Twilight

Ok, ok. So, I finally gave in to the whole Twilight phenomenon. I must admit that I went for a LONG time without ever hearing about Twilight or even knowing it was some extremely popular series. I found out about it mostly through Facebook when I got a flair board and I saw all these "Team Edward," "Team Jacob," and "Twlight!" buttons. I asked my friend what it was and she told me it was some young adult vampire romance type thing. Not my typical cup of tea, so I never thought about it again.

Now, I must admit that the bloggy world seems to be full of Twilight-ers. It seems a lot of the people I read loved it and were counting down the days until the movie came out. I asked another friend if he thought I should give it a read and he told me no...that he had heard it was poorly written and didn't have a lot of depth. But around the same time the movie came out, and B wanted to go see it because he loves vampire movies.

I was NOT impressed with the movie. I didn't like the changes made to how we have defined vampires for forever pretty much...and I just felt it lacked a lot of plot and explanation. B was disappointed at the lack of vampire action (guess we should have done more research into it), and on a whole we were both underwhelmed. But, I decided since I had seen the movie, I'd get the book to see if it was any better (and really, we all know that typically books are better then their movie counterparts).

So, I read Twilight. It was definitely better then the movie. But in my opinion, it wasn't AMAZING and didn't capture me the way some books have (you know when you absolutely cannot put the book down at all, and you feel sad when you are done because you have grown so attached to the characters?). I was disappointed with aspects of the book...the editing was atrocious, and there were many parts that were just plain confusing. But, I decided since I started the books, I might as well finish the series.

With each new book, I felt as if the writing got better, even though the editing it seems, did not. I was disappointed that in all, the series covered just about 2 years. I felt it could have been longer, and how much bad stuff can really happen to one girl in that short span of time? I don't understand all the Team Jacob and Team Edward people out there...I felt as if there was never a competition...we always knew where Bella stood...but maybe that is because I had the luxury of reading all of the books at once (and I did read them pretty fast if you think about it...).

Overall, I am glad I read the books. Would I read them again? Probably not...there just isn't anything there that makes me want to go back...everything was wrapped up and so straightforward...it isn't like the Harry Potter series (which I have read numerous times) where every time a new book came out, it answered mysteries from the first book (some of which you didn't even know were mysteries!) so that you could go back and look at the earlier books with a new light.

It seems, as I have done a little online reading about the series, that Stephenie Meyer got a lot of flack for Breaking Dawn. I laugh at that. Was it the perfect book? No. Nothing in the world ever ends as easily as she made it end. But it was her series, her characters, and she wanted them to go a certain way and that is her right. I guess I don't get people who would attack someone for not writing a story the way they wanted it written...if that is the case, write your own dang series. Maybe it is that the series had so many young readers, and they didn't understand the changes and growth the main character went through. Who knows? But still no reason to trash an author.

It wasn't a bad series. I'm glad I read it. I love entering new worlds and meeting new characters. And now I am left wondering what my next book will be since the Twilight series was a part of my life over the last 20 days.