This is preliminary, I’ll probably edit it and include it in my overall discussion of the series, but I wanted to go ahead and get this out there. Please understand that I am coming at this from (most likely) a different approach on dating and it’s informed by a Christian worldview. I’m really not interested in arguing my points right now and may be deleting comments that I deem inappropriate.
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Okay, I’m almost done with the first one and here’s what I think so far…
- Yes, it is engaging. If you want a romance that requires little thought, this is it.
- The writing is juvenile, but probably does well to appeal to the target audience (only speaking for the first book here).
- The magnetic pull that Bella feels for Edward is incredibly disturbing to me and I will go into that later.
- Bella calls Edward her “savior” at least once and says that she would rather die than be without him…I don’t like that.
Here’s the deal. By the time all of this stuff is going on they have known each other for a few months, but have had about a dozen kind of probing conversations. And she’s “unconditionally and irrevocably” in love with him. I understand this is fiction, but what really upsets me is that there are teens and tweens out there reading this stuff and setting up some really ridiculous expectations for relationships. Bella does not question Edward (so far) on anything. He tells her time and time again that he is dangerous and that she needs to stay away from him. Bella feels no fear whatsoever in his presence and her chief concern from about 100 pages or so into this thing is him, how he feels, and what he is thinking. It is an all-consuming, obsessive “love” she feels for him (I’m sorry, but at this point there is nothing that makes me feel like there is love between them, at least nothing more than either A. the puppy variety or B. some supernatural hold he has on her that rids her of her senses in his presence).
This is a problem for me. And it’s a problem because it’s young girls reading it who don’t know the difference, who don’t know that this is NOT REAL. I’m not even talking about the vampire aspect. I’m saying that Meyer is selling some cooked up version of “love” to a generation of females who are going to understand how sadly mistaken (and misled) they were when they realize that this isn’t the way things happen and that ultimately your feelings are NOT what you need to be trusting. I feel like I can say this pretty well-informed at this point, since I have a few cousins that have been obsessed with these books since the first one came out (they were all around 12/13 at the time), who have CLEARLY had their views on relationships affected by this. Can’t even go there right now.
I won’t lie, it’s been an enjoyable, easy-to-read (if you can get past all of the CHAGRIN!!!) distraction that conjures up the butterfly feelings of crushes. I just can’t see it being beneficial for younger ladies. This is exactly the sort of thing I would have jumped into when I was in middle/high school and it was NOT what I needed back then.
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Oklahoma girl through-and-through. Writer, aspiring domestic goddess and totalitarian dictator. Taking on the world one carb-induced coma at a time. Founder of GodlyGals, a ministry for women established in 2002. Co-host of Picture Shows & Petticoats. 
I agree with most of what you’ve said. I was a Twilight hater before I read the books, but I have to say, they get better. The first book is very much “love sick puppy” but then you go through book two and three and by then, it’s not so mushy, although book four is steamy.
Yes, Bella’s obsession with Edward is disturbing to me even though I thought the books were a very fun form of escapism. My 11 year-old has been told she has to wait to read them for the very reasons you list here. (Her 36 year-old mom has some perspective. She has none. And also, for “clean” books, they still talk a lot more about their potential for intimacy than I want her to read about just yet.) I think Meyer started out with no bigger plans than writing junior high fiction here and has been very surprised by the overall response to these books. I feel like Books 3&4 take things up a notch or two because, at that point, she knew the age range of her readership was much wider than she thought. FYI: Book 2 was my least favorite, at least until after I read Book 4. Then I liked it better.
I completely agree with you, and that’s coming from a liberal with a practically non-existent Christian perspective.
The obsession with Edward and her “need” for him just perpetuates the thought that teens must have a boyfriend to be happy. As you said, Bella just follows along with everything he says, does, etc. I hate to think that this is what young girls are seeing as an example of “love.”
I am very much looking forward to your thoughts on what I have heard called the “abstinence message” of these books.
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Thank you SO much for this review. I haven’t read the books and have not really felt the need to waste my time, but this is what I expected from all I have heard. I make it a habit not to speak out against a book unless I have given it a chance, and now I know I don’t need to as someone else is.
I started out resisting, then when Ab got a copy of Twilight for her birthday I decided to read it before she did. The author pegged the audience on the nose as far as the writing is concerned because yes, it’s juvenile.
I’m so glad to hear someone else address Bella’s all-out, pedal to the metal obsession with Edward. Hormonal teenagers usually experience one stupid obsessive crush at some point on their own and this book is perpetuating the ideal that this is okay and normal and could possibly send the message that it’s always supposed to be that way. I am still going to let Ab read it but she’s heard me talking about how I don’t approve of the relationship ideals it’s putting out there and we’ve discussed how obsessive crushes are just not healthy.
Now….I will await her first obsessive crush and hope he’s not a vampire.
Great review. As always, I admire your honesty.
I am wanting to teach English and this has been all the rage with the students in my college classes. I actually just got the first one for christmas from a classmate yesterday and I will read them and see what my kids will be reading… Thanks for the review. It will help when I am reading them!