I finished the Twilight series yesterday after approximately one and a half weeks of reading absolutely every chance I could get. I stayed up past my bedtime way too many nights in a row. It will be nice to get a good night’s rest tonight. And my husband will enjoy having conversations with me again. But, yeah, they were good books.
I am by no means a literary critic but here’s my basic synopsis:
The story was very compelling and made me thirst (ha!) for more. Stephenie Meyer doesn’t give you all the facts up front. There’s no background and then the story and I think that’s why it’s so engrossing. You have to keep reading to just understand what the heck is going on. The fact that it was written in first person had an impact with how involved I got with the story, too. I think subconsciously you can identify with/as the main character when the story has all those “I”s in it.
What I really liked was that it wasn’t your typical vampire scary story. I can understand why Stephen King didn’t like them. There are no gory details about the blood being drained from a victim’s body – in fact, there was almost no time devoted to the actual vampiric acts. This really is more about the “against all odds” love story – which is why I would readily label this as chic lit. But be prepared for the story to be predictable, almost too often. If you boys can get through the first book, the last three are a bit more action packed.
My biggest complaint was the grammar, though I suppose you could argue that Stephenie Meyer meant for it to read like a teenager was actually telling you the story. I just have a tendency to get hung up on the “who/whom” thing. And everyone should use “neither” with “nor” not “or”. But that’s just me.
My second biggest complaint is that there were a few times when I wanted to punch the main character because she was sooooo dramatic about some seemingly trivial things, and not dramatic enough about more important things – like finding out your crush is a vampire, or your best friend is a werewolf.
I think it’s a waste of time to try to compare this series to Harry Potter, so don’t bother. And I don’t think I’ll see the movie anytime soon. The reviews were poor and Cedric Diggory would not have been my first choice to play the lead vampire role. Plus I don’t think I could handle the reportedly cheesy special effects. Maybe if the second one gets better ratings, I’ll consider it.
And, by the way, you should NOT let your fifth grade daughters read these books – especially the last two. Most of the subject matter is inappropriate unless you are ready to answer a lot of questions.
