Seth: I try to separate authors from their fiction, but yeah, it’s a bit worrisome that Meyer didn’t ever imply that this was anything less than a perfect romance.

maite Lorente, sam, Dinah, Kelly: Glad to know I’m not alone!

Mary Miller: Until last week I was a teachers’ assistant at a middle school and worked with preteens every day. I didn’t then and don’t now choose materials for anyone - all I can do is recommend or not recommend books to my own teenage siblings and the other young people I know. That, however, wouldn’t change my opinion of Twilight. May I ask why you were wondering?

But I agree with your review, and its nice to know I’m not the only one who detested these books.

You have gotten a great amount of discussion going among Young Adult librarians. Many aspects of the series are now being looked at.

…….

Gillian: So I hear! I took a look at some of the discussion and it looked really interesting. Glad I could get something started!

Jeannie: Thanks for the rec. Is The Host another YA vampire series? I’ll have to look into it.

ANGIE: I feel that each book in a series should be able to stand on its own and present its themes without support from supplemental reading. If Meyer can’t convince me that Edward isn’t really disturbingly controlling in 500 pages, she never will. Furthermore, there’s a difference between blatantly advising someone to engage in unhealthy behavior (i.e. your Joe Camel example) and depicting destructive relationship patterns in the guise of “romantic” behavior, especially when those patterns are often mistakenly viewed as romantic in our culture. Everyone knows smoking is bad for you, but plenty of people will read Edward threatening Bella’s other suitors instead of letting Bella speak for herself as romantic, instead of the alarming, controlling behavior it really is.

Debbie Reese: Thank you so much for the link to your blog! I’m ashamed to say I didn’t really think about the portrayal of Native culture in the book, and I’m finding your posts on the subject really interesting.

To all the people saying “If you don’t like it, don’t read it”: How will I know if I like it if I don’t read it?

To all commenters, whether you agreed with me or not: Thank you for commenting! I love hearing readers’ opinions, and I’m sure Rebecca would say the same. I must, however, ask you to be civil. Play nice, guys!

You can’t succeed as a professional writer without expecting and accepting criticism of your writing. That’s very different than criticisizing the author as a person.

http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=2442

I don’t think most girls are planning to find a non-vampire Edward to protect and control them any more than fans of Gone With the Wind are out looking for Rhett Butler. Maybe I’m overestimating the ability of teenage girls (and adults) to separate fact from fiction.

Debbie: How can people miss the Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie? They’re pretty important. And yeah, the moral of the book seems to be “Stupid government, giving land to those whiny Natives!” which is…problematic, and one of the reasons it’s my second least-favorite book in the series.

I wouldn’t say writers don’t mess around with the Bible (John Milton and Philip Pullman spring to mind), but they do it a lot more carefully. Writers seem to treat Native culture like they would treat a defunct polytheistic mythology, like, say, the ancient Greek or Norse gods - which is horrible. Of course, this country has always been really good at turning Natives into fictional characters.

Sherry: I thought your review was really interesting (although that quote at the top comparing AIDS to vampirism made my blood boil a bit). I think it depends on the girl - how old she is and whether she’s been taught to question fiction. Of course I don’t think if you went up to the average teenager and said “Abusive relationships are great!” she’d say “Okay!” but I think a relationship like Edward’s and Bella’s, presented as something Oh So Romantic, can be very compelling and misleading.

I also think you made an interesting comparison, because before I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time all I knew was that it was supposedly one of the most romantic stories ever told. I loved the movie, but I was appalled by the way Rhett and Scarlet treat each other, particularly when he rapes her. And yet the popular consciousness of that movie states that they are incredibly romantic. Of course, most teenage girls don’t watch old movies like that…

Hannah: This comment made me laugh so hard. Good call.

If Edward had manifested himself as a villain, I’d have bought it as a cry for help or an attempt to cope with old emotional wounds. But since Edward is apparently considered a heroic, romantic love interest, I’m more than vaguely concerned about Ms. Meyer’s pyschological state. Bella is, as has been said in a hundred other anti-Twilight statements, a blatant stand-in for the author herself. If Bella is a dependant, willing victim of Edward’s abuse…what does that say about Stephanie?

I didn’t pick up on the abusiveness, I have to say, but now that you mention it… x.x I think I just didn’t notice because Bella is so happy to be passive to all his desires, anyway, which I found annoying and also incredibly offensive. Every “talent” Bella may have–like, say, being smart–is always told but never shown. As many problems as Edward has, if she actually defied him once in awhile, he probably just wouldn’t bother with her, period. -_-;;;; Not that I’m saying she brings abuse on herself, but… Well. I don’t know if her character would be happy with a less controlling guy.

It’s hilarious, though, that anyone would find Bella mappable. I can’t relate to her at all. How do you relate to someone who never makes any choices? o.O I really don’t understand.

Maybe adolescence has changed drastically in the, oh, three years since I’ve been sixteen, but seriously. Just because the words “true love” are pasted into a story doesn’t make it romantic. Bella is not a heroine. She’s not even really a damsel in distress. As a reader, I couldn’t respect her, and I really don’t think anyone else should, either.

Gothic Author

P. S. I also find it immensely amusing and ironic that the only argument in defense of this series seems to be something along the lines of, “You don’t understand!” XD XD XD

Julie: You said “An abusvie person does mean things to others for selfish reasons, like for power or control.” I’m afraid that’s simply not true. Many abusive partners think they really are doing what is best for the relationship. I agree with you that Edward loves Bella and that’s why he acts the way he does. I just don’t think that the way he acts is okay or healthy. He controls her, he deliberately scares her (and I don’t mean the vampire thing, I mean he makes her afraid that he’ll get angry at her or leave her), and he repeatedly hurts her (with his “crushing” grips and so on) and threatens physical violence (”I could…crush your skull”). That is all abusive (remember, emotional abuse is still abuse), and I don’t care how much he loves her, that doesn’t make it okay.

GA: Bella’s mappable because even though there isn’t anything about her that’s like you, there isn’t anything about her that’s unlike you, either. Frankly, there isn’t anything about her, period. I’ve never enjoyed that, but plenty of people do.

Basically, I figured he was trying to be a gentleman by scaring her out of the line of fire, as it were, but that’s annoying in and of itself. It’s the same thing almost every hero does because he loves the girl, so obviously, it’s all for her own good since she can’t possibly have her own opinion about it. Or, you know, be capable of handling herself.

Here’s what I actually wrote:

I guess so… It’s just strange for me, though, because if I honestly think about sticking myself in that story, I would spurn Edward and his sparkly skin unless he plied me with vampire wiles or something.

About Edward, though, I didn’t see his actions as necessarily abusive because he is trying to scare her on purpose.

I don’t like Twilight. It has absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter, because I adore the subject matter. I get sick of the passive voice and wardrobe descriptions — if I wanted those, I’d read Eragon, which I also loathed. (However, I will give it to Meyer: at least she isn’t ripping off other authors in the fashion of Paolini. Eragon and Arya? Tolkien is rolling in his grave.)

A comment above states that this series is bigger than Harry Potter. I find this idea baffling. It reminds me of a story I found at a blog elsewhere: a man in Washington apparently remarked despondently, “how could Bush have won? Nobody I know voted for him.”

It just makes me wonder if I’m the man from Washington, or if these fans are. Bigger than Harry Potter? I think that depends on where you’re from.

Anyway, thanks for reading. It’s nice to know that people actually take the time to read before making judgments (*cough* unlike my friends *cough*).

Sorry, but that post above was too priceless for me to let that joke go unsaid.

Anyways, this is insanely enlightening as a review/post. Comments aside, I wonder how much of this is your… reading too much into it or whatever (we’re on the internet, no offense but you’re not completely reliable)…

That said, holy God is this horrifying. Just straight up terrifying how Meyer can craft the story in such a way that the relationship is described as entirely normal and people won’t see it because of the cluelessness of Bella as a character (can anyone say they actually like her?). The fact that Edward can do these things and she can get away with it makes me… worry… incessantly for this whole romance idea that other people have said more eloquently than I ever good….

Now I want to read the book to make my own informed decisions about the validity of calling “the perfect man” a misogyinist, woman-abusaling vampire who’s insanely overromanticized…

… I think that makes sense…

Thanks again for this!

In addition to all that you said? I also think that Edward being viewed as “the perfect guy” by girls is like a sex addict house maid with ginormous boobs being viewed as the perfect woman for guys.

I would also encourage people to look at the warped sense of beauty displayed in these books too. Vampire venom is what makes you eye gougingly beautiful, and becoming so includes lightening of the skin. There are several instances where Bella describes specifically white skin and straight angular noses as “perfect”. I also just have to laugh at the Native American kid being “one w/ the wolf” or whatever x)). Stereotype much?

‘If you don’t like the book, don’t read it’
‘You need to give the books more of a chance.’

Well, apologists: which is it?

People are allowed to have opinions and allowed to review books! Comments like “books are like people and if you say bad things you will hurt their feelings” are just silly. Is the same true of movies, even ones you don’t like? It is OK if you like the book but it’s immature to chastise the reviewer for expressing her (valid) opinions.

I’m also amused by all the people saying this review is “cruel”. Uhm, are the fictional characters going to get their feelings hurt?

Thank you for writing this! It’s a brave woman who will put herself up to the fangirl firing squad.

I’ve tried to read it, admittedly the first page, but the punctuation and tenses were out of order so much I was disgusted, and of course, as you said, the characterization is just awful; especially how it starts off. =l
I think I’d rather play Russian roulette with a fully loaded pistol when Twilight is concerned.

Usually I can say something good about a novel, even though I don’t read much, but from the school reading list, there are at least some commendable elements in them.

As far as The Host is concerned, terrible book. Although it’s supposed to be an adult novel it comes across as a YA one instead. It’s not nearly as bad as the Twilight series, but it’s still bad. Just like Twilight, there is a lot of sexism. For example, at one point the protagonist, who is marginally more likeable than Bella in my opinion, states that “this body did not belong to [her] or to Melanie, but to Jared”. After reading that I had to set the book down for a good long while. I was absolutely livid!

I made it through Twilight, gritting my teeth all the way, and I found that I had to take New Moon in small doses - the utter stupidity of some of Bella’s actions practically enraged me. She complains about how Jacob is spiteful when she spurns him (again) for Edward - but can you honestly blame him? And then she repeats over and over again how she has a huge hole in her chest, as if the reader just doesn’t get it the first dozen times.

I may, in fact, read the last two books, if only for the sake of continuity, and dare I say it, laughs. I love debates, and Twilight has pulled up a wonderful one. And thank you so much for your wonderful review. I agree - no cupcakes for Twilight.

I love this article. It’s well written and simply brilliant.

Rosa, “Twilight haters” don’t hate the fact that romance is present. We hate the way the romance is portrayed. An abusive, unhealthy relationship is touted as the coolest thing since string cheese, and this is marketed for an audience that is liable to do stupid things based on this information. We humans are wired to find meanings and lessons in stories whether the author intends them or not, and whether we want to or not. There may be fans of every age, but younger fans tend to have less in the way of filtering systems, so they’re the ones we’re worried about.

Oh, and just because the story’s in first person doesn’t mean that the author has no control over the message of the book. A good author can write a character who believes her views are right, but still hold that in tension with the overall theme of the book. It is, by the way, not at all healthy to idealize your crush.