Reading Twilight for the first time!

Hello lovelies!

I have decided to finally read Twilight at the ripe old age of 21. When I was a younger you could either be team The Vampire Diaries or team Twilight; guess which team I was on? I was also on the younger side when the first movie came out so it wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in reading. As I grew older and saw all the hype surrounding Twilight, I went and saw the last movie at the movie theater. It was amazing. Now that Midnight Sun is coming out in August, I thought now was as good a time as any to read Twilight.

I’m not going to rate this book because I have seen the movies a dozen time and I’m too familiar with the story.

Medusa: sexual assault

Pheme: (over)hyped book

See my rating system here

I’m going to start with what I enjoyed (not much):

• I really like Edward and Bella’s banter. I loved the way they teased each other and their “thing” about asking questions to the other; I really liked the emphasis on communication and honesty, that’s a nice change in YA.
• I also tremendously enjoyed the way vampires “are” in the book. I really liked the concept of their eye color changing based on their sustenance and their level of hunger. That was pretty cool. I also liked the way their skin shone. I was bothered by the description of their “pale” and “white” skin, it really didn’t sit well with me. What would happen if a person of color got turned into a vampire?
• I liked the history behind the Cullen coven as well. The most interesting part was definitely Alice’s and Carlisle’s back stories. It’s soo cool to see that they are able to keep an aspect from their human life.

Now brace yourselves for the things I disliked:

• The first striking thing is the emphasis on Bella’s clumsiness which, granted, finds its purpose later but I stil think that it is RIDICULOUS and that is coming from the clumsiest person ever. I don’t know if we were supposed to feel sympathetic towards her and find her cute or “quirky” but it just didn’t work for me.
• I think Bella’s acceptance of the situation was too quick? I know she made up her mind pretty quickly but that’s the problem – it was too abrupt!! Where is the conflict? The fear? The pining? the angst? I mean she is a human and he is a vampire!!! I wanted more hatred and confusion! I understand how the fear factor is important to show how Bella is “special” but I think seeing her gradually overcoming her fear would have been nice instead of just saying “it doesn’t matter”. She immediately believed in the existence of vampires when she was oblivious to their “real” existence before. You dont get over your beliefs that quickly. Also their “I love yous” and “forevers” happened way too quickly for me.
• I think it’s sad how Bella couldn’t *really* connect with other girls but only men and boys. It felt very much like “I’m not that type of girl” and it bothers me. I have a very hard time with women’s depiction n this book. They are painted as helpless, jealous over boys, clumsy and overall brainless.
• I really didn’t like the way Bella used people; especially Jacob when she met him.
• What is it with Edward (and Bella’s) mood shifts? Another strange aspect. They can be smiling one minute and glaring the next; I really didn’t understand that.
• I cannot help but feel the author’s Mormon influence in the book. I don’t think I would have noticed it if I had read the book sooner but since the books and the movies came out quite a while ago, many articles have brought forth a few *interesting*, if I may say, aspects of the book such as marrying young, stereotypical gender roles (the damsel in distress and her knight in shining armor), abstinence before marriage, eternal marriage). That’s why their kissing seemed very strange to me. Maybe it’s because I have read my fair share of romance (and erotica) but Bella fainting over a kiss is once again RIDICULOUS.

It felt very Puritain for me.