I love reading. It's like a guilty pastime of mine. I'll ready just about anything, provided that I can understand it. I really enjoy fantasy and historical fiction; however scifi, mysteries, and nonfiction are just as good. Granted, I know that most people don't read a lot. Watching TV is apparently so much better. Though the tweens and teens of this day and age are finding that good books aren't so bad. But, I do have one problem: When a book is touted as the "best thing since sliced bread"...and it's really not, I can't stand it.



Like.......................Twilight, by Stephanie Meyers.



Now, I liked the Harry Potter series (the ones I've read so far) by J.K. Rowling. It was enjoyable, her writing style was fantastic, it made you think, and yaddayadda. It had it's down points as well, mostly that it could become too wordy and she kept characters and killed others off who I disagree with, but that's another blog.

Whenever I read the Twilight series, I felt it after reading them that it was very shallow. Bella is so wrapped up in her own life it's sickening and having a character like Edward fall into "puppy dog romance" with her and follow her around everywhere just got old after a while. Mostly everything is from Bella's point of view, so it's really one sided. Yes, she does cook for her father every night (though he managed to do it for, what, 16 or 17 years himself before she came to live with him?), and her mom is flighty (but apparently she knows a lot about relationships and suddenly seems smart when she speaks about them) so she had to raise herself. But, honey child, she ain't experienced nothing I haven't (with the exception of a vampire) by the time I hit 17. Her character is a loner, a thinker, a pretty wall flower. Well, at least that's what I thought when I first read the first part of the first book. But Mrs. Meyers could of expanded on Bella's character so much more than she did. And everyone else's too! It seems that the way she wrote everyone they were just "fillers" for Bella and Edward-who become the stars of the play. It didn't matter what anyone else said, did, or think because "little miss emo princess Bella" was going to have her way!

And on that note, what's with the Cullin's being so damn perfect? I mean, they are all beautiful, rich, and talented. They have expensive cars. They have a gigantic house in the middle of no where full of windows and priceless objects. I know Bella makes an excuse that it was through Alice's gift. To me, that's an excuse, not an explanation. If Mrs. Meyers worked so hard through the mouths of Bella and Edward to drive the point down that Alice's gift varied with people's mind's changing, then how could it be so accurate with the stock market? Unless she saw it crash, or go up, but then again, isn't that illegal? And in today's market, if someone played it like they knew what was going to happen, well, expect an investigation. I know, I know, I'm thinking too much into it. Okay, so that part is a write off. After all, what good guy in fictional stories isn't rich or somehow seemingly all powerful?

So then why is James, the main protagonist character, ugly? Bella commented on how even though he was a vampire, he was still...lacking in the looks department. Which meant he was very bad looking as a human. That's so cliche. Seriously. It's cliche enough to have the good guys rich and perfect. But to have the bad guys linked to a nomadic existence and the main baddy not so good looking when the good guys are all....again rich and perfect, it's ANNOYING. Life isn't like that. Good fiction isn't like that. At least with the HP series, HP himself doesn't flaunt his money like the Cullins do by wearing super expensive clothes, driving overly nice cars, and all.

Plus, the other books really stretched the series out farther than it needed to go. Especially in the last book, I felt there was a sense of her writing just to write. It got really wordy, really detailed, and the story started sucking. Bella gets everything she wants, and even though she endures some pain, she comes out a perfect newborn vampire. More perfect than any before her, apparently. Because, we didn't see that one coming.

Okay, so I've dogged it a bit. Now, why did I actually read the entire series? For "the best thing since sliced bread" it is not, but it had some good points. Mrs. Meyers is good at detailing emotion through thought (albeit emo-ness emotions). She's also good with character interactions and character confusions. Her thing with Bella and Jacob was expertly well written. This I know because of how many people hated Jacob for trying to steal Bella from Edward, when when Edward left her and did such a horrible thing to her. Believe me, having someone leave you when you've wrapped yourself around them so completely isn't easy. I can relate to her feelings. Her way of dealing with this loss is realistic, as is her behavior when he comes back. She loved him no matter what, and would forgive him for anything. This kind of thing happens in real life too, though usually it ends badly. Basically, I read it because the character interaction was good and I had nothing else to do at the moment.

Now, onto the movie.

I loved the movie. The book was a guilty pleasure, as was the movie, but the movie was better. By far. It dealt more with the outside world, not Bella's views. True, some things were changed, but it wasn't so bad. There was still a lack of character development, but the fashion choices sort of made up for it. It seemed that people's personalities were really given through their clothes. However I doubt it's anywhere near the feelings I have for Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. Haha, sorry, but those are way higher up on my list.

I think that if Mrs. Meyers decides to publish another novel she'll need to work more on character development and to not be so cliche with her story lines. Maybe even cut back on what to write. When a story felt like it could of ended at two other points along the way (It could of ended after the first book, or even after Bella had her baby), then let it end. There is always room for more. She could publish a series about Bella's daughter. Or, do what she intended to do before an editor decided to muddle her fun by illegally posting a copy of her early concept for a book that mirror's Twilight by making it from anothers perspective. I've not seen many that jump back and forth between people's perspective and keep it flowing like Mrs. Meyers did. That could be a signature move should she decide to keep going.