I was reading about Twilight in this weeks Entertainment Weekly. It describes some details about the vampire series of books, which are apparently being turned into a movie.
Has anyone read any of them? What are they like? What is your opinion?
My wife and I enjoyed Harry Potter, but aren’t sure if the romance is the only thing going on in the Twilight series.
Thoughts? Opinions?
I read the first one; they’re all the rage around here and I like to keep up.
It’s a vampire romance, very teenagery, and without the sex you get in Anne Rice. Probably better written too, but I’ve never read Rice. There’s plenty of sexual tension, it being a vampire romance and all, but all suppressed and whatnot. There’s vampire lore as well, a whole explanation of how they work, character histories, and dealings with other vampires (not all at once of course). The other two books get into werewolves and the two species’ interactions.
It was OK, IMO. I haven’t bothered to read the other two–I didn’t get into it that much. I have friends who have read it over and over and can’t wait for the final book. (FWIW, most of them are big HP fans too, which I am not–I’ve read them and they were fine, but not my favorite books ever.)
There’s plenty of teenage angst and obsession over the love interest. I always want to slap Bella and tell her to get a life, but then it’s not actually all that unrealistic that way. The vampire guy is annoyingly perfect IMO, but lots of girls swoon over him as if he was Mr. Darcy.
So…not a ringing endorsement here, but they’re not terrible or anything and many people love them. OK for a vampire romance.
I read the first three, not knowing anything about the story going into the first book. I thought the romance was a bit adolescent, then realized it was “young adult”.
It has some good tension, and just enough in the way of interesting characters to hold interest for me. That said, I look forward to the 4th book, and will read her “adult” novel.
The same friend who sent me the first Potter book with orders to read it sent the three Twilight books. I gave it the 50-page tryout. You wouldn’t think a writer would be repeating herself in just 50 pages, but Meyer did. I was bored silly.
To be fair, I went to Amazon and read a bunch of reviews to see what I was missing. The positive reviews didn’t discuss the things that matter to me in a book, but the negatives did.
I read quite a bit of YA fiction. This didn’t measure up.
I just couldn’t buy the relationship. But I got a kick out of the fact that it was set in Forks.
I haven’t read them, and the trailers for the movie un-inspire me to ever do so. Either the series itself is lame, or the adaptation will be. It looks like “What if instead of brooding immortals, the characters in Tuck Everlasting were brooding Vampires?”
Pass.
Hey, looks like people who’ve read the books compare it to TE too. Hmmm.
I haven’t read them yet, but my two co-workers are deep into them, and the whole hair salon my coworker’s sister owns is a Twilight book club, apparently! We are all HP fans. They tell me they love the books because the sex is very subdued (a very good reason for me to put off reading them LOL) and they think the writing is good and keeps up an intriguing pace. My coworker had the second book at work today, and I read the flyleaf, but didn’t get a chance to read any of the book…so I’m truly no help. But they both love them, and my boss, who is not much of a reader (hyperactive, can’t sit still long enough generally) has been driving her husband crazy by staying up late reading…so that’s a testimonial in itself.
I have read the books since they were all the rage with my female students, to the point where a couple of them were “in love with” the fictional vampire boyfriend character. I have to say, I kind of hated them. The romance(s) are very co-dependent-- they can’t live without each other, openly contemplate suicide when separated, have elements of stalker-like behavior. I found the female protagonist sappy, pathetic, and utterly unlikeable.
Yet I read all three and will finish them, because they are like a horrendous, trashy, lame soap opera and I want to see how she ends them. Won’t buy them, though-- I’ll borrow them from some obsessed kid after she finishes.
Meyer’s adult novel, The Host, is much better, though with elements of the sappy romance. I recommend that one more highly. However, if you want to see what your kids are reading, and what retrograde ideas about true love are influencing them, maybe you should read them. They offer a good way to talk about what love should NOT be like.
Are there conflicts that drive the plot that are not romance centered? Or is it a romance book primarily?
I just started reading them recently - YA fantasy type stuff is my escape, so I figured it was time I try these. I finished the second one today, on my way home from work.
I’m enjoying them more than I expected to, to be honest. Now, that’s not to say that the romance as it exists in the book doesn’t piss me off to no end, and it is basically the central part of the plot. I can look around it and focus on the other.
Emo vampire boy pisses me off, codependent female lead pisses me off - and yet I’ve managed somehow to get sucked into the story behind that enough that, hey, they’re an escapist read and I can put up with that.
If I’d expected them to be great literature, I’d be disappointed, but since I didn’t expect that, I’m ok with them.
Very few, and I don’t find them really central to the plot - the primary plot is the romance (unless that changes in the third book).
I agree with Lsura - go into it expecting YA romance and you will not be disappointed, but if you’re looking for some deep supernatural novel this ain’t it.
It’s this teen generation’s Anne Rice.
The thing that turned me off of ever wanting to read them was when I read that the male vampire lead character has sparkly skin. What’s more teenage-girly than glitter pens? 
My 15-year-old niece and her friends love them. I’ll probably check the first one out of the library to see what’s up.
Nothing too revealing, but I just in case:
In this “world” vampires and werewolves are sworn enemies, and Bella, the main character, has relationships with both. There are, however, romantic issues on both sides.
Ok, bumping this because the last book in the series was released this weekend. Yes, I bought it. Yes, I read it.
My thoughts, and there are spoilers below.
[spoiler]1) If you’re not going to hold to the mythology that you’ve created, then why did you create it? Going around what you created so everyone got a happy ending (Not in the massage parlor sense of the word) was just annoying.
The pregnancy/baby plot was ridiculous. First, how did a vampire who hasn’t had a heartbeat in 100 years manage to create sperm?
Jacob and Nessa - there was very much a very vaguely incestuous feeling to that imprinting thing.
I hate that Bella got exactly what she wanted. I wanted Jacob and Edward to die and her to realize that she was still alive and get over her whiny self.
Bella is the most special newborn vamp ever with special Bella powers! Wow, gosh! She wants to drink people, but not really! She’s soo good at her powers.
Charlie is just somehow ok with this - sure, he doesn’t really want to know, but in his willful ignorance, he is accepting.
7)Renesme? What a horrid name. And the accelerated growth makes me think of nothing so much as the little human/visitor hybrid baby Elizabeth in V: The Final Battle. [/spoiler]
Anyone else read it yet?
The series is like bad fanfiction, distilled to potent horridness.
My sister and 2 best friends are all crazy about the series. I’ve read them, liked them okay, but was kinda meh about the whole thing. So when the last book came out, they planned a shut up and read party and insisted I participate. Thank goodness I’m a fast reader; I left the house about 3:30 Saturday morning. I actually liked the fourth book the best because at least whiny Bella went bye-bye, even if she’s now uberspecial vamp Bella. That “oh what could he possibly see in me he’s so dreamy he’s way beyond anything I could ever be” attitude of hers drove me frickin’ insane!!
TheKid and I spent 4 hour at Borders waiting for the release - a store full of teenaged girls squealing. Ugh.
She hated it. She stayed up almost all night reading it (midnight - 4am) and was quite bummed. According to her it was too “fairytale” make-it-work.
She also has no desire to see the movie now.
(Me? I sat in the corner of Borders, plugged into my mp3, reading one of Anthony Bourdain’s books)
I just finished the fourth one a couple of hours ago. Loved it, love the whole series, can’t wait for the movie. I’m a bit older than the target demographic (I’m 19) but…
I really like the books because, gosh, I like happy endings. I like it all to be wrapped up it a neat little package. I like the fact that I can reread the books and not have that icky uncomfortable knowledge that something permanently terrible is going to happen.
They’re escapist, romantic, supernatural, at times tense and thoroughly enjoyable if you just take them for what they’re worth.
And yeah, Edward Cullen is totally dreamy.