One of the professional hazards of being an English teacher is that people give you books. If you’re a doctor people always want to share their illnesses with you. As an English teacher 
people constantly start conversations with; “oh, have you read ‘so and so’ book? It was fabulous”. Yeah, don’t care. So, one of my students brought me a copy of “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer and insisted that I read it. Well, normally I wouldn’t have even bothered looking but my bloggy buddy, Jane, over at “What About Mom” had recently done a review and said it was good. Well, I trust Jane’s opinion – a BYU grad and fellow English major.
Well, I’m going to take the easy way out of this review by just linking to Jane’s review because it is much better than anything I could say.
However, I will add my two cents. Although I loved this book enough that I read all 600 pages in one day (yes, I have an addiction). I do have a couple of criticisms. First of all I didn’t think it was as well crafted as a “Harry Potter” or “Pride & Prejudice”. Although the story is interesting, a page-turner, intriguing the writing itself is rather bland. My second criticism is that I thought Bella’s eagerness to accept Edward as a vampire seemed unrealistic. I don’t know, it seems like a person would at least pause before accepting this fact. It seemed she was almost instantly okay with it. Similar to Jane’s comments I too felt it could have benefited from a better editor than whomever she has. I hated the Prologue and thought it was completely unnecessary and felt like an editor’s suggestion.
Having said that, I’m planning on buying the sequel this weekend and I expect my kids will once again be feeding themselves off of the food they find on the floor.
Part of the “What’s On Your Nightstand” Carnival.
I agree on every point. I do think though that it’s truly the mark of a great writer that she’s able to engage the reader (and so very many readers at that) despite her shortcomings. Writers can rarely get away with such things, she gets away with it in spades. Too bad the movie looks terrible. 🙁
Thanks for the link, Beth.
Funny, I got a link from Boyandgirlscouts.com today, too. (I guess that’s what you get when you write about Jamborees).
Best line in your post:
“I expect my kids will once again be feeding themselves off of the food they find on the floor.”
I agree with you–what little I read of your copy at the lake house has me hooked enough to go out and buy it for myself as a reward in the future. Not exactly classic enough that it might stand the test of time, but certainly enough to get me sucked in.
Did someone say it was as good as Harry Potter or Pride and Prejudice? Probably not wise, since you’d have quite the raised expectations before reading it and you’d definitely be disappointed! Anyway, I think the books get better as the series goes on (until you get to the last one, but that’s all I’m going to say there, lol).
I think after reading the entire series and looking back on Bella’s character, I feel differently than I once did. I do think that since there was such a strong attraction in the first place, though, that she would be more likely to overlook his vampire tendency. 😉 Okay, I can’t say that with all seriousness – I mean, vampire? lol But since when did love make sense?
Having said all that, it’s been a looong time since I read Twilight so it’s not very fresh in my mind.
I hate the comparisons it gets to Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice. They’re compelling books, but not well written by any means. I heard a comment the other day that Edward and Bella were the new Darcy and Elizabeth. To even think that is a travesty.