Random: Everyone has an opinion of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight

[nebroadwe]

I had one myself, once (I think it was, "I'm not the target audience for this stuff."). But the_red_shoes has a sharpened spork of an opinion which she proceeds to drive straight through the book, leaving it to writhe horribly and return to dust as the sun rises over Castle Dracula LiveJournal, thus:

DAMMIT NOW I WANT A SPARKLY UNDEAD ENORMOUS POUF OF A PERPETUAL SAVIOR WHOSE CHEST HAS AN UNBEARABLY SWEET FRAGRANCE, IF FOR NOTHING ELSE THAN TO RESCUE ME FROM THIS DAMN NARRATIVE.

Some days I enjoy dispassionate analysis, some days I want snark. This is one of those days ...

Comments

[lyrangalia]

*laugh* yes, that spork really hits the high (low) points of Twilight.

My personal opinion can be summarized into the following:
1) Melodrama... Confrontation... PROM.
2) Someone beat Stephanie Meyer with a thesaurus. Please.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'd completely forgotten about the PROM. Then again, this is not a book disposed to linger in my consciousness, except for the huh? moments, like the sparkliness. I'm not a fan of friendly vampire books, anyway. As close as I get is the alliance-of-convenience in Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night. Robin McKinley's wonderfully world-built Sunshine goes completely south for me over the relationship between the protagonist and her vampire ally (the swoopy dedicatory note at the beginning should have warned me, but it was Robin McKinley. Even Homer nods ... )

2) Someone beat Stephanie Meyer with a thesaurus. Please.

At the very least, she needs an editor willing to point out her repetitive language and encourage her (with sharpened spork, if need be) to do something about it.

[lyrangalia]

Oh yes, Sunshine. That was a well thought out vampire novel. I also wasn't a great fan of Sunshine-Constantine-Mel thing, but I did love the world it was set it enough to want to play in it. I personally am not an overwhelming fan of McKinley because I find the way her climaxes are written to be quite muddled. But she does build wonderful worlds. Guess you can't have everything.

From what I hear, Meyer edited the book herself, which would explain something. One hopes that her publisher eventually shoved one down her throat, but something tells me not so much. From snippets of interviews with her, she calls to mind Anne Rice, except without the weight of the first three Vampire Chronicles novel behind her.

Also, I ran Bella and Edward through the Universal Mary Sue Litmus test and they both came back bright "kill them dead" red. :D

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I personally am not an overwhelming fan of McKinley because I find the way her climaxes are written to be quite muddled. But she does build wonderful worlds. Guess you can't have everything.

Exactly. She's does so many things well, and then I hit the climax of pretty much everything since The Hero and the Crown and spend a great deal of time scratching my head. And I like symbolic narratives, too. Sigh.

From what I hear, Meyer edited the book herself, which would explain something. One hopes that her publisher eventually shoved one down her throat, but something tells me not so much.

If that's true, my regard for Little, Brown's YA division just dropped a notch or five.