give us angles we've never seen, and expand the universe and the complexity of the story, so probably not a main character. I decided that Leah, the only female werewolf, would be a perfect fit. The werewolves are an enigmatic group, there's a lot going on in the background that we don't see. Plus, as traditional opposites, they're every bit as cool as the vampires are lame. And Leah's got a personal tragedy that's only halfway resolved by the end of the series. She's also one of the few characters that isn't happily paired up with someone by the end of the series, and she's deliciously nasty to everyone--she'd be perfect. I was quite looking forward to another take on the series from her point of view, and then I found out who the second point of view character actually was.
Edward. The guy who's been there throughout the entire series? The guy who's gone to painful lengths to tell us exactly how he feels about everything, especially Bella? Yeah, that guy :-p And that's probably a good way to sum up the series.
Still reading Twilight :-p Not too much new to comment on for this one, other than a further observation on what's appealing about the books: the series is essentially a fanfiction of itself. (I feel like the term incestuous applies here, but in the interests of making this a quick post, won't try too hard to work it in)
This volume in particular seems to be extremely indulgent with its readers; every scene you want to see, every exchange between the romantic rivals, every vindictive, humorous, and romantic element is fully drawn out, sometimes painfully so, in a way that's usually only found when fans run wild with their favorite characters. Maybe that's common in the modern romance novel? Or is it unique to this series? Do I care enough to do the research myself? No. :-p
Continuing with the Twilight series, I'd say this second book is a actually a tiny bit better than the first, but still continues the original's fine traditions of melodrama and the tone of a dime-store romance novel. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that the advantage is due to Edward's disappearance for about 75% of the book, a happy coincidence that is unlikely to occur again in the series. To be fair, Edward himself isn't quite that bad, but Bella's constant gushing and mooning is.
So, if all I'm going to do is complain about how bad these books are, why do I bother reading them at all? That's the frustrating part: despite the horrible writing and painful romance scenes, I found myself looking forward to this book, and once started, it was hard to put down. That in itself leads a secondary motive for continuing--trying to figure out what causes this effect. I feel like I'm watching both myself and the books under a microscope the whole time, trying to dissect the magic that's made them so popular.
I have noticed a few things. For starters, the non-romantic dialogue can be quite amusing from time to time, not just the so-bad-its-funny stuff. Also, Meyer really knows how to build up a scene: you'll know what's going to happen, and you'll be looking forward to it (or dreading it, sometimes), but she plays the anticipation game, drawing it out and putting you on the edge of your seat. The werewolf/vampire contrast makes things kind of interesting too, and several of the characters tend to grow on you after awhile.
Lookit me, I finally said some nice things about the series!
Yep, I did it. I finally gave in and read the latest fangirl craze that's spawning all the vampire-themed novels, movies and TV shows. Despite the tepid to horrified reviews I'd heard, despite the fact that I've always considered vampire stuff to be rather silly, and despite the creep-out factor I get every time Robert Pattinson shows up on posters and magazine covers, I gave it a try.
Somewhat to my surprise, therefore, Twilight wasn't quite as painful as I expected. Granted, that was partially because it was often so bad that it broke through to hilarious. But not completely.
The story itself isn't bad at all, good enough to have me looking forward to the next book. It's cliched, of course, but stories become cliche for a reason. The secondary characters are well done, and I might even like the two main characters if they weren't so cursed annoying.
Unfortunately, the core of an engaging world and a decent story is destroyed by terrible, horrible, no-good prose and narrative voice. I blame a very large part of this on the first-person point of view. First of all, the main effect of a brooding Byronic hero is destroyed when you only see him from his lover's point of view--Bella only see the good in Edward, which is as it should be. The reader is supposed to see the torment, angst and eventual triumph of good over evil or whatever, but because we only see through Bella's eyes, there's no real development of the duality. Second, you can tell us that Edward is a very good looking guy the first time we meet him, and then maybe once more as the relationship really gets going, but after that we'll remember, I promise. You don't have to remind us in every single paragraph for the remainder of the book. And finally, if you're going to build up to a dramatic rescue and crazy vampire fight as the climax of the book, don't make your only POV character unconscious for the vast majority of it. That was a big disappointment >_<
I could go on, but as I mentioned earlier I liked the book enough to continue the series, so there's really no point in picking it apart bit by bit. One more thing I'd like to share though--one of those so-bad-it's-funny moments:
Ever since these books have hit it big, I've been seeing derrogatory references to "sparkly" vampires--often comparing the Twilight variety to the real bad-boys of modern vampire lore. I just assumed that it was just a way of saying that the Twilight brand were wussy little vampires, too pretty and sweet to deserve the name. Nope, silly me :-p Meyer's vampires quite literally sparkle in the sunlight, as if they had crystalline skin o_O
Really? Sparkles?
