Friday, July 27, 2007

Twilight

My friend called on Sunday when I was finishing The Deathly Hollows. She was appalled. “You’re reading Harry Potter,” she said, “But you haven’t read Twilight yet?”

Over the last several months, dozens of people have told me that I must read Stephenie Meyer’s book. It—and its sequel New Moon—have been the hot books at the library where I work—and it’s an academic library.

So, I finally read Twilight. My reaction:

Meh. “M-E-H: Meh.”

Now, the book is not entirely to blame. It has suffered from all the hype surrounding it. And this is definitely not the first time I have been sorely disappointed by the hot item.

I finally saw The Sixth Sense in the dollar theater (yowzers!) and couldn’t understand why people were proclaiming it the best movie of the year.

Imagine my disappointment when I finally read The Da Vinci Code—after hearing all the outrage and news coverage—to discover the book was the nothing but dreck. Entertaining dreck, but dreck nonetheless.

Twilight is fine. It is fine, but I am confused by all the buzz. Stephenie Meyer is not a great writer—or even a good one. As embarrassing as it may be to admit, I have read plenty of romance novels in my day. And Twilight is nothing more than another romance novel.

It may be sour grapes because I am eternally single—and easily irritated by the naïveté of young love—but I wanted to retch several times at Meyer’s constant descriptions of Bella and Edwards’s physical relationship:

“I caressed his cheek, delicately stroked his eyelid, the purple shadow in the hollow under his eye. I traced the shape of his perfect nose, and then, so carefully, his flawless lips. . . . He raised his hand to my hair, then carefully brushed it across my face” (277).

Eww. Enough of the creepy touching already. Kiss properly, or do not touch at all.

Of course, since I’m addicted to series, I put New Moon on hold at my local public library. There are over a hundred people queued ahead of me. Apparently, my community is full of people who are suckers for a schmaltzy romance.

4 comments:

Wanna-Be Lit said...

Good thing I live in Europe where I don't hear about anything new or popular. I've never even heard of the book.

Blogger said...

Don't worry. You can read our copy when you come visit. Maybe you will love it and can explain to me all the hype.

notaconnoisseur said...

I am so disappointed since Chris Crowe was the one who asked me if our household had read the book yet. Since it has dragons...it does have dragons, doesn't it...I knew it was not for me. I personally adore dragons but I am not much into reading fantasy. Not since my fairy tale binge at about eleven.

Blogger said...

No dragons--only vampires.