The Twilight Saga Collection
by Stephenie Meyer
|
List Price: Our Price: $49.95 You Save: $33.05 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $21.97 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Twilight Saga Collection
Book Review: A Level-Headed Review :)
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm actually a little bit confused after reading some of the customer reviews for this quadrilogy...I tend to research my books before I buy them so I know what I'm getting myself into; because, in fact, I'm one of those people who finds it unbearable to sit a book down without any intent of reaching the last page.
To begin with, I noticed that a lot of the 5 star-star reviews involve customers:
A) Bragging that they're over 30 and still reading teen fantasy.
B) Commenting on the quality of the cardboard casing.
C) Praise towards the audio tapes.
I haven't ever heard the audio tapes...that's not my personal taste; if you're going to read a book, don't be lazy about it. I will note that the cardboard casing is not that great, and I hope it didn't have any incentive towards the forty-something dollars that I spent on the collection. I only just took the plastic off of the casing last week so I could read the books, and it's already dinged up around the edges from being slid across my book shelf.
Now, my opinion on audio books and cardboard sleeves won't have any inclination towards the number of stars that I give. I'll save my rating for the meat n' potatoes of the books.
Pros
+ Now...Stephenie Meyer had a nice idea going with the premise of "good vampires" who don't snack on people...it's something to work with alright. She seems to be really swept up in her own fantasy, but the personal involvement is painstakingly obvious. If you're going to write from your own point of view, there's really no point for a shoo-in, is there?
Major Cons
+ Mary-Sue Complex
The number one downfall of this book is that the main character suffers from an immense case of Mary-Sue Complex. I found it rather difficult to relate to this character because she says and does things that I have never done/ would never say, even if I were just a few years younger, and in her situation.
I can't recall one time, while growing up with my father, that I ever, ever stepped foot in the kitchen and prepared dinner for him after a long day's work. And my father actually had a laborious job that didn't include riding around all day in a patrol car in a city that doesn't have a lick of crime to be dealt with.
Bella also has a bothersome tendency of always finding herself in life-threatening situations, from which she's always rescued with just moments to spare. I could list at least three, off the top of my head, but I'm not that spoilerific when it comes to reviews. You'll see, if you read the book. I might also note that most people don't find themselves in the face of death more than three times in the span of their lives, let alone in the span of 2 years...
+ Misdirection
There's so much misdirection in this book when it comes to characterization. Okay, people do change on impulse, especially in uncommon situations involving vampires and shape-shifters...but when a character makes a radical change in personality for the worse...it's just utterly distasteful. That's all I have to say...
+ In regards to Edward and Bella's relationship...
The author spends a lot of time engaging the idea that Bella and Edward are never meant to be; their love is a forbidden fruit. At the same time, she writes that Edward finds Bella to be irresistible; he can't help but stalk her around town and watch her snore and fart and drool in her sleep at night. (Hey...she's only human.) Bella is just as fascinated with Edward...she's constantly praising every aspect of his existence...portraying him as some kind of god with divine "runway model" beauty.
Now...I do remember a time in my life when I used to suffer from twitterpation, and I did drag myself way across the boarder of rationalization with my own boyfriend, but when I read about the relationship between Edward and Bella, it made me stop and think...`was I that stupid back then?'
I may have been borderline immature as a teenager, but I never referred to my significant other as a "sparkling Adonis". Even if I did by chance ever date the most glorious boy in school; one that resembled a runway model no less, it's still plausible to say that beauty is only skin deep. And Edward does not have a beautiful personality...well...sometimes...(?)
Maybe if the author wasn't so misleading, I'd be able to accurately deduct whether or not Edward is too sensitive or too possessive towards Bella...Some of the things that Edward puts Bella through made me grind my teeth...and what was even worse was that Bella is to Mary-Sue to say something about it.
I have to contribute a small spoiler here, just to validate my point...
(SPOILER WARNING)
I'm referring to situations such as when Edward immobilized Bella's truck and had his sister "kidnap" her and seclude her in their house while he was out of town, just to "keep her out of danger" (ergo, keep her away from her friends).
The misleading factor tunes in when, just a few chapters later, Edward displays absolutely no restraint whatsoever when Bella wants to leave him behind to go be with her "dangerous friends".
(END OF SPOILER)
I know that my boyfriend and I are someone possessive of one another, but if he ever locked me up in the house for three days and told me not to spend time with someone that I wanted to be with, I'd have a lot more to say than just "I love you". Right?
In conclusion...
Even if Bella and Edward actually do share some fundamental connection; some...truly great reason for loving one another...it's never actually mentioned in these books. I read a lot of "I love you" and "I can't live without you", and other such baseless statements, but even after reading the whole series from beginning to end, I still can't figure out why they love each other.
If Edward wasn't perfectly indestructible, and he happened to have his face ripped off by a bear, or if he got a sunburn and lost his "sparkle", or maybe even if he developed elephant-man syndrome, I make you a freaking bet that Bella would run out of things to say about him after just two sentences...
Geez...I think I may even be beginning to develop an underlying resentment towards my own boyfriend because he doesn't sparkle in the sunlight or lose himself in my eyes while he talks to me...
I should also mention that after the midway point in book 4, Edward practically disappears altogether as an individual, and is replaced by something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
(SPOILER WARNING regarding the above statement)
Any logical brained human being can deduct that vampires can't reproduce.
(END OF SPOILER)
Last Remarks...
I personally love vampire fantasy; I'm not one of those people who's read all there is to offer in this category, but I might get there one day. Based on what I know, vampirism is as popular a subject as it ever will be...it's one of those things that you like enough as it is. It's kind of annoying to buy a book regarding one of your favorite subjects, only to discover that the already-perfect idea has been warped to the point of idiocracy.
If you're going to write a book about a subject that's been done to death; one that already has an unyielding background in fiction...then stick to the facts. Otherwise, make your own fiction without the use of a pre-existing one.
Book Review: Overrated does not begin to describe...
Summary: 1 Stars
With these books and movies becoming, literally, the most popular media of the moment, I bought and read all four. Not here, but from my local Barnes and Noble. I bought and read all four before the movie came out. For this review I will keep the horrible first movie, and the abomination of the second one out of mind, for it may taint my opinion of the books.
My first impression of the books, when starting out, was of an eerie and stylish world containing some very unique characters. I was looking for something that could add to the vampire mythology, or create a great new one. I was horribly disappointed. The initial charm of Twilight soon dissipates when you realize that there's nothing more to it. The initial romantic feelings between Edward and Bella (whose names are conspicuously close to Eben and Stella from 30 Days of Night) seem to hint toward something deeper, something unique, but it all boils down to a bunch of awkward silences and teenage chastity. The encounters between Edward and Bella play out like an internet cybersex chat. Only they don't do anything interesting or remotely sexual. They breathe, they touch, they face away from each other, they sniff each other, they touch again... FOR FOUR BOOKS!
Four books of virgin teenage cybersex.
The mythology proposed in these books is not even worthy of the 10 penny bin at Wal-Mart. Instead of bursting into flames, or at least sizzling in the sunlight, these vampires... sparkle. To me, it seems like Stephanie Meyer was just playing mad-libs to come up with this. The vampires [enter verb here] when they enter into the sunlight. She might as well have had them turn green, or begin to smell funny.
Then it gets real weird. Her friend from the Indian reservation joins a group of Werewolves, only they're not real werewolves, they're the descendants of some kind of kindred ancestral wolf spirit. But Stephanie Meyer does tell of the real werewolves in her book. But those werewolves are evil, and the kindred Indian spirit werewolves are good, and not to mention big, buff, and meat-headed. The story then descends into a subculture of racism between werewolves and vampires. For no reason, the werewolves hate the vampires. The Indians act like a bunch of uber-racist rednecks toward the vampires, and the vampires act like snooty upper class white folk looking down on immigrants. They each have their own racist terms for each other as well. "Leech" and "Dog" being the most inventive of them all.
Bella, for some reason succumbs to being half-raped by her Indian friend, and then falls in love with him. He grabs her and pulls her into him, he kisses her against her will, and painfully so. Jacob acts like he is entitled to Bella's mouth and her body. And when you've got the self esteem of an anorexic cutter, I guess you'd find these qualities attractive. I personally think she should have reported him, but that's just me.
The writing style is something to behold as well. Imagine you're a 13 year old girl who has no friends and an obsession with unrealistic romance novels. Tack on a wish that there was a fantasy underworld of vampires and werewolves to take you away. Now, as that 13 year old girl, write four long winded novels. The Twilight Saga is what you would come up with. Every page begins to look like a flashback of an earlier point in the books. Edward's pushing away from Bella? Didn't he just do that twice this chapter? He's having a roid-rage outburst again? Bella's whining and trying to avoid human interaction? Wait, that's all she ever does. And Jacob is up to his old tricks, forcing himself on the unwilling, spewing racist insults at the Cullens, and acting all macho.
Which brings me to my next point. All of the characters in these books, especially Bella, are the most unilateral, simple people you've ever seen. Bella is an unbearably mousy, shy, pessimistic, negative person. She has not one redeeming quality in her entire being. I constantly found myself thinking "Edward has been alive for how many years, the definition of desirable, and THIS is the best he can do?" Their relationship reminds me of my first Middle-School relationships, when you have nothing in common but for some reason you put up with each other just so you can make out again after school.
As for the rest of the characters, they are as follows. Edward is a boring, wooden parody of the average chick-flick hunk. Jacob is a prejudiced 12-year-old brat in the body of a big sweaty roid-wolf. The other Indian werewolves resemble the group of bullies in Middle School who just grew their first pubic hair, and suddenly find themselves overcome by a compulsion to be as repulsively macho as possible. The Cullens are cookie-cutter characters if you've ever seen them: The warm, fuzzy teddy bear jock (Emmett). The beautiful, sour, spiteful prom-queen (Rosalie). The warm, wise, tender counselor (Esme). The wholesome, scholarly, handsome teacher (Carlisle). The overly playful, light-hearted friend (Alice). The introverted creepy kid that you almost want to get to know (Jasper). Adults are, of course, represented as people you need to hide things from, who always want the best for you but just don't understand you. The rulers of the vampires, The Vulturi, are the only realistic characters in the entire series, resembling corrupt politicians, drunk on power, fearful of opposition, and perverted by sadism.
Basically, you are never surprised by the choices anybody makes, because these types of characters make the same choices, and say the same things in every movie or story you've ever seen them in. Esme consoles Bella. Carlisle makes the hard decision. Alice makes everyone laugh. Emmett says something Andre the Giant would say. The series as a whole is simply a characterized summary of Middle-School and High-School written by someone who must not know the first thing about real love and sacrifice.
These books are targeted toward preteen girls who are just beginning to get that tingle when they talk to boys, and it's surprising to hear anyone older than 16 say the books were good. If you want to read about some interesting stories involving vampires and romance, read Anne Rice's books. Leave these books where they belong. On the shelf, or in the backpacks of sexually frustrated kids in Middle-School hallways.
Book Review: Why do people think this is a great love story?
Summary: 1 Stars
There is no "great love" in Twilight, and it certainly is a puzzler why people think there is. Edward and Bella have nothing in common, because neither of them has a developed personality - and what is developed is entirely contradictory to what is on the page. For example, we are told that Edward is kind-hearted. However, his behavior refutes that. He is overly possessive, unreasonably jealous, and controlling. He calls Bella names. He never laughs unless he is laughing at other people. He can not take a joke. He is racist (sure, the other boys are all racist too, but they aren't supposed to be kind). He is sulky and abrupt, and refuses to have discussions. He orders, rather than asks. He forces his will on Bella without regard to her wishes or her preferences (sexually, with gifts, with breaking up, with eavesdropping, with plans, with his very presence). Sure, some of it can be explained that he is immature, though at 107, he really shouldn't be. But he is never once shown doing a kind thing, in the thousand pages of this series. He leaves Bella for her own good, but does so in a cruel and abrupt way, without discussion and without explanation. And yet Bella thinks of him as kind and tells us that he is kind. Why!?
Bella is no princess herself: she tells us that she is giving and too-loving, but instead we are shown that she is shallow, manipulative, and really nasty when you get down to it. She does not give anyone a chance unless they fit into her model of how people should act - she likes Angela because Angela doesn't talk, she likes Jacob because he would cut off his own head for her, and she likes Edward, because he feeds her insecurities while dangling betterment in front of her face. She is not in love with Edward (and I honestly don't know how anyone could be - he's a nasty piece of work). She is merely afraid of death and aging. Living without Edward is made worse by the fact that she will never see the Sparklepires again - there goes her hope to spend the rest of eternity as a supernaturally beautiful young person with special powers. She has no other goal in life but gluing herself to a man for eternity, and the eternity is the clincher. She could never love Jacob, because a normal life isn't good enough for Princess Special Snowflake here. He could not make her beautiful, or immortal, or rich. No matter how much she claims that the wealth isn't important... just being honest, it is. Otherwise, Stephenie Meyer wouldn't have extended her Perfect Family into being richer than God, and wouldn't have deliberately contrasted Bella's only other choice as being abject poverty.
Since we are reading what amounts to nothing more than Ms. Meyer's fantasy life, the books are interesting in a way. What is on the page tends to be wordy and dull. She uses buckets of Word-of-the-Day's, but she rarely uses them correctly, giving the reader the impression that she used the Microsoft Word Thesaurus for the more simple descriptions she originally came up with. What is implied about her as a human being, though, is fascinating. We have a woman who is scared of nothing more than aging, dying, and death - so much better to live forever than to have to go gently into that dark night. We have a woman who worships beauty over substance and sexual chemistry over compatibility. We have a woman who does not think begging is degrading, who thinks that wealth magically makes everything better, and who thinks a controlling man is the perfect partner. A woman who thinks life is not complete without a man, and that all women want children at all times - though preferably children who they don't have to raise themselves. We have a woman who thinks sex is offensive, but vomiting up fountains of blood and having a man chew a baby out of a uterus is A-Okay. We have a woman who thinks it's funny when grown men fall in love with infants and toddlers, and who thinks it is romantic for a woman to fall in love with a man who has brutally savaged her. And if you're older than 25, ew, get out. So yeah - fascinating study of this woman's psychological profile (even more fun, reading her interviews. She apparently believes that other authors never tried to write a romantic male lead without flaws because they couldn't, not because it would make for a lousy story). As a series of books... she seems to have tapped into the sexual insecurity that many American women suffer from at some point in their lives. Still, the books are horrible and will be deservedly forgotten within five years. Remember when Titanic came out, and we were told it was the most EPIC LOVE STORY WHAT WAS EVER LOVED? Titanic is now being sold in bargain bin two-packs, good for a nostalgic squiggle, but silly and irrelevant to everyone else? These books have no true substance, and so in another five years, we will get another EPIC LOVE STORY to replace them.
Book Review: Disturbingly Bad
Summary: 1 Stars
Every generation has a fad, but it says a lot about the dumbing down of society when this is it for today's tweens and teens.
There is so much wrong with the series it's difficult to know where to begin. From the absence of the hero - and thus the romance - in the second book; to the gruesome and inappropriate birth scene in the final book; to the hundreds of pages of preparation for a battle to end the series but the battle never eventuates; to the deeply anti-feminist strain.
And I won't even start on the rampant paedophilia of werewolves falling in love with babies. There is talk of continuing the books with one such werewolf-baby love story. If America's Bible-belt hasn't yet got up in arms about this series (I'm guessing because the author is American herself - unlike British JK Rowling - oh the hypocrisy), then surely this will tip them over the edge.
Stephenie Meyer sure knows how to pad out a book with tedious and erroneous filler. Her abnormally drawn out phonebook-sized monsters must have been left unedited because - as is widely reported - the writer is the prima donna of the publishing world.
It's not the writing that has won the series so much fan adoration, but the blatant wish fulfilment for the dull, the ugly and the just plain average.
Having such a boring - and feeble - protagonist unconditionally adored by all other characters is not only unbelievable, but also insulting to intelligent readers. The author's self-insert wish fulfilment continues when - hey - the `perfect' hero chooses the whiny brunette wallflower over a string of beautiful blondes. And don't worry; our overweight brunette writer has made sure all the blondes are mean and stupid.
Bella is a `good girl'. We are apparently supposed to think she's really smart because she reads Jane Austen instead of having friends, but she truly is the biggest dunce I have ever encountered in fiction. She is also the ultimate role model for an anti-feminist movement, running the household on her teenaged own while her father goes on endless fishing trips. When her father is angry at her she worries that she serves him leftovers too often. When she's out actually having fun for once she has to race home to cook for him. She does more housework than a Victorian chamber maid.
But worst of all is the way her life is defined by men. Lose your high school boyfriend and your life is over. Whenever anything's wrong, cling to the nearest male. Hell, when there isn't a male around she spends her time literally clinging to, and sitting on the lap of, her boyfriend's adopted sister. Bella is always so tired she has to be carried everywhere; she spends so much time being carted around by Big Strong Guys that one has to wonder if the girl has a serious problem.
The sexual abuse (Jacob's attack), physical abuse (Edward dragging her places she doesn't want to go; Emmett physically restraining her when she tries to get away) and emotional abuse (Edward disabling her car; his family keeping her hostage) are `nicely' romanticised. But then, what else would you expect from a Mormon housewife writer?
The Mormon elements of the story are painfully obvious: this is a town where there appears to be no alcohol, no smoking, no sex and definitely no teenagers acting like real teenagers.
One of the most sickening elements of the story is `hero' Edward stalking Bella. For a very long time, he breaks into her house every night and watches her sleep. Without her knowing. But, hey, don't worry, it's romantic. Isn't that what all Peeping Toms say? Afterwards he spends every night in her bed. But, like good Mormons, there's never any danger of anything unholy happening.
But one of the biggest offences?
This is a vampire series without any vampires.
Meyer has turned those most extraordinary of supernatural creatures into perfect angels who aren't killed by the sunlight.
Get this. The sun makes them sparkle like pretty diamonds.
Pathetic, huh?
Sparkling aside, these `perfect' creatures do not have a single weakness (where's the fun in that?!), don't drink blood or have fangs, and they get good grades in high school.
It's like Disney made a vampire story.
The whole point of the Twilight series seems to be that we wonder what is worth giving up for love. The problem is, there's nothing to give up - seeing as Meyerpires are so perfect. In fact, why don't we all become vampires?!
Anyway, Bella ends up a vampire - with her family okay with that; and married - with a pretty cottage, great (religiously acceptable) sex and a perfect baby.
How appropriately Mormon.
Book Review: The Power of Disbelief
Summary: 5 Stars
I, Like many others in this generation of Vampires and Werewolves was absolutely disgusted with TWILIGHT! since 2004, I have always been that person who was like "Who would want to read something like that!?". I for whatever reason, absolutely despised the Twilight Books. However, I have never read them. I watched Twilight and thought it was a really bad movie, and that definitely discouraged me from reading any of the books. Well in November of 2009, I was out of books to read so I went to borders and decided to buy JUST Twilight. I thought "Hey what the heck. I shouldn't be insulting people's favorite books when I haven't even read them".
So I read Twilight. I thought it was really fantastic. I read it in just about 7 hours that evening that I bought it. I was so excited about the outcome of the book that I had to get the other books immediately. Sadly, I had no way of getting to a book store that next day so I contacted one of my older sister's friends who was into the Twilight saga and she said she would bring them over for me. That day I quickly read New Moon so that I could go with 2 friends to see the movie. I wasn't very pleased with the movie, I am sure many people can understand why. I absolutely adore Kristen Stewart and always have. She is a good actress, and people that say otherwise obviously don't see all the awards and film applauses she has received in her career. I thought that Robert Pattinson played a great role in the movies and definitely made them likeable. Taylor Lautner boomed as a great actor and that is absolutely wonderful. All the other actors and actresses I was also pleased with, I just didn't think that the movies did the books any justice.
After reading all of the books and being captivated by the imagination, I definitely apologized to everyone I insulted saying the saga was horrible. I really enjoyed it. In fact, in the last 11 months since I began reading the saga, I have read the entire saga 9 more times. Eclipse the movie I thought was pretty good, and don't get me wrong, I have all the dvd's (Eclipse on Pre-Order), But I just think that the books is what should be looked at.
People (like me) are constantly judging books (like the Harry Potter Series) simply by either the movies or by rumor. People do not realize that the actors who play Bella, Edward, Jacob and so on in the movies are not really representing the characters that Stephenie Meyer created. She dreamt up this story and put it on paper. Regardless to your liking of fantasy, vampires, werewolves, or whatever (I myself has always only read Non-Fiction), you have to give everything a try! I mean bashing her and her characters is like taking a child's imagination away. Most people in this world have a good bit of imagination in their lives, and it is wrong to remove it. Just because one may not like the Twilight Saga for whatever reason, it is not something that we all need to insult. It is a beautiful piece of art. There are many books in the past I have read that I had not been fond of. However, I would never bash them, the characters, the author, or the actors who played the characters as it is someone's piece of success.
So Really, I found this entire experience of being part of this world of Twilight to be fascinating. I was in disbelief when I finished the saga over and over again. Always finding something I had missed. It is something that will forever live on. Like the Harry Potter Books (Which I have just decided to pick up reading yesterday after always enjoying the movies), the Twilight Saga has things that are rather enjoyable to imagine (Like Vegetarian Vampires, Half Breed creatures, and a second world of the supernatural) then there are things that many cannot enjoy (Teenage Romance, Small town life, constant drama, dramaqueen for a main character). I mean people may switch those likings around, or not like any of that, but it isn't a reason to insult the saga. I would never again insult a book(s) before reading them. I recommend anything to read these books but do not RELY on the movies for a response. Maybe after you have read and enjoyed the books, see the movies, but the movies definitely do not justify the books. It is something great that the Harry Potter books have really been translated onto screen so perfectly, it is not likely that this happens.
So EVERYONE! Give reading them a try, if you do not like them, than just don't insult them. It isn't necessary. Definitely don't insult the actors for the books or movies being terrible as they just act out the screenplay that is handed to them, and just saying: all the screenplays are horrible.