The Twilight Saga

Apparently this series is going to crop up as examples, which most of the time will be critical of the series, so I should probably set the record straight as to my opinion on it.

When I first read it, I loved it. I still appreciate it. Stephenie Meyer is a good storyteller. The Twilight Saga was addictive and easy to read and I completely understand how so many people love it. I love The Host (I already wrote a post about attraction triangles today; I liked the attraction triangle in The Host as it was completely plausible given that world, unlike most young adult attraction triangles, and the protagonist’s inability to decide made perfect sense in her situation). I like some characters, especially Emmett and Angela.

However, I didn’t like the plot. Especially, like many people have been saying, Edward and Bella’s relationship. He is controlling and some of his behaviours, such as watching her sleep without her knowledge and climbing through her window, are stalkerish. Being bruised (the scene in Breaking Dawn, if you’ve read/watched/otherwise heard about it) isn’t a matter to just accept. Ripping out some part of her car (can’t remember what part it was) isn’t just overprotectiveness; it is vandalism. While I hate when characters die…in certain scenarios it’s inevitable. It should have happened. The constant physical description of Edward and Jacob is irritating. In my experience, most teenagers don’t fixate on a person’s appearance almost EVERY time they see them; we do tend to notice other things too. Such as personality for those who have one; which everyone does.

So I guess I have a mixed opinion on it. It was fun to read, interesting, addicting, compelling. However, it wasn’t the best literarily and some themes were just wrong.

I just rewatched John Green’s review of Twilight and New Moon. It can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkoBoF9FDXg. It is hilarious and contains a brief explanation of Twilight and, in typical vlogbrother fashion, is very funny. I disagree with his comment about the idealisation of people. It is true that such idealisations will occur in fiction, probably especially in young adult fiction. Putting aside any debate about whether these idealisations should be present so as to present a more realistic view of average teenage perceptions or whether authors should avoid them so as to create a more realistic view of the actual world, there is a difference between the narrator/persona idealising romantic interests and the author idealising them. In the first case, while the character might describe his or her physical appearance in depth and believe that he/she is perfect, other characters would notice their flaws. In the second case, there are no flaws; the character him- or herself is idealised. However, the video states similar thoughts to those above in a different, more interesting way, and presents some different opinions.