Book Review: the Twilight Series

Before I publish my next What I’ve Been Reading list (see previous entries here, here and here), I’m going to review a few books that deserve their own posts. I'll take the week to do that, and then publish the next What I've Been Reading list at the end of the week, with shorter reviews on the books that don't get individual posts.

I'm starting with the Twilight books. I wrote a bit about them already here, and now I’ve finished it. I have to say, I like the first book best of the series. I think its strength is the interesting tension between the normal high school world and the weird parallel world of the vampires. In subsequent books, there’s less and less normal world, and so less and less contrast. By the last book, you’re almost totally enveloped in the parallel world, and you suddenly see why Edward didn’t think eternal undead existence was such a prize (“oh, he was . . . right.”).

Props to Stephanie Meyer for writing a fun series. It’s engrossing and fun to read. I couldn’t write an honest review without saying that first.

But I still come back to what I thought at the beginning: this series’ prime virtue is its entertainment value, not anything else. And I have to admit, that though I see what she was going for, I found the Cullen family progressively creepier the more they were explained. Their lack of bravery in taking on the evil vampires (“go ahead and kill everyone else – just leave the people we actually care about alone”) was understandable and even sympathetic, but made them somewhat less than heroic. Yes, in the world as presented, going on a crusade would be a hopeless cause, but wouldn’t it have been glorious? I mean, it’s fantasy after all . . .

Also, I couldn’t get past the problems in Bella and Edward’s relationship. I know it’s been exhaustively critiqued elsewhere, and I’m not saying anything new, but I found it emotionally abusive and semi-stalkerish. Again, it works within the world-as-created, but you can’t make it happily parallel anything in real life, and that’s problematic, I think, for books aimed at teenagers.

The last book was my least favorite. Bella’s experience of motherhood wasn’t anything I recognized from reality (and the author did, to her credit, acknowledge this within the story) and despite the rules of the universe, I found the resolution of Jacob’s plotline really creepy. Also, (SPOILER) I don’t understand having an entire book build up to an epic fight at the end, and then having the epic fight never actually take place.

So . . . I feel awful doing this, because it’s a rip-roaring yarn, and I honestly admire any author who can write so compellingly, but I have to admit that I think the flaws outweigh the virtues in these books, at least for young audiences, even though the first book, at least, is great fun.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell