50 in 365: The Twilight Saga

Yeah, I'm probably not gonna make it to 50 this year.  LOL  Unless I count all the journal articles I've been reading.  ;)

Anyhoo......

This week I read the 4 Twilight Saga books.  I really never thought I'd read these books.  I'm not into romance and sappy love stuff and teenage drama.  Just didn't interest me.  But, many of my friends online have read them and were always talking about them because of the upcoming movie (next Friday).  I still wasn't persuaded to read them really...but I figured I'd see the movie, just for the heck of it.

Then, I got the flu last weekend and on my trip to Walgreens, they had the books there.  I don't know why, but I bought the first book, Twilight and went home and began reading.  My friends were very excited.  lol  I ended up enjoying the first book very much.  It wasn't nearly as sappy as I thought it would be.  So, I bought the other 3 books and read them too.  Finished last night.  (Yeah, I tend to read a novel in one sitting, sometimes two.  I can't put books down. lol).

So, here are my reviews for the Twilight Saga

Book 15: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

As I said, it wasn't nearly as sappy as I thought it would be.  It was certainly a teenage romance book, but it had some depth too.  I actually found myself identifying with Bella.  She was a bit of an outsider.  She was quiet and a loner.  She had parents that were separated.  She was a bit of a traveler and she adjusted well to new surroundings.  When she made up her mind, when she made a decision...she stuck to it.  She took care of her mother.  She was a lot like her father and had a good friendship with him.  She was attracted to the quiet, odd boy.  She liked old things.  Finally, she was a klutz (I'm not nearly as bad as Bella, but I have a few scars. lol).  So, Bella was interesting to me.  Then we had Edward, who was written as this beautiful, perfect 17-year-old boy...but that isn't what attracted me to him.  I'm not all gaga over him, but I was very interested in the character.  I think Meyer did a great job of describing him in such a way that he was appealing and interesting and yet...very, very creepy.  The stillness, the reactions, the smiles..they were all in character.  Never did he feel like the typical romanantic male lead (thankfully).  I really like the character of Edward.  The darkness and the conflict of good and bad.  I'm not a girl who likes the bad boy.  What actually appealed to me about Edward was that he was dark and scary - but when you got close to him and studied him, he was not dark and scary at all.  He fought the darkness, and that was cool.  I know it's been done before...the good vampire; the vampire love story; etc...but I think Meyer did a good job of describing him as not human and creepy, and she stuck to it.   The story was also not bad.  I could not agree with Bella on the weather thing....I'm the exact opposite.  I love cold, snow, dreariness, overcast days, rain....I hate the sun.  But, I could identify with her passionate dislike in regards to the weather.  She did finally give in though...and I won't.  I do not like summertime and I never will.  But, back to the story.  It did feel to me that Bella figured "it" out too easily and that Edward accepted her too easily.  But, I realize that this was part of the deal...they were like magnets to one another and couldn't help but understand the other.  I like that we get little glimpses of Edward along the way...that's he's just as curious about Bella as she is about him.  He's just as scared and freaked out too...which is different.  You wouldn't think a vampire would be frightened of anything.  But, that's the character of Edward.  That's part of his personality.  So, overall, I think this book is worth the read.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend the entire series to everyone, but I think everyone would enjoy some aspect of this book.

Book 16: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

This book was good as well.  I liked the four books in the order they are written, liking the final book the least.  In this book, we still have Bella and Edward, but they are happily together...in that time in the relationship when they are still new, but they know each other pretty well.  Then, the book takes a weird turn.  A few things happen and we are left, for nearly half the book, with a depressed Bella, alone and empty.  We also get to know Jacob more, a character introduced to us in the first book.  I liked Jacob in this book.  This book gave us more of the in-your-face supernatural stuff with vampires.  Not just the mystery of them.  Lurking...knowing what they are, but not really being part of it.  In this book, we go to Italy and meet the Voltari.  Creepy Italian Vampires that are very bossy.  lol  We get a lot deeper into the character of Edward too and he's even more interesting now.  Overall, my 2nd favorite of the series...although I did cry with Bella for about half the book...which was exhausting.  :)

 

Book 17: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

This book gave us a very different Jacob...and I hated him.  I just wanted Bella to deck him.  To smack him silly.  I really, really disliked Jacob in this book.  Edward and Bella were still themselves..but we got a look at a more violent, angry Edward.  We had seen this side of him before, but now he had some added pressures to give him anxiety and make him upset.  With that, we also got a closer look at his level of self-control.  I'll tell you this...Bella's view on marriage is STUPID and I hated that whole plot line.  How incredibly lame.  If she wanted to become a vampire and live with Edward forever, practically from the moment she met him, why would she be so against marriage?  It's just a flippin' ring to symbolize what she's already asked for and wants.  The whole mom hates marriage thing and Bella being all weird about it.  That was just stupid.  I rolled my eyes at the whole thing.  Meyer succeeded in making Bella look like a stupid fool.  *sigh*

Book 18: Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

This was my least favorite of the four.  In fact, I can't say I liked this book at all.  Edward and Bella were so weird together.  Their characters were off...not quite in character.  Meyer wrote them a little differently.  They didn't feel like they had progressed to this place...it actually felt like I was reading someone's fanfic based on Edward and Bella (and we all know that fanfic writers never get the characters exactly right).  And then we have sex scenes...not graphic, mind you.  In fact, Meyer cut away as soon as we knew that the deed was about to happen....but still.  Everytime the two of them were alone, they were like bunnies.  It got old.  Also, she had this whole freaky, monster baby plotline...which was disgusting, weird, and not appealing at all.  That thing was creepy and I could not identify with any of the characters and their 'love' for this freaky thing.  Jacob did redeem himself a little in this book.  I liked him better.  And then...all this tension, all this drama...and then it's all just 'fixed'.  The ending was too 'perfect' and 'happy ending'.  Not that I wanted some tragic thing to happen...but it was just so anti-climatic.  So yeah, pretty much this book sucked.  :)