I know I'm a bit late in hitting this craze, but I figure living in Bolivia gives me an excuse. I just read the first book in the series, and probably won't be able to get to the next two for some time, as new English language books are tough to come by here. Anyway, has anyone else here given this YA teenage vampire romantic thriller a read?

I have very little experience with romance novels (though I'm committed to reading at least one Jane Austin by the year's end) and I will immediately agree that Twilight's p.o.v. makes it more a female than male oriented novel but there were still some elements of it that I really enjoyed. One aspect of the book that particularly stood out to me was the way that the growing romance between Bella and Edward, a vampire, is expressed in terms of adolescent sexual awakening and frustration. The fear that Edward feels about not being able to control his thirst and the precautions he takes to protect Bella (and an eventual growth in his confidence in his self-control) was something that I think a lot of teenagers can relate to. It's really easy for me to see why this book has grown into the phenomenon that it has.

And yeah, it's obviously pulp fiction, but as far as penny-dreadfuls go, I feel like I got my money's worth from Twilight.

My boss took her son -- not her daughter, who's not interested -- to a midnight release party today in Northern Virginia for the last book in the series. She's in her 40s, I think, and has read all books in the series twice. Her son has read at least a couple of them and doesn't love them as much as my boss does, but she convinced him that lots of girls would be at the release party. That persuaded him to join her for the party. I'm waiting for Monday to hear how it went.

Oh, gosh. I'm working on a freelance review of the series, so I've been reading them all and also tracking fan reaction to the new book on the Internet. A surprising number of the fans are exploding with rage, and I can hardly blame them. Breaking Dawn is so hilariously, unbelievably bad. Not that I thought the first three were good (sorry, solishu), but this one is in a class all by itself. There is hardly any plot, every conflict easily and magically resolves itself before it even gets off the ground, and Meyer's prose has never been purpler. Oh, and there's a magical fast-growing supersmart super-beautiful super-empathetic vampire baby who reads Tennyson at the age of three months (I swear!) and shouldn't even exist according to Meyer's own rules.

Of course, some of the major fansites are shut down for the moment (no one wanted to risk spoilers), so things may change when they reopen. Those are the really hardcore fans.

Whoa. I just read a couple of spoilers for Breaking Dawn that really blow it off the charts of badness, as far as I can tell. I no fan of censorship, but some things no one needs. As Xander once said, "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good." So far, nothing I've heard about the Twilight series has changed my mind, not even Edward's sparkly-ness (or maybe especially).

Also, I'm getting flashbacks to the worst seasons of Angel, season 3-4. And yet, even those episodes were handled with more elan, I suspect.

Although I haven't read these books (nor do I plan to), the sheer "hackishness" of appearance of these books itself makes me cringe. :eek: IMO, it's another trend of badly-written books (judging by the reviews) being swallowed up by teenyboppers and others.

For those interested, my review of the series is now up at NRO.

Thanks, Gina! I'll include that in my next Browser.

Much appreciated!

Pretty much sums up everything I've been reading, Gina. Thanks.

Gina, great review, thanks! Bizarrely, less than an hour after I discovered it, someone called me looking for an opinion on the series.

I know a guy who is writing something about vampires... we suddenly have a lot to talk about. Again, thanks.

I'm so glad it was helpful!

Would that be Eric Wilson, author of the pending Jerusalem Undead vampire series?

No. This is a different Christian (and Catholic) take on vampires.

Meanwhile, fantasy novelist Daniel Clement-Davies' books continue to sell well among readers young and old, win acclaim from critics, and his characters argue openly and blatantly that Christianity is the source of all evil,* and that when we all realize that we are really just animals we will be on the road to peace.

This is unlikely to cause much trouble or spark any kind of discussion in Christian media until Clement-Davies' stories are discovered as potential big-screen material. Because most Christians aren't reading much beyond "Christian fiction." as far as we're concerned, it's not real and relevant until it's a movie.**


*Just read Fell, for example.
**(gross generalization, based upon events involving The Golden Compass)

Gina, thanks for the review!

I read it at the same time as I read Regina Doman's review, and they make for an interesting contrast (for someone who has absolutely no intention of reading any one of these books... )

Thank you for letting me know about those. First time I've heard of them. And David, thanks for that link; I'll check it out.

I remember seeing his stuff when I worked in a bookstore a few years back. The covers especially caught my eye, as I thought, "Those look like the sort of covers that accompany bad fanfic. No one will buy those."

How wrong I was! Didn't really know much about them 'til now, though. Thanks, Jeff!

Link to the thread on the film.

Mormon Vampires: The Twilight Saga and Religious Literacy, a Master's thesis by Edwin Arnaudin. Downloadable PDF. Quite interesting!



Dated 2 Apr 2008, and thus, unfortunately, does not cover the dreadful Breaking Dawn. I would really have liked to hear Mr. Arnaudin's take on that!

Thanks for the link, Beth. I'm interested, but am not sure if I can make myself read the books, if only because the excerpts I've seen are so bad. OTOH, it might turn out to be kinda fun, if I keep Cleolinda's commentaries and Wiki close by.

John Granger, the Orthodox Christian otherwise known as The Hogwarts Professor, has read Twilight. His thoughts on the Mormon subtexts are especially interesting.