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I brought three English-language novels with me to Germany, and ever since I finished A Feast for Crows I've been dying to find some more. The other books are Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, and while they're both good, neither author's writing style really lends itself to light reading. (I often have to read a section multiple times in order to fully understand it. Lovecraft's prose is a few shades purpler than I'm used to, and Hugo, much like Tolkien, is guilty of being incredibly wordy and throwing in fifty-cent words here and there. Also, the French names keep throwing me off.) I also brought two books on German culture, which - while interesting - are rather dry in places, a copy of The Little Prince in German, and a couple of my German textbooks. So I've been a little desperate the last couple days to find something that interests me and is fairly easy to pay attention to, and in that desperation I remembered that some kind denizen of LiveJournal had emailed me a typed copy of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight during fall semester.
Now, initially, I had some trepidation about reading this book. Most of the feedback I'd gotten on it was either fanatical and glowing (from people whom I know like the sparkly, Sue-ish fantasy/romance stories) or hateful and full of vitriol. I've also been told a couple things about the two main characters, which reinforces the "Mary Sue romance" I'd initially thought of. I also asked Kitty her opinion of the book, since she said she'd read it on the plane, and when I mentioned that Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon she said, "Well, that explains a few things," which didn't exactly fill me with a lot of confidence about the book.
I've read the first five chapters, and so far it seems like fairly straight-forward YA brain candy. I pretty much lived on the stuff from late elementary school to early high school, so it's familiar territory that doesn't leave too bad of a taste in my mouth as of yet. The foreshadowing is pretty clear without being TOO horribly obvious - it would be easy to tell what Edward was even if I hadn't already been told before I started reading. And while I'm not extremely fond of Bella, she hasn't yet filled me with annoyance. Then again, I'm only five chapters in - page 71 out of 334 - so there's plenty of chances for me to start hating her and Edward and every single character and plot contrivance, etc.
At the worst, it'll be pure dreck that I can delete with no regrets, and at best, a guilty pleasure. I'm fairly positive that there is no way it could ever be worse than what Laurell K Hamilton writes.
Now, initially, I had some trepidation about reading this book. Most of the feedback I'd gotten on it was either fanatical and glowing (from people whom I know like the sparkly, Sue-ish fantasy/romance stories) or hateful and full of vitriol. I've also been told a couple things about the two main characters, which reinforces the "Mary Sue romance" I'd initially thought of. I also asked Kitty her opinion of the book, since she said she'd read it on the plane, and when I mentioned that Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon she said, "Well, that explains a few things," which didn't exactly fill me with a lot of confidence about the book.
I've read the first five chapters, and so far it seems like fairly straight-forward YA brain candy. I pretty much lived on the stuff from late elementary school to early high school, so it's familiar territory that doesn't leave too bad of a taste in my mouth as of yet. The foreshadowing is pretty clear without being TOO horribly obvious - it would be easy to tell what Edward was even if I hadn't already been told before I started reading. And while I'm not extremely fond of Bella, she hasn't yet filled me with annoyance. Then again, I'm only five chapters in - page 71 out of 334 - so there's plenty of chances for me to start hating her and Edward and every single character and plot contrivance, etc.
At the worst, it'll be pure dreck that I can delete with no regrets, and at best, a guilty pleasure. I'm fairly positive that there is no way it could ever be worse than what Laurell K Hamilton writes.