The Twilight series of books

Ok so because of all of the big fanfare about the film i finally found out about them.

I decided to read them first (rather than watch the film first) after a long debate with a friend about - do you read the book first or watch the film? I always think that if i'd read the book recently i don't enjoy the films because my brain picks out all the areas where it isn't like the book. I'd almost decided to watch the film first when my friend pointed out that if i did, then when reading the book i'd picture it visually the way it is in the film and not use my own imagination. Having agreed with her i decided to read the book first.

Now I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter books and Pullman's "His Dark Materials" and loved them. Those are childrens book (though the Pullman books would be pretty tough for a child to read) so i suppose my expectations were raised quite high for these books. I am also an enormous fan of vampire stories/ and films so i guess perhaps i was expecting too much.

I read Twighlight and the story kept me going much more so than the writing. Not only are there quite a few mistakes in the book (did anyone proof it?) but the author seems to have very limited vocabulary when it comes to adjectives, and how many times do we have to have the same repetitive descriptions of Edward being beautiful, and cold, and beautiful and statue-like, and beautiful and cold like ...erm...marble etc etc.

She seemingly has no better way of describing his eyes than "golden" or "Topaze" and then suddenly dreams up "butter scotch" and proceeds to over use it!

Even allowing for the fact the book is aimed more at children than adults, it is simply not well written.

Glutton for punishment that I am I decided to read the second book too and found that again the story, whilst not as compelling as the first, was the only thing that kept me going and that the writing seemed worse because there was nothing new or improved in this book and the same old same old descriptions were wheeled out.

So now i just want to read the rest to know the story. I am going to watch the film as well at some point, which I assume will be better simply because the storyline of the book is good, it's the writing that lets it down. I'd hope that the adaptation screen play might have had a good writer!

I've started to read the third book and now find that when the predicatable descriptions start (and they had within the first few pages) I have to put the book down out of frustration! My partner (rightly) shouts at me asking why on earth i continue reading something that annoys me so much! Good question! But i am interested in the story!

Has anyone else read them/have any comments? Does the writing ever improve? Even Harry Potter seems to stop being such a child's book after the third and grows a little, and the Harry Potter books child market is certainly aimedyounger than the Twighlight series.

Ant

I don't like the HP books/movies/story. it's just not my thing, and has nothing to do with a series of beliefs or anything like that. I'm also not a huge fan of the Narnia films (but I love the books)

most of the time I watch the movie first just because I do. Jurassic Park was a GREAT film and still is, and it ruined the book because the first JP film took from both of the books... the books were a whole lot bloodier when it came to the main characters... Spielberg made the story more adventure than suspense! I can understand why fans of the book wouldn't like the movie for that reason... and I get the point of reading a book after the movie and getting either completely lost (as I did with JP) because you were expecting something closer to the book...

then again the Revenge of the Sith novel is way better written than the movie ever hoped to be (but that's because George Lucas is good on story idea, bad on dialogue... Indy 4 not withstanding).

I want to read Team of Rivals before Lincoln makes it to theaters, though.

I'm a huge Twilight fan, I even read the first book when nobody knew it existed, but you can't read these books expecting them to be well-written, you just keep reading because, as you said, the story makes you want to finish them so you can know how it all ends.
I can't really tell you if the writing part gets better because English is not my first language, so there are some mistakes I don't recognize, but you should read the rest of the books anyway, just to know how the story ends.
I'm pretty sure you won't like the last book though, apparently nobody did. It's way too superficial, you don't get to enjoy anything because there are so many things happening, when you finally think: "oh, this is getting exciting", something else happens, you get differents POV, which is a great idea, but it doesn't reach its full potential because everything is rushed so it can fit in a 600-pages book. And I hated that, because it was the end of the story and I wanted it to be great, and I did like the overall idea, but I didn't enjoy it.

Regarding the movie, I was very dissapointed by it. I was expecting more, some parts of the story that you may think are key are missing, some parts aren't as good as they could've been. The whole falling in love thing between Bella and Edward is completely missing for me, it's like they meet, they talk 5 min, and boom! they are in love.
Some of my friends who didn't read the books thought it was great, but when I mentioned some things they didn't know what was I talking about, I realised then that these things were like inner jokes between the movie and the ones who have read the books. So... I guess it's better to read the books first...
Overall I didn't like it. Thank God I didn't pay for watching it because it would have been a waste of money. But, keep in mind I read the books first and I'm a crazy fan who was maybe expecting too much (I was just expecting them to not ruin the story).


I hope it makes sense what I've just said

Tonichelle said:

I don't like the HP books/movies/story. it's just not my thing, and has nothing to do with a series of beliefs or anything like that. I'm also not a huge fan of the Narnia films (but I love the books)

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Now i'm kind of the opposite in that I didn't enjoy the Narnia books (i lump them in with things like the Hobbit and LOTR which i was forced to read at school and absolutely HATED!) but the films (well the first one that i watched!) was on TV over Christmas and i really enjoyed it.

Tonichelle said:

most of the time I watch the movie first just because I do. Jurassic Park was a GREAT film and still is, and it ruined the book because the first JP film took from both of the books... the books were a whole lot bloodier when it came to the main characters... Spielberg made the story more adventure than suspense! I can understand why fans of the book wouldn't like the movie for that reason... and I get the point of reading a book after the movie and getting either completely lost (as I did with JP) because you were expecting something closer to the book...

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I didn't realise Jurassic Park was a book too. To me though, Spielberg ruins most stories he re-tells and i watch most of his films grudgingly and cringely awaiting the schmalz at the end with everyone living happily ever after. The end!

victoria90 said:

I'm a huge Twilight fan, I even read the first book when nobody knew it existed, but you can't read these books expecting them to be well-written, you just keep reading because, as you said, the story makes you want to finish them so you can know how it all ends.
I can't really tell you if the writing part gets better because English is not my first language, so there are some mistakes I don't recognize, but you should read the rest of the books anyway, just to know how the story ends.
I'm pretty sure you won't like the last book though, apparently nobody did. It's way too superficial, you don't get to enjoy anything because there are so many things happening, when you finally think: "oh, this is getting exciting", something else happens, you get differents POV, which is a great idea, but it doesn't reach its full potential because everything is rushed so it can fit in a 600-pages book. And I hated that, because it was the end of the story and I wanted it to be great, and I did like the overall idea, but I didn't enjoy it.

Regarding the movie, I was very dissapointed by it. I was expecting more, some parts of the story that you may think are key are missing, some parts aren't as good as they could've been. The whole falling in love thing between Bella and Edward is completely missing for me, it's like they meet, they talk 5 min, and boom! they are in love.
Some of my friends who didn't read the books thought it was great, but when I mentioned some things they didn't know what was I talking about, I realised then that these things were like inner jokes between the movie and the ones who have read the books. So... I guess it's better to read the books first...
Overall I didn't like it. Thank God I didn't pay for watching it because it would have been a waste of money. But, keep in mind I read the books first and I'm a crazy fan who was maybe expecting too much (I was just expecting them to not ruin the story).


I hope it makes sense what I've just said

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Thank you very much for your thoughts - I think your english is fantastic and everything you wrote was perfectly clear!

Given what you've said I'm sure that the final book will annoy me so i'll be waiting til it's out in paperback rather than buying the hardback!

I found it interesting what you said about the film. I'm hoping that since it's been a while since i read the first book and that i've blurred my memory by reading teh second and part of the third book, that i might not be looking for what is missing from the film (like i'm prone to doing with these things!).

Ant

Ant - I have the same view on LotR and the Hobbit that you do... and then I was forced to watch the movies by friends... so much of my life wasted on those stories! BLAH!

but I adore Spielberg films... so much fun and escape... for the most part (ie not counting Munich, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's List - all well made films, but not really feel good films)

Tonichelle said:

Ant - I have the same view on LotR and the Hobbit that you do... and then I was forced to watch the movies by friends... so much of my life wasted on those stories! BLAH!

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I was also forced to watch the films...and not just any version of the films, but the super extended extra boring long battle scene DVDs. Damn my brother in law!!

Tonichelle said:

but I adore Spielberg films... so much fun and escape... for the most part (ie not counting Munich, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's List - all well made films, but not really feel good films)

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Agreed on the none feel good films - which i enjoy more. That makes me sound like some kind of moody grouch when it comes to films when i'm not (honestly ), but there's films like Minority Report - which is a pretty bleak short story (from memory) and Spielberg has the pre-cogs kidnapped and "set free" drinking hot cocoa and laughing in a log cabin at the end!! (where's a puking smilie when you need it!)

And then there's AI....the last 45 minutes of which is just painful.

ETA - oh and war of the worlds *run screaming for the hills smilie*

Ant

antmanb said:

Thank you very much for your thoughts - I think your english is fantastic and everything you wrote was perfectly clear!

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Well thanks! I'm my own teacher, so the fact you think it's fantastic makes me somehow proud of myself

Given what you've said I'm sure that the final book will annoy me so i'll be waiting til it's out in paperback rather than buying the hardback!

I found it interesting what you said about the film. I'm hoping that since it's been a while since i read the first book and that i've blurred my memory by reading teh second and part of the third book, that i might not be looking for what is missing from the film (like i'm prone to doing with these things!).

Ant

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Oh, you will notice all the missing parts, that's actually why you never get to understand how Bella and Eward fell in love if you only watch the movie. For example, the scene where Bella is at the Biology class and starts feeling dizzy and sick because of the blood testing is missing (and that's exactly when Edward confesses his weakness for her), when they talk about pretty much everything during lunches, and he asks her about her life and shows how much he wants to get to know her because he can't read her mind, is missing too. I don't know.. maybe I was expecting too much after all... I'm still hoping for an improvement with New Moon, it's not my favourite book so I guess I won't get so mad if they mess up a little the plot (except if the ruin the Volterra part ).

I've enjoyed the books tremendously, but I'm not expecting it to be great literature. When I read for pleasure, I'm much more forgiving of the writing style, grammer and spelling as compared with how nitpicky I can be about business writing.

As for the movie, it was lacking in detail as compared to the book; How could it not be as the book is several 100's of pages? I thought the actors did a great job at expressing the attraction and the resistance of their mutual attraction between Bella and Edward, which is the foundation of Twilight.

One thing that needs great improvement in the movie is the special effects.

While I was reading the books, I did find some sections to be tedious and slow, but loved the characters too much to give upon the books.

I read Gone With The Wind before ever watching the movie. I desperately find the movie lacking as compared to the book, but I also understand that the movie would have been much too long without cutting out Scarlett's other children and other fun parts. So, in general, I find the books to be better as compared to the movie version. Seldom has the movie lived up to the book. Even some Harry Potter fans are upset by some of the movie adaptations, which the casual fan would not notice.

heyang said:

Seldom has the movie lived up to the book. Even some Harry Potter fans are upset by some of the movie adaptations, which the casual fan would not notice.

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I agree with that. I've learned now to leave it a long time between reading the books and watching the movie!

The thing that i hadn't noticed (as someone who had read the books before seeing the film) which my partner pointed out (having not read the film) was that at times the plot in the film moves on without explaining itself properly and I had to explain some story line in the order of the phoenix which I had from reading the book. I think this is ultimately the problem because in order to cut down the running time, the makers of the film presuppose that the people watching have read the books, but people who have read the books may find the film lacking, compared to those who haven't read the books who can watch the films as stand alone stories - which works better.

It's a tricky one i suppose!

Ant

Honestly - I have read lots of Harry Potter and LOTR fanfiction that is better written. I barely made it through the first book and than gave up. Although if English is not your first language and you haven't really read any books in English before, I would actually recommend the book, the story is simple, the characters rather one-dimensional, frugal choice of words - it's easier to read than Harry Potter or LOTR and probably a good way to start reading English (literature).

The movie wasn't really that much better in my opinion.

Antmanb, your reaction to the "Twilight" books was pretty much identical to mine. I read the series all the way through because I wanted to see how the story turned out, but at the same time, thought the writing style was dreadful throughout. I actually thought book four was the worst of the lot because it didn't even have a clever plot line to support it.

I didn't think the movie was any better, but it was so bad that it was entertaining. The theater was packed when I saw it, and hearing the audience react was a lot of fun. The dialogue was so bad that they were laughing in a lot of places that weren't meant to be funny.

I saw the movie (I agree the the movie was terrible, particularly the acting). But I was curious, so I began to read the book. I'm a huge vampire novella fan, one of my favorite series is Anne Rice's Vampire chronicles. So anyway, I read Twilight, the only reason why I could get through it is because of the movie (knowing what was going to happen). I was curious about what was next so I did go on to New Moon, but now I'm about 50 pages from the end, but I can't seem to finish it. Why, because I know what's going to happen and I don't want it to happen. Strangely enough, I detest the main characters, particularly Bella, but I love her relationship with Jacob (that's the only time I can tolerate her). I'll eventually finish New Moon, but I probably won't go any further with this series. The writing (and the characters) are elementary, definitely written for the tweens and teens, and honestly I don't think I can tolerate Bella for another 500 pages.

Funnily enough I've now finished the third book (is it Eclipse?) and I've come around to completely hating Bella too!! The way the "love" story pans out with Jacob and Edward is just beyond irritating. Bella's behaviour and and reaction to it all is truly pathetic and she becomes shuch a hateful character (to me at least) that i was reading hoping she'd get killed in the final fight!! The self indulgent "wo is me crap" that she pedals out every 5 seconds is just beyond the pale and completely unbelievable (the fact we've had to deal with it all through the 2nd book while Edward is gone and then go through it all again in this book despite him being there....where's the screamining smilie?)- she truly loves the two of them and is torn about it? Yeah right!

Glutton for punishment that i am i've gone straight into the final book because I just have to know how the story ends (i know, I know, i've got no-one to blame but myself!) but honestly I can't see what the 4th book is going to be about. I think it would have been much more interesting to have it as a trilogy and have the ending of the third book being the Cullens being forced to turn Bella earlier than planned so that she won't be killed. Frankly if it was always as dangerous as that for her - they'd have just turned her at the first opportunity just to make her safe - if the choice is - she dies or lives as a vampire - surely that's a no brainer?

Anyway despite the advertisements for it all over the covers i won't be touching "Host" or any other book by this author with a barge pole!

Ant

I must admit, I loved the Twilight books. There's another vampire/supernatural series of books that i absolutely love!! These are definitely more adult books but hilarious nonetheless. These were made into a TV show called True Blood on HBO in the States. They center around Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in small-town Louisiana who can read minds. She's a lot spunkier than Bella and more fun! If vampire books are what you're into, I would check these out. The books are written by Charlaine Harris and the first one is called Dead until Dark. I recommend these books!

skatingbc said:

I must admit, I loved the Twilight books. There's another vampire/supernatural series of books that i absolutely love!! These are definitely more adult books but hilarious nonetheless. These were made into a TV show called True Blood on HBO in the States. They center around Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in small-town Louisiana who can read minds. She's a lot spunkier than Bella and more fun! If vampire books are what you're into, I would check these out. The books are written by Charlaine Harris and the first one is called Dead until Dark. I recommend these books!

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Thanks for the recommendation! I really love vampire stories so will definitely check it out!

Ant

I guess some of you won't be reading the 5th book Midnight Sun. If you go to SM's website, you can read a draft that someone else released withouther approval. Since she didn't want someone else to take advantage of her work, she posted the same version on her own website. It's essentially the story from Edward's point of view.

I bought the entire series even though I found the film incredibly underwhelming. I'm a sucker for vampire novels

I also read this series over Christmas break. I found it to be enjoyable light reading. I think it is important to keep in mind that this is Stephanie Meyer's debut book. Her writing will develop and flourish over time. For a first book, I think it was great! The series has interesting plots and the characters caused a cult following.

I just finished reading "The Host." I did enjoy this too, but one thing really annoyed me. The main character in this book was very "Bellaesque." Again, we have a weak female character who talks about how much better othloer people's lives would be if she just offed herself! I hope that her next book will develop a completely different type of characters and distinguish itself apart from the Twilight series. But, I must say that this author truly has a vivid imagination and wild ability to create interesting science fiction/fantasy plots.

Enero said:

The writing (and the characters) are elementary, definitely written for the tweens and teens, and honestly I don't think I can tolerate Bella for another 500 pages.

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A good young adult novel should be something that can appeal to anyone. There are plenty of wonderful writers who stick to that genre because they're drawn to it, but they're every bit as talented as those who write for adults.

In other words, I don't think you find the writing style to be weak because it's a young adult novel, but rather because it's bad writing.

heyang said:

I guess some of you won't be reading the 5th book Midnight Sun. If you go to SM's website, you can read a draft that someone else released withouther approval. Since she didn't want someone else to take advantage of her work, she posted the same version on her own website. It's essentially the story from Edward's point of view.

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Talk about flogging a dead horse! Maybe she can right another book from the perspective of Renee next, and then when she's gone through all the main and minor characters she can write it from the persepctive of the nurse who Bella goes to when she feels sick at the sight of blood in the first book maybe someone could introduce her to a thesaurus too

Ant