Book Review: The Twilight Saga (Books #1-4)

Title(s): Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Category: Young Adult, Fantasy/Paranormal, Romance

Length: around 500 pages per book

My Rating: 6

From Goodreads.com: Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife-between desire and danger.Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

My Thoughts

This is my second time reading The Twilight Saga. I started with the intent  to re-read Twilight only. My daughter has been begging me to let her try it, but I didn't trust my memory about there being no sexual content. And, while my memory served me correctly, I decided against her reading it for the time being. I think she can do without an intense teenage romance for a little while longer.

I don't really know what I want to say about these books. I'm not in love with them, as so many are, but I am also not a part of the vehemently hate group. Is there a camp that falls somewhere in-between? I wonder because I never hear from that group. Truthfully, I am fascinated by Ms. Meyer's vampires. I'm less fascinated by the shape-shifters. And I'm even less fascinated by the humans. So, my driving force in reading/finishing the books was to find out more about this world, and I was genuinely interested in seeing what would happen with the Cullen family. I consider Bella a necessary evil. Unfortunately, I had to sit through her story to get to the stuff I wanted to read about — the vampires. I did find Bella less annoying this time around though. Not because she wasn't annoying, but because I went in knowing she was and that I wasn't going to sympathize with or even like her.

This was not a careful re-reading. I "finished" all four books in six days, taking plenty of liberties to skim over parts that I didn't care about (including almost all of Jacob's narration in Breaking Dawn). The last was the most tedious book for me. I really didn't like how Jacob was part narrator. I found it awkward and wordy. I also thought the confrontation with the Volturi was much longer than it needed to be. I know they were searching for things to fight over, but it just started feeling unnaturally long and contrived. I have not seen any of the movies, but I really wonder how they made this last book into two. I guess there was just so much I didn't care about in this one that I can't imagine them not being able to leave enough out to make it in to just one movie.

I'm giving these books a 6 – Good, recommend with reservations. There is a lot I can make fun of about them just for the sake of poking fun. But, ultimately, I think they are a fun, escapist fantasy — quick reading and mindless.