3/21/2007 — Ten Books

So, I broke my rule. I was in the middle of reading Ada or Ardor and I decided to take a nice stop and read Twilight. I broke my rule. I try hard not to read multiple things at a time, it creates problems with actually finishing. (But constantly leaving House of Leaves and The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde unfinished doesn't exactly help my cause.) Anyhow, here is what I said concerning Twilight when talking about it in a writing forum:

I just finished it an hour ago. For a YA about vampires, I suppose it does duty. My inner Anne Rice fan didn't hate it too much, though my lonely teen-aged soul did.

I do have some bones to pick with it though, none the less. It was kind of frustrating to read, I'm done and thinking "What happened?" I suppose that is YA, though. It's not thick, there isn't much to it. I hit page 400, and that's when the story started, not 400 pages earlier, on page one, where it should have. It took 400 pages to get to the thick conflict....sure there was conflict through the rest of it, but the core center of the story was slim, didn't last too long, and was resolved quickly. You could also say the main conflict was, "Will Bella and Edward get together?" but that is answered all to simply. Of course they will be.

Which is another reason I really didn't like it. It leads on too strongly that you can fall in love with some random strange and in days, be risking your life for them, and head over heals forever-in-love-with-them. It was kind of corny and usual, but hey it's YA trying to make you young kids hopeful isn't it?

Then, you look at the over used adjectives, she constantly called Edward a statue of this or that kind and it just got puke-worth after too long. She kept describing them as the same thing over and over again. It's like she was writing and going "Oh, they can't forget Edward is statue-like! They can't forget Bella is clumsy!" I mean, pick any description, and she mentioned it all too often. At the least, she could have gone for better words rather than the same.

But, it wasn't bad. I don't love it, otherwise I wouldn't be picking it a part, but it has its good side. The characters were sweet, and heart felt. I even tried finding plot holes, the only thing I really could barely call a plot whole is her being in the hospital, and rather than being on a steady flow of pain killers which made her not able to hold up the conversation she had with Edward when she woke up, she was only given meds when she asked for them, and other than an "ouch" now and then from something and a dizziness, she could handle a full conversation. My mom was in for routine surgery and she couldn't even hold a conversation; she "fell through a a window". But anyhow. The characters were likable, it was sickly one of those you-can't-put-down books. I'll get a hold of the second as soon as it's available at the library.

Something about it over all I didn't like; whether it was the ending, or the way the whole story felt like a lot of nothing once you got to the end. I mean, its not like he turned her into a vampire at the end, he kissed her. So it's not like I expect anything fantastic...though, I could be wrong.

Probably the longest thing I've posted here.

Slowly, rather slowly, working my way through Ada or Ardor. I love Nabokov with all my heart, but he can be difficult sometimes. Five hundred pages, with small print...ach.