Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
Rating:  -
I Was hesitant at first to read this book, but once I starting reading it, I could not put it down. I was, and still am, and advid Anne Rice fan and, though this is not in the same league as the Vampire Chronicles, it's good to see someone reviving the spirit of the Vimpire. Although this book, along with the rest of the series, are written more for the teen audience, I found it captivating enough for an audience of any age. I suggest if you have not read it, or are as skeptical as I was, just give it a chance!
Rating:  -
If you don't know by now that this is a story about a romance between a seventeen-year-old girl (named Isabella "Bella" Swan) and a "bizarre, beautiful boy" vampire named Edward Cullen, both of whom live in Forks, Washington, you must be living in a cave. The tale is this: because her Phoenix-based mother is often off traveling with her new husband (Bella's stepfather, Phil), the pretty, somewhat solitary, smart teen and only child chooses to move in with her police chief father, Charlie, and attend Forks High School, enrollment 358. It isn't long before she becomes intrigued by and infatuated with a pale-skinned, gorgeous guy who isn't as young as he looks. The feeling is mutual and so the two carry on a romance as normal as can be possible considering the fact that he really, truly, wants to suck her delectable-smelling blood.
The writing is, at times, horrendous. Judge for yourself: (p 143) "I looked around to realize that the school had become populated while I'd been sitting there, absentminded," (p 145) "A shiver of panic trembled in my stomach as I realized it was empty," (p 441) "The cabbie's question punctured my fantasy, letting all the colors run out of my lovely delusions," and (p 425) "A deep, heavy fog of lethargy washed over me, and my eyes closed without my permission." And could someone please share with the author the proper use of the word "chagrin"? On the bright side, the banter between Bella and Edward regarding safety precautions for humans dating vampires is pretty funny and the explanation of how the various Cullen family members came to be vampires is interesting. Although Twilight has its plot flaws (chains work on icy roads; students, in the age of AIDS, are allowed to prick their fingers and type their blood in a high school classroom; wildflowers bloom in winter), the plotting is definitely better than the writing.
Twilight is not my cup of tea, but I give it an extra star (the fourth) due to its rare, relatively tame tone and lack of profanity. In spite of its flaws, the fact that this barely beyond G-rated (some kissing and a bit of violence) has become the latest craze for teen-bookworms counts a lot in my book. Better: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Rating:  -
I bought this series for my daughter who is 12. She has NEVER been a reader and I was trying my best to light a spark. It worked!!! She finished all four of them in a month and is now asking for MORE! That alone makes me a fan. Stephenie Meyer inspired at least one little girl to love to read and for me, her mother, that makes the book a success.
Personally, I read the book and found it slow and the characters a little flat/bland. If I hadn't had the other three and moved from one to the next and the next, I would have thought the book was a complete waste for an adults reader. However, the story builds and builds in each one and by the end I couldn't put them down. The series as a whole was well worth reading but this book alone was weak.
Rating:  -
Okay, I like vampire books... That's about all I read. I've been reading the Southern Vampire series ever since the first book came out (in case you don't know, that's the book series that True Blood is based off of). I liked the Anita Blake books until she turned into a slut. I like Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series, which is actually a Young Adult series. Oh, and The Hollows series, with Rachel Morgan? Excellent! In addition to these books, I also like Buffy and Angel and have been collecting the comics, even though I've never been interested in comics.
So I've been trying to read Twilight and it's one of the most boring books I have ever read. I'm 220 pages into it and I'm still waiting for something exciting to happen. It's been about 150 pages of 'Edward is so beautiful' and 'Bella is so fascinating'. Gag me! Is there a point to this? Give me some character development and plot. If I'm 200 pages into a book and the only thing I know about the plot is that it's about a 17 year old girl having a crush on a vampire, and some vampire thinking she's the most fascinating thing he's ever seen in the however long he's been around, then that's pretty pathetic. And honestly? There hasn't been anything that I've seen about this character that makes me think she's so fascinating. So he can't read her mind like he can everyone else... So what? And if she uses the word 'smoldering' to describe Edward's eyes one more time, I'm going to puke.
I keep reading it, hoping maybe it'll get better and I'm about to give up on it. Maybe the movie's better because it'll cut out all the pages and pages about her eating cereal and going to the bathroom and thinking about how gorgeous Edward is. But as far as the book goes? I'm unimpressed.
Granted, I'm an adult, but I've overheard women my age and older talking about this book as if it's the best thing ever. If I was a teen I might like it.
If you want to read some good vampire fiction, check out any of the series from the first paragraph. Morganville Vampires is a Young Adult book that is well written and fun. If you want to read something for teens, then read that.
Rating:  -
Everyone who sold me on reading this series told me each book is better than the one previous so I managed to make it through 2 and 1/2 books before I gave up. I give it two stars because Ms. Myers can write, but she uses that ability to give us thirty pages of story and several hundred pages more of extremely repetitive inner dialogue.
I found some of her characters interesting, and the books might have been much better if we saw their stories and Bella (the main character) was sent to go agonize quietly in a corner where she couldn't bother anyone else.
I can see a much younger audience being attracted to this series but the adult following baffles me. (And this is NOT a critique of fiction aimed at a younger readership, I love Harry Potter and Neil Gamman's Graveyard Book.)Becuase this book isn't so much about young love as young angst. Lots and lots of angst. And we all gotta go through it. But relive it?
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