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serynAs promised, I have something to say about Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
First, I must say that I ignored this book for a long time. I came across it years ago, before its popularity was obvious and was less than interested. The description said a small-town teenage girl was torn between a vampire and a werewolf. *yawn*
Some of my boredom comes from my previous reading. I have read all of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton... even though they started to suck well before the halfway point. (I don't buy the books, I let the library buy them.) And her answer to that is to have both. I read a lot of HP fanfic, and prefer the ones where Hermione chooses both.
I don't mind YA books, or even children's books if they have a really good fantastic story. But I am extremely put off by YA romances. Twilight is, essentially, a romance. It's written from the woman's perspective (which is a hallmark of the genre), a lot of the conflict comes from the main characters not communicating well, and there is no real resolution because the plot is about these people having a life they want to share so there is nothing to resolve. But YA books don't usually have sex in them. Not even fade-to-closed-door sex. We're supposed to believe that a 17 year old girl can spend nights with (and we do see at least one of those, with more implied) her boyfriend who is much more experienced. But they just snog a bit. That seems really bizarre and unrealistic.
I don't want books written for teenagers to have graphic sex in them. Because it probably isn't something that they need promoted. But as an adult, I find myself really annoyed by artificial restrictions in fictional relationships.
So when I thought the book was about the girl choosing between the werewolf and the vampire, well, I wasn't thrilled since the best solution was excluded by definition. One of the things I should say here is that there is no indication of werewolves what-so-ever. Second, the opposing choice is really unrealistically presented. 17 year old girls do not date 15 year old boys. 27 year old women do sometimes date 25 year old men, but 15 year olds? like half of them haven't finished puberty. Just completely unbelievable as any sort of competition.
The book wasn't about that at all. This is, aside from the whole vampire angle, pretty much one of those teenage "love at first sight" stories.
Now. For all that I've outlined the really pedestrian storyline, and we've all read the trope-ic stories for "love at first sight", so what makes this one worth the effort? To sum up, it was catchy. I didn't want to put it down. I can't pin my thumb on any particular thing, but it was catchy. The technique was mediocre with good aftermarket editing, the main character wasn't someone I could identify with at all, I didn't agree with the setting chosen (It would have been a better story to me if they'd been older and the whole school business skipped.) and I didn't agree with the characterizations or included motivations of anyone in the story. There should not have been anything here for me.
I really enjoyed it.
If it had been written for adults with that caliber of effort, it would have been a best seller too. Nora Roberts has her future-set series with the graphic sex and she's doing all right. It's not the same as the Twilight franchise though.
I was really put off by the incompetence of the main character at normal things like walking. I didn't like having a 17 year old being so totally unparented. And I didn't like how nebulous the Edward character was. He would do things without us knowing in advance that was within his scope. He was fairly dominant but without having demonstrated a reason for it. Edward was continually surprised that the girl's brain wasn't as clumsy as her feet.
If she'd been 23 and having moved to town to be the veternarian's assistant or something, then met the vampire boy and fallen for him and they have wild monkey sex several times in between plot elements, then the book ends when they're going to live happily ever after. I'd have had zero issues.
I'm way old now. I don't really remember dating. I certainly wasn't dating during this era of "hooking up" where girls fuck guys for just one drink-- maybe that's exaggerated by the TV. But it didn't seem reasonable that she'd be dating someone experienced and older for 5 months without doing anything past first base. A lot of the sexual tension between them was really hot. Tempered by the weird creepiness of them both being "underage".
*shrug* it was really catchy. I can't explain it.
But I still think that if they're too young to have actual sex, then they shouldn't have been starring in the book.
Or that there should have been an NC-17 rated variant available. Preferably with that absent but implied werewolf wanting a threesome.
First, I must say that I ignored this book for a long time. I came across it years ago, before its popularity was obvious and was less than interested. The description said a small-town teenage girl was torn between a vampire and a werewolf. *yawn*
Some of my boredom comes from my previous reading. I have read all of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton... even though they started to suck well before the halfway point. (I don't buy the books, I let the library buy them.) And her answer to that is to have both. I read a lot of HP fanfic, and prefer the ones where Hermione chooses both.
I don't mind YA books, or even children's books if they have a really good fantastic story. But I am extremely put off by YA romances. Twilight is, essentially, a romance. It's written from the woman's perspective (which is a hallmark of the genre), a lot of the conflict comes from the main characters not communicating well, and there is no real resolution because the plot is about these people having a life they want to share so there is nothing to resolve. But YA books don't usually have sex in them. Not even fade-to-closed-door sex. We're supposed to believe that a 17 year old girl can spend nights with (and we do see at least one of those, with more implied) her boyfriend who is much more experienced. But they just snog a bit. That seems really bizarre and unrealistic.
I don't want books written for teenagers to have graphic sex in them. Because it probably isn't something that they need promoted. But as an adult, I find myself really annoyed by artificial restrictions in fictional relationships.
So when I thought the book was about the girl choosing between the werewolf and the vampire, well, I wasn't thrilled since the best solution was excluded by definition. One of the things I should say here is that there is no indication of werewolves what-so-ever. Second, the opposing choice is really unrealistically presented. 17 year old girls do not date 15 year old boys. 27 year old women do sometimes date 25 year old men, but 15 year olds? like half of them haven't finished puberty. Just completely unbelievable as any sort of competition.
The book wasn't about that at all. This is, aside from the whole vampire angle, pretty much one of those teenage "love at first sight" stories.
Now. For all that I've outlined the really pedestrian storyline, and we've all read the trope-ic stories for "love at first sight", so what makes this one worth the effort? To sum up, it was catchy. I didn't want to put it down. I can't pin my thumb on any particular thing, but it was catchy. The technique was mediocre with good aftermarket editing, the main character wasn't someone I could identify with at all, I didn't agree with the setting chosen (It would have been a better story to me if they'd been older and the whole school business skipped.) and I didn't agree with the characterizations or included motivations of anyone in the story. There should not have been anything here for me.
I really enjoyed it.
If it had been written for adults with that caliber of effort, it would have been a best seller too. Nora Roberts has her future-set series with the graphic sex and she's doing all right. It's not the same as the Twilight franchise though.
I was really put off by the incompetence of the main character at normal things like walking. I didn't like having a 17 year old being so totally unparented. And I didn't like how nebulous the Edward character was. He would do things without us knowing in advance that was within his scope. He was fairly dominant but without having demonstrated a reason for it. Edward was continually surprised that the girl's brain wasn't as clumsy as her feet.
If she'd been 23 and having moved to town to be the veternarian's assistant or something, then met the vampire boy and fallen for him and they have wild monkey sex several times in between plot elements, then the book ends when they're going to live happily ever after. I'd have had zero issues.
I'm way old now. I don't really remember dating. I certainly wasn't dating during this era of "hooking up" where girls fuck guys for just one drink-- maybe that's exaggerated by the TV. But it didn't seem reasonable that she'd be dating someone experienced and older for 5 months without doing anything past first base. A lot of the sexual tension between them was really hot. Tempered by the weird creepiness of them both being "underage".
*shrug* it was really catchy. I can't explain it.
But I still think that if they're too young to have actual sex, then they shouldn't have been starring in the book.
Or that there should have been an NC-17 rated variant available. Preferably with that absent but implied werewolf wanting a threesome.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 12:26 pm (UTC)One of the things that bothered me about this is how the vampire could easily kill her-- he must work constantly against it-- yet he seems unable to solidly keep his thumb on his self-control. Between that and his dominance issues, it really seemed like the onset of an abusive relationship. This book seemed like the frog in the pot of cold water sitting on the stove.
So many people are enamored of this series and that's almost scary. Maybe the book is printed with drugged ink? But you'd think the effect would have been reduced for me by it being a well-used library book.
My SO read it and he thought it was your standard, average, craptastic teen romance with added "vampires".
Which is making me question whether I have my head screwed on right. Because there's no way in any world that Edward should have seemed attractive. I don't get it. But looked for the next book when I was at the library, so obviously I'd like to not get it more.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 08:12 pm (UTC)