It's official. I've given up on completing Twilight. I made it to page 276 and never picked it up again. I'm placing it in the donation box for the local library's resale store.
I just could not get involved with the characters. The writing left a lot to be desired (although I've managed to become absorbed by other books with less than stellar writing). And I grew increasingly concerned about the potential unhealthy relationship developing between Bella and Edward.
As someone who is attempting to write young adult (YA) fiction, I try to read what my target audience is reading within my genre (fantasy). Twilight was an obvious choice. However, I couldn't wade through it.
I think my problem was with Bella. I did not find her to be a compelling character. I could find no reason to care about her. J. K. Rowling's writing is less than perfect, and her later books in the Harry Potter series needed much more editing than her publishers thought they could implement. However, she created characters that the reader could care about. I could skim over corny adverbs to find out what happened next to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Bella -- not so much.
As Bella began to spend more time with Edward I saw what were to me red flags that warned of a potentially abusive relationship. The girl with low self-esteem allows herself to be controlled by the boy on whom she has a crush. What begins as flattering interest in her evolves into the boy's total control of every little thing she does, or is not allowed to do. I found the vampire aspect of the novel far less frightening than the potential for emotional abuse.
I'm not into vampire stories, anyway. Stephanie Meyer did not change my mind.
3 comments:
I totally agree. My sister reads and loves these books and I'm just disturbed by them.
Oh my! Thats like admitting you read a national enquirer!!!! ;P lol
Seriously, i read one excerpt and thought - this is crap. You did a wise thing by stopping, but I probably would have not been as generous as you and I would have tossed it...Is it the gender neutral teaching that has been going on the last few generations that has put this notion, or "longing" to be a total female wimp because its something they havent been exposed to?
Kia Ora (Hello in Maori in New Zealand)
I am glad to belong to this club, yet to be published writer.
If you have written 276 pages, I encourage you to sit on your book for a while, and then return to it. I don't read or write YA and fantasy book.
I did write a fiction, people who read it says it is pretty good, but as an unknown writer, established publishers don't give a hoot. I posted the book in this site when I first started blogging. I was able to get a professional appraiser to appraise it when I decided in November to write a non fiction.
It is the story of my life, a tragic time when my son wa dying. The appraiser should get back to be this week.
Never give up, may be after your Christmas break, you start again, OK.
Cheers,
Ann
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