*This post is about the Twilight books not the films*
First of all, don't get me wrong, I did read the Twilight books when I was a teen back before the rights were sold to make it into a film... and I loved it! Edward Cullen seemed like the perfect boy (even though he is technically a man...a very old one at that!) but I fell for him and found myself hopelessly day-dreaming about him whenever I could. I think it is fair to say that I was what is now known as a 'TeamEdward' girl. What has prompted this post is that I loaned my sister my Twilight series a few nights ago and realised that I have yet to even finish Breaking Dawn. It is fair to say that my feelings toward the Twilight books have drastically changed over the years to the point where I question if 'Twilight Mania' has super-charged an otherwise okay series into a worldwide phenomenon for no apparent reason other than that vampires are just 'in' at the moment.
Nowadays, I cringe at how besotted I was for the sappy, wet, and, quite frankly, irritating Edward. This is without taking into account that I always have, and always will, have little to no patience for the equally sappy, equally annoying, and apparently deaf, werewolf, Jacob Black. I find myself wondering how on earth I had the patience to read through more than one book about these two supernatural fools who seem to be head-over-heels in love with the teenager, Bella, who, if one can believe, is even more annoying than the two male characters put together if her over the top behaviour in New Moon is anything to go by.
I understand that I am in the minority when it comes to my criticism of Twilight (no doubt there will be some Twi-Hards who would love to see my head on a stick right about now), but I reinforce the fact that I was once a great lover of the Twilight series. But there comes a time when simply having a hot vampire and equally hot werewolf, vying for the love of a teenage girl is simply not enough. There are simply too many holes in the novels that make it next to impossible to truly understand any of these characters. Why does Edward love Bella so? What about his love for her is so different to that of Jacob's? What makes Jacob hold on to his love for Bella? How and why does Bella just blindly fall in love with Edward? If her contemplation of suicide in New Moon is anything to go by, clearly her love for him is self-destructive. Are we not taught in everyday life that such love is unhealthy? So then why is it okay for Bella to exhibit such behaviour with little to no explanation at all? And if there is going to be a love triangle, surely Bella would question her feelings for Jacob more than she does? Otherwise why is there a need for a 'TeamEdward' and 'TeamJacob' in the first place when it is always pretty clear that Bella will always be with Edward. (Perhaps there is more danger of Jacob winning his fair lady's heart in Breaking Dawn, I would not know seeing as the very thought of finishing the book makes me cringe).
This brings me to my real quarrel with the series, that of characterisation. Edward, Bella, and Jacob are the central characters and yet, for me, there is simply not enough characterisation to warrant such praise from fans of the series. I understand that Bella is supposed to be the 'plain Jane' type of girl but even the simplest characters are not as one-dimensional as this. She is as plain in personality as she is in looks. Even the rest of the Cullen family struggle to hold up as stand-alone characters in my opinion. If it is so dangerous for Bella to be with Edward why does the family accept and welcome Bella into their family so quickly? Surely they would have some reservations about her safety, and if not hers, what about Edward? The one character who comes even remotely close to having some characterisation in this respect is Rosalie. Despite this, Bella simply avoids interaction with Rosalie as much as possible and an otherwise interesting character is reduced to cold, hard stares every so often. What a waste of a character she is.
With the new interest in vampire fiction and films, as evidenced from the worldwide hysteria (amongst teens and adults alike) every time a new film from the series is released, I felt the need to review a vampire series that is not only successful, but is actually good enough to warrant the success it has had. My next posts will review J.R. Ward's Blackdagger Brotherhood as the basis to my point that the hype surrounding the Twilight series, whilst helping to increase the profile of Vampire fiction, has also done it a great disservice.
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