Thursday, January 10, 2008

Once Bitten...


Last week my friend Lindsey lent me the first three books in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I think I am one of the last females on the planet to read these books. I guess I never thought I'd get very into a teeny-bopper vampire romance novel, being that I am so mature, you know? ;-) However, I started reading Twilight on Thursday night and finished Eclipse about 2:00 am on Monday morning. I didn't know much about these books, and I thought these three books were the complete series. I was uneasy with the outcome and woke up Mike to try and chat about it. He started snoring again half way through my rant. I was pretty grumpy and stayed awake for another hour milling it all over in my head.


The next morning I went strait to the Internet Gods to answer my questions. No questions were answered right away because I got caught up in fansites. HOLY MOLY! I know people love their precious Harry Potter, but when a gigantic flock of females get their hands on something, it is likely to erupt and become contagious. The world has Edward Cullen mania. Luckily I was was meeting Lindsey later that morning and I was able to talk about the book and get the hysteria I was feeling out of my system... Hurrah! There are more books coming!


Once I started telling people I was reading these (at first I was a little embarrassed), I was not prepared for the responses I'd receive. Everyone, with the exception of my father-in-law, loved them. I could not believe the level of infatuation that was present... almost unhealthy, ladies! One of my pals said their book club meeting turned into a husband/boyfriend bash-fest rather than talking about the book. They needed their significant others to be more like Edward. Now, I agree that they've portrayed Mr. Cullen extremely sexy, but I have just dropped my jaw at the mayhem.

I've had crushes on fictional characters before:
  • Mr. Darcy in High School after reading Pride & Prejudice.
  • Wolverine in college after being introduced to the X-Men movies.
  • Ronald Weasley while on maternity leave after reading finally taking the time to read the first four Harry Potter books.
  • William Turner from Pirates.
And now, at the ripe old age of 29 when crushes should be gone... Edward Cullen, the sexy 17-year-old vampire from the Twilight series. Ha! Ha! I think it is all so funny. Yesterday I logged onto Meyer's MySpace account (for research, of course!) and found profiles of all of the books characters with someones interpretation of how these vampires look. The images chosen were nothing short of god/goddess status. What I found most interesting was that these FICTIONAL CHARACTERS had over 50,000 friends on their contact list. Girls were leaving pictures of themselves with their cleavage and necks bare with comments like, "Bite me, Edward." So silly.

Now I'd like to comment on why this is surprising for me. The books aren't even written very well. They are really simple and juvenile, and extremely repetitive. How many times can we read, "His eyes flickered with anger" or "He wrapped his arm around my waist" and "I shuddered at the thought of it"? But these books are rather compelling and it is very easy to get carried away in the story. Meyer has a hit the target with these books. It is a good story and it the reader to take sides. I am not sure who I am rooting for. Edward the vampire or Jacob the werewolf. Doesn't it seem we should all be voting for Mike, the human?

Anyway... what a book! I can't wait for the next one and I really hope the movie does the book justice. I don't think I'll read Meyer's new alien book. I'm not much for aliens. But, I've never been much for vampires and werewolves either.

How about you? Do you like these books? Are you team Edward or Jacob? Or... are you Switzerland?

7 comments:

Kim said...

Oh no, not another friend biting the dust. You need to call Nicole. She adores these books and is trying to get me to read them. It's doubtful though. :)

Lori said...

Oh come on, Kim! They make you want to be a teenager in love again.

Nicole said...

Exactly!! It is like stepping into 1994 (only this time I have a fabulous rich vampire who loves me!)And you are right, the writing isn't that great...there was one point where I almost wanted to see if I could get through a page without reading the words "crooked smile" but I love them all the same! Oh, I love these. I am over much of the mania now, but I was useless for an entire week in October when I read the books.....twice.....in one week! LOL Now, I do want you to know that there are some fun extra scenes and outtakes on Stephenie Meyers web site. They are fun, and she has a play list of songs that she was listening to while writing them.

Hayley said...

Ha!

So, Eric totally ruined the first book for me. I read it aloud on a road trip and He was DYING! I threatened to quit reading quite a few different times after all his sarcasm. I just wanted a little "girl time."

I throughly enjoyed the second and third one all to myself. I'm like you though and still can't decide who I like better. Isn't it stupid?

BTW, Meyer just bought a house in our stake. I'll try to get an autograph for you.

Lori said...

H - I just read your comment to Mike and he said to give E a high five! Lame.

Anonymous said...

I read the first book in one day - it was a few weeks before I could get my hands on book 2 - I was having Edward withdrawls and read that one voraciously - then I started book 3. It was so inane and repetitive I could hardly stand it - I made it through the first half and then skipped and read the last few pages so I could see how it ended.

I missed the thrill of the first one...I guess we all just want a hot, rich vampire to love us!!

Rusti said...

Alright! Alright already! lol

I've had this book on at the bedside for a couple of months now. I just haven't had the desire to jump into. But fine, if you say it's that good, I'll take a sample. :)

 
Site Meter