Twilight

i don't know what i can say that others haven't far better than i could. (then i go and write a freaking essay on my random twilight thoughts, go figure) There are many obvious issues with this book that i was aware of when reading for the first time but many that went over my head.
it's so unrealistic but at the same time knowingly how deeply (and stupidly) i loved at 17 I'd probably throw it all away for a hot vampire boy i didn't know too
i read this at some point between 2006-2008, i don't remember much of what i thought at the time. i wasn't as into it as some of the kids at my school were but i read them all and remember talking about them with my friends.

a year(?) ago i watched this youtube video called something like ‘sorry smeyer' about how she got absolutely bodied for stuff which was kind of out of her hands (basically that she was writing wish fulfilment and wasn't trying to be a model to young girls or best seller) and how while there are some questionable things in the book she didn't deserve the strength and amount of hate she got. it was an interesting video and must have planted a seed. two months ago i randomly watched the first twilight movie and unintentionally ‘ironically' got back into twilight. i found all the Twilight memes from the tumblr Twilight renaissance which had been going strong for a few years i guess. and discovered that midnight sun was officially published. i read it because i didn't want to reread the whole series but wanted to remember what fandom was talking about. i watched all the movies in a few days while i was recovering from my covid vax and a fun time was had by all. i ended up deciding to listen to twilight when i needed a break from ‘serious' reading. (hey, I've read much worse for dumber reasons)

reading midnight sun made me appreciate Bella's character a lot more this time around as she had more of an obvious personality. While it was hilarious to read from Edward's perspective it really hit home all the fucked up stuff he does (wish i could remember what teen me thought about Edward watching her sleep). i just feel so sorry for Bella. she's infatuated with a guy who is terrible for her, the only thing she seems to appreciate about him are his looks and mysteriousness (no judgement i was obsessed with a guy in high school I'd never spoken to lol, being a teen is fun) and then when unexpectedly they get together the only thing they really do is stare into each other's eyes and tell each other how much they love each other. except when edward tells Bella she's stupid and puts her down. :( like Bella IS being stupid but that's no excuse Edward!!!
The fandom for this series is so fun and im glad it's become so far removed from the author and the less savoury things in the story. i mostly enjoyed myself while reading this book but the most interesting part was the beginning when she was figuring out wtf Edward was. The longer it goes the more infatuated she gets and i feel bad for her, she really needs good friends. by the time we get to the james stuff i was

I am long past the stage of being a Young Adult - being over the 30 threshold however I having been a fan of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles who's grown a little bored of them I was keen to read this book to see if it offered anything akin to the joy of Rice's earlier vampire novels.

I managed to devour this book in a weekend, which having two young children under 5 is no mean feat. It is testament to the joy of Meyers writing and characterisation. The story of Bella, a young teenager trying to fit into a new town and finding herself drawn to the unusual and enigmatic Edward is outstanding.

It is a beautifully written novel, the way in which she builds the relationship between Edward & Bella is a joy to read, the protection which Edward shows towards Bella and the ways she writes about their first kiss and embrace is fantastic as it's a combination of Bella discovering her first teenage love but also hints at something much greater than just teenage love. The sleeve on the book indicated that this would be a relationship that would remain with me past the turning of the last page and they were not kidding. I have been blown away by Meyer's writing and cannot wait to read the next book.

It was great to read a vampire novel that for once wasn't drawn down by trips back to ancient Rome or Greece and without the need for us to endlessly revisit how vampires came to exist. Meyer keeps it light but with enough information to satisfy the reader - a welcome and refreshing change!!!

2.25/5 stars

I would take the time to write a long, detailed review about this book, but I'm pretty sure you already know everything. I mean, I don't know how you would know. It wasn't like this book was insanely popular or anything...

Just in case you haven't heard of this book before, the plot is pretty much:

Super special pale snowflake moves to boring rainyland where she meets super “hot”, mysterious, and controlling disco ball. After about two conversations, she realizes he's a vampire and she loves him.

That's it. That is the entire book.

What a revolutionary story.

Why did I agree to buddy read this with all these hitches? I'm never listening to any of them again.

Maybe if I wake up tomorrow and feel like complaining, I'll write a longer review about how much of an asshole Edward Cullen is. But like I said, you probably already know just how much.

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Have you guys ever read this? I've never even heard of it before.

Buddy read with these hitches fellow Jacob Sartorius lovers:
dingoes are really young lions
harry styles hater #1
harry styles hater #2
the person who still hasn't played psych with us

✧Twilight Book Review✧

Official Rating: ⭐⭐⭐


What can I say?

The first half of the book was pretty intense & intriguing, but the second half...Miss Meyer, please tell me why you put your action-packed conflict at the very end of the book. It felt rushed and like the ‘danger' Bella wasn't actually dangerous. It felt idiotic.
Worse, Bella & Edward obviously didn't develop at all, because they're still arguing over Bella wanting to be with him. By the end of the book, I was annoyed with both of them.
I'm reading New Moon next, and if the movie is at all accurate to the book, I'm going to be rolling my eyes the entire time.

I'm not a Twilight hater. Actually, I decided to pick up the book after watching the movie. But as people say “don't judge a book by its movie” I decided not to judge the book just because I didn't like the movie.

Unfortunately, the book didn't impress me... At all. I couldn't help but hate Bella. She's a character I can't relate or even understand. She falls in love so freakin' quickly! I couldn't find any reason for her obsession with Edward. Ok, no. I got it at first. You know, he does weird things and that's what has her intrigued, but then there are no more reasons! I'm sorry but she's just so dumb and her story is not interesting enough to follow.

Edward is... well, I still haven't figure out my feelings toward him. He's mysterious and I'd like to know more about his past. However, I'm not fully interested.

Actually, Alice is the only character I'd love to read about. Her story is captivating and she is so quirky and unique! I think she would have been a better protagonist than Bella. But too sad she's a secondary character.

In conclussion, nope, I didn't like this book. It was boring and dissapointing. I won't continue with this series because I have no reason to do it.

I find it hilarious that Twilight is both on the best books of all time list and the worst books of all time list. I personally subscribe to the latter train of thought. Bella is a cookie-cutter, Mary Sue damsel in distress, Edward is creepy and honestly at times a bit abusive, and Jacob is just....he's just annoying. Lord, I have tried this book probably three times and have never gotten past 50% of it.

Seriously disturbing!! I had no idea. I cannot get over how this book is, to quote Neela, “domestic violence city.” It is all a metaphor for an abusive relationship, down to the victim having to alter her behavior (basically restrain her sexual desire) so she doesn't provoke the violence (blood lust) in her boyfriend. God there's some archaic biblical views of womanhood in here too, with the female's primary role as temptress. This book is like a train wreck you can't turn away from. I am going to read every single one of them too.

I'll be honest here. The movie didn't entice me. My friend's horrific review of the movie was more than enough for me to stay away from the movie itself. However, the book piqued my interest. I saw a girl reading Twilight in the train and she was so engrossed with it that she missed her stop. So I decided to give the book a chance.

I WAS interested in the beginning, in the early part of the book. But after some time, it began to wear me off. Yes, the characters are all interesting, except for the heroine herself, Bella. She's irritating to me. Should I see the movie, maybe I would scream.

And then, the way Ms. Meyer kept going on and on and on about how perfect Edward is. She glorified his beauty and perfection in every chapter. Edward is so painfully perfect that it is nauseating. The way Ms. Meyer gushed about Edward, one would thought she herself is in love with the character she created.

Overall, I found TWILIGHT to be just about ok. Francine Pascal could've done better though, in my humble opinion. The story is there, Stephenie Meyer need to concentrate more on that rather than perfecting Edward in every sense and aspect.

I really wanted to like this book. I like vampire stories and I wanted to be really into a series so I could look forward to future books in a series.

But I didn't.

The book isn't horrible. I understand why people like it. If I come across the future books in my library or get a chance to read them for free I probably would. I think it's great that these books are encouraging more young people to read. I credit a lot of my “success” in school to reading when I was younger.

My major complaints about the book (without spoilers):

Bella. I couldn't stand her. I kept hoping that I would like her personality more as the book went on, but I really didn't. She was a bummer and it's rough when the main character is a bummer.

Certain things seemed glazed over. It was like she took such a long time setting up the beginning that she needed to cram all of this stuff into a small number of pages.

The end. The end really killed it for me, more than I thought it would.

Maybe I would've liked this book better if I was younger, which is the target audience.

Never read when I was younger and needed something simple and easy as a break after a May readathon with my book club and it was surprisingly pretty good. I can see what all the hype was about and my inner teenage girl really enjoyed it. Only downfall was I have seen the movies so I kept picturing the actors and that is always a bit of a drag for me.

BLUF: If you go into this book decided that you wont like it, you're probably right.

I put everything I heard about this book aside before reading it. Truly.

Twilight follows Bella Swan after her recent move to a small town in Washington. Despite the social awkwardness and isolation she held at her previous school, she is popular from day one. Blissfully unaware, she begins hanging out with Edward Cullen, a handsome and mysterious outcast. After they begin dating (and she learns that he is a vampire), life becomes interesting. From surprise dates to fleeing from a dangerous vampire duo, can Bella's heart take the heat?

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in, but I enjoyed the overall story. While Bella is a character overwhelmed by her emotions, her relationship with Edward was puppy dog cute. The way that his family accepts her despite the circumstances and actually goes out of their way to help her makes for a good story for survival.

Bella: Okay, okay, I will admit, the main character wasn't very interesting. I found it very hard to believe that she was popular among the boys and so absolutely clumsy. She was also very self-centered. When she was in the hotel room with Alice and Jasper, she didn't ask them any questions about themselves or care about their feelings – she only concentrated on herself and acted out in an extremely immature fashion.

Controlling Relationship Much? I would flip out if somebody demanded that I drink or eat, especially at the beginning of a relationship. I would run. If not then, I would definitely run after they admitted to stalking me. It bothered me how submissive Bella was – she is definitely not your strong typical woman lead character.

Sparkling Vampires: I'm going to be honest, I don't really care what characteristics authors add or take away from their vampires. I do understand how the lack of tradition can be upsetting and how it's an easy aspect to use as a jab against the book. (Personally, I was more annoyed by the controlling relationship.)

This book is so boring. I do not understand the hype (although, admittedly I don't always love romance books).

Bella is a literal blank slate. She has both everything and nothing unique about her. Her “friends”? Largely annoying to her. She doesn't actually say anything to them or have good moments. Her homework? Easy, because she obviously has read every book already on the reading list. Forks, Washington? The worst place ever and she won't let you forget it. Her parents? Bland. Doesn't really care about them. She has no personality, no actual strengths. She is the ultimate blank slate for readers (primarily women) to insert themselves because she is just so blank. This makes reading the book incredibly boring to me. She just sits around, essentially waiting for Edward to show up.
There is actually no plot to this book other than when Edward shows up. I think that is a problem, personally.

Edward is just perfect. But also, constantly reminds her of how much he can't be with her. Like cool, that's fine at the beginning. Once you are with her though and you say that you are “done trying to stay away,” truly be done. Stop repeating the same lines every 5 minutes. Additionally, he has no personality other than being a hot vampire.

Just no. No. Not for me. 2 stars, because I was able to at least get through it.

Le premier roman, Twilight, est le plus classique et le plus simple – voire simpliste – de la série. Il introduit les deux personnages principaux : Isabella (dite Bella) Swan, une lycéenne de dix-sept ans et Edward Cullen, un bellâtre aussi fascinant que mystérieux. Après le remariage de sa mère, Bella quitte le soleil de Phoenix pour les nuages de Forks, une petite ville dans l'état de Washington. C'est là qu'elle rencontre le beau Edward et son étrange famille. Après un accident qui aurait dû lui être fatal mais dont elle est miraculeusement sauvée grâce l'intervention d'Edward, Bella commence à se poser des questions sur l'étrange garçon auquel elle doit la vie. Elle découvrira finalement qu'Edward est un vampire, tout comme toute sa famille. Evidemment, l'histoire ne serait pas complète si Edward et Bella ne tombaient pas follement amoureux l'un de l'autre. Tout est donc en place pour une histoire d'amour impossible. Ajoutons à cela un méchant vampire qui contrairement à la famille Cullen se nourrit de sang humain, et vous obtenez un livre classique et sans surprise.

“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..." he murmured. I looked away, hiding my eyes as I thrilled to the word."What a stupid lamb," I sighed."What a sick, masochistic lion.”

Over the years, I kept hearing that the books are so much better than the movies. So, do I now share the opinion that reading the first book is a better experience than watching its adaptation? Yes. Does this mean I think the book is great? Nope.

Regardless, this was not the worst thing I've ever read. As a matter of fact, I've read books with far worse protagonists, writing and plot. All of which are highly recommended on Goodreads and Booktube, which is why I'd picked them up the first place. Let's get back to “Twilight”, shall we?

What I liked:

- The setting. I would actually love to live somewhere similar to Forks, at least for a while. A place that's green all year round and that's scarcely populated. I wouldn't even mind the rain, as long as I didn't have to deal with many people.

- Bella's father. He was a simple man who cared about her, who was concerned about her, yet allowed her a lot of freedom.

- Carlisle Cullen. I liked the idea of a compassionate vampire who became a doctor, of all things.

- I was able to read it fairly quickly even though the pacing was quite slow.

- There was no slut-shaming.

- The author didn't use the “modern” language that's all the rage these days in YA. No mention of “cool”, “hot”, “ass”, “baby”, “bitch” etc.

What I didn't like:

- Bella.She didn't seem so bad, that is until she met Edward. After that her brain turned to mush and her evolution as a character was suspended. She decided she was “unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him”, him being Edward, after having known him only for a week or two, just because he looked like a runway model and he had supernatural abilities.

She “obeyed” and “complied” a lot. She had a pathetically low self-esteem and thought Edward was a god. She didn't question him for a second. She broke her dad's heart as a part of a stupid plan to get away from James. She tripped on her feet and fainted a lot. She almost got killed 3 times in a span of two months.

- Edward. I tried to picture him as Sean Faris (yes, yes, I'm one of those people that don't find Robert Pattinson even remotely attractive), but I still couldn't get behind his character.

He fell in love with Bella because her blood smelled like lavender and he couldn't read her thoughts. He “ordered”, “commanded”, “snapped”, “scowled” a lot. He followed her, watched her sleep, eavesdropped on Bella's private conversations with other people because he needed to protect her. Call me crazy for not thinking this is romantic. However, I'm not that concerned about him. It's not like he's pretending to be a good guy. He admits he's a selfish creature (predator) and he wants what he wants. He might be 100 years old and he might engage in creepy stalking, but that wouldn't be a problem if Bella would understand the implications of all of this and stayed away from him, would it?

- Their relationship. It was so boring and lacking in chemistry I could barely even get angry at the insta-love or lack of reaction on Bella's behalf to all the creepy things Edward did. It's funny that she looked down on Mike for behaving like a puppy around her when she was Edward's pet herself.

- The villains. This twist was even sillier than any of the other ridiculous things sprinkled throughout the book, like Edward shining bright like a diamond...in the sky. See what I did there? Haha. Laughing at my own jokes.

I was actually hoping to like this. In the last couple of years, hating “Twilight” had become so trendy that I started to think that people are doing it just to counter-balance all its die hard fans that created a mass hysteria after the series' release. But, it's not the case, as it turns out. The book offers too much fuel to remain unscathed. Nevertheless, I'm not sorry I read it. It was so frustrating that it was sort of entertaining.