Twilight Travails part III: the good, the bad and the ugly

I'll freely admit, I expected to be blogging about this book for longer than I have been. But I finished it Thursday night and really haven't had time to sit down and write my final thoughts before I move on to New Moon. Why is this surprising? I didn't expect to read it as fast as I did.

Here's the unfortunate truth: I actually enjoyed parts of the book. Yes, I know - shame on me. So, here goes. The good, the bad, the ugly and the final analysis.

The same as last time; not-so-sequential bullet points.

The Good

• Meyer wrote a fast, engaging book. The writing wasn't terrific, but I've certainly read worse. It's her style, both in terms of technical voice and in storytelling mode that surprised me a bit. Taken apart with every literary skill I have, Twilight is self-insert Mary Sue vampire fanfiction - which just goes to prove my theory that fanfiction is a literary genre.



• Meyer managed to do something I haven't seen done in well before, which is to take a story from a placid, fluffy idyll to action-adventure/suspense in the space of a few paragraphs. She set the scene in the ball field, creating a very surreal feel with the storm and the ball game as a backdrop to Bella's wonder and awe - and later, fear. The arrival of James' coven was sudden and expected at the same time and both well-written and well-told.



• The Cullens. The scene where I got really hooked into the story was when Bella met the Cullens. They are cool enough to get their own sub-list and quite a bit of thought.
  
  
  • On family: the Cullens work as a family for several reasons. The first is obvious - the care they have for each other, which I think is founded both in their shared ethics and their 'conversion' stories. (I hesitate to use the word 'embrace' because it's proprietary to White Wolf gaming.
    
    One thing I've heard criticized is how fast the rest of the family takes to Bella - but I disagree with that. Their reactions to Bella are exactly what jumped out at me about them. Instead of 1) eating her or 2) getting mad about her, they chose Edward's happiness over their own comfort. (Yes, even Rosalie - but more on her later.) If you live with someone long enough, and are close enough to them, you can notice significant changes. The change Edward's connection/relationship with Bella wrought was obvious and dramatic, giving them good reason to open their family to her.
    
    
  • Esme didn't impress me much at first, but the more I looked at her, the more I got a feeling quiet, understated strength. The kind of emotional strength it takes to keep such a diverse lot together as a family. She's the glue and the heart - she's a mother, through and through. Her acceptance of Bella and her obvious affection towards Edward show that much clearly.
  
  
  
  • Rosalie: Some people didn't like or understand her reaction to Bella and Edward, but her reaction made perfect sense. Bella is 1) a threat to her family's dynamic and 2) a possible threat to their safety. If Bella gets hurt, Edward gets hurt - she's also (as is proved later) a giant target for other vampires. Rosalie's reaction is one of anger and fear - but still of love for her family. And after the whole series of events with James, I'm not sure I can blame her for still being angry at/about Bella. Yet, when things hit the fan, she unwaveringly did her part to protect Bella from James - because Edward was family, and Bella was important to Edward.
  
  
  
  • Emmet is awesome. Him, I get. He's big, powerful and a very simple person. When James threatened Bella, his reaction was very simple - a strong desire to go and hit James until he was no longer a threat. In the end, I know he and Jasper fought James to the last, but Emmet wanted to take care of the problem suddenly, violently and all over the place. Part of it was because of the challenge of the fight, but some of it was because James was threatening Bella - and thereby threatening Edward.
  
  
  
  • Jasper strikes me as the wise counselor. He's wise and old for his years and grasps people almost as well as Edward and Carlisle, in that he can sense what they're feeling. I imagine that's a something of a burden at times, but I also imagine it's a blessing. Jasper stuck with Bella and tried to do his best for her, as well as being one of the two to finally kill James. He didn't let himself be separated from Alice and was equally as unwilling to let Bella into danger.
  
  
  
  • Alice is the quintessential little sister. Bright, cheerful, supportive, mischievous, creative and inspired. She can see the future, which is a burden in every story I've ever read or heard; she's Cassandra, though everyone listens to Cassandra. She lived in hell growing up and managed to find her humanity by being a vampire. She's the one who I think empathizes with Bella the most and realizes what Bella is feeling - but I also think, because she's seen the future and knows Bella becomes one of them, she is able to accept Bella easier. She's also more fascinated with humanity than those who remember being human. She's a character with vast potential i want to see tapped.
  
  
  
  • Carlisle is easily and decidedly my favorite character in the entire story. He's the warrior-poet, the ethical hunter, the doctor, the shaman and the priest - he's someone who has faced and overcome his own darkness in more than one lifetime. He's a warrior and a hunter and has age and power to go with experience and knowledge. He's the family's father, their guide, and in some ways, their savior - he gave them the good news there was a better way to live. Harder, but better - there was a way they could live without destroying other people. He is living proof that vampires - and by extension - humans, can overcome conditioning and 'nature' to become something more and better.
  
  
• Best part of the book - Bella's sacrifice. There are three 'sacrifice scene' I love - the first when Sturm Brightblade goes up against Skie and Kitiara, the Blue Dragon Highlord in the Dragons of Winter Night. The second is when Harry Potter goes to be killed by Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. (I didn't link any of the HP stuff, because - really, if you don't know that, who are you and why are you reading my blog?).
  
  Bella walking into James' waiting arms to save her mother was a perfectly in character for her. She'd already sacrificed a lot for both her parents, trying to make them happy - or, in the case of hurting Charlie when she was leaving - safe. She didn't think twice about going to James - she just did it. She was terrified, but worked her way through it, outsmarted two older, much more powerful 'siblings' and escaped them to walk right into what she knew would be certain and probably painful death.
  
  It was well-written and was the most emotion-evoking scene in the entire book.

The Bad:

• I didn't get to see the fight with James. Maybe it's 'cause I'm a guy or maybe it's because I like fight scenes (and the two are not one and the same, thank you very much). He hunted, mindfucked and tortured a character I rather like, and he's a sociopathic ass besides. He needed to die, and I very much wanted to see Emmett go to town on his ass. Frankly, the thought of Jasper, with his emotion-altering powers and Emmett, with his raw power, ganging up on anyone is a bit intimidating - as a pair, they'd be a near-unbeatable team. Jasper makes him feel like the pansy he really is (hunting someone who can't fight back? Really - how brave is that? Big game hunters who go after lions and tigers and the like at least face the chance of getting eaten by a smart one. But more on James in a minute.) When Jasper makes him feel weak as a kitten, Emmett kicks the unlife right out of his corpse.
  
  I felt more than a bit cheated not getting to see it.



• James. At first, he's a decent enough villain. He goes from random feral blood-sucker to Big Bad in just a few paragraphs (which was well done and believable) and goes out after Bella. However, his motivations are lame. If he were just going after Bella because Edward wanted her, then he should have killed her when had the chance. If he wanted a thrilling hunt, he should have killed Bella and let Edward come after him. (I would have loved to see James against all the Cullens when they were annoyed. As much as I love a good, long drawn-out fight, I love a good pwning just as much.)
  
  If he wanted a good hunt, he should have kidnapped Bella and drug her across the US being pursued by the Cullens - and maybe the Moons (who are werewolves. Meyer made it obvious).
  
  Instead, he plays with his food like a two-bit Buffy villain and doesn't even manage to do any real torture before falling to his feral instincts (a controlled hunter would probably have had more control) and trying to suck her dry. Only, he fails - presumably because Edward and co. arrive to bitch-smack him for being dumb enough to hunt Edward's pet human. Overall? He was a disappointing, pontificating villain with all kinds of wasted and ignored potential.



• The chase sequence. So easy. Good tension, but Meyer should - and could - have drug that out much longer and made it more interesting, especially if Edward and Bella had been on the run together - she wasted that opportunity, too.



• Okay, coincidence is fine, but for fuck's sake - James knew Alice's origin? Unoriginal, contrived, and disappointing. Alice should have been more of a mystery for longer.

The Ugly

• The ending. After all of that - after Bella accepted Edward for who and what he was, she wasn't upset with him about James, she still loved him unconditionally - and yet? Edward vacillates. His entire family put themselves at risk of exposure or worse, and yet - Edward can't commit. He's spent a book stalking her, being a creepy pretty-boy bloodsucker, and Bella is okay with this and still wants him. She still loves him.
  
  Yet, Edward lays the groundwork to leave her. Whiny emo punk bastard! He's a century old! He should be bloody well smart enough to realize what he has, and fight to keep it. How can he read the minds of so many people and not realize how unusual what he and Bella have is? Come on! Get over yourself, kiss the girl, and try to have a lovely happily ever after!
  
  
• Bella is an emotionally stunted, painfully shy, disaster-prone girl from a dysfunctional, broken family. I doubt she was ever truly a child, but I don't think she ever really grew up, either. But why does Edward get to walk all over her?



• Her mother. Useless creature. Enough said.

The Final Analysis

• Edward is still a stalker. If most guys - even pale emo prettyboys - were to stalk a real girl, they'd get a pipe-wrench upside the head, a face-full of mace, and a restraining order shoved up their ass so hard they'd be able to use their teeth as a paper shredder. Yet, Edward gets away with being a stalker (listening to her talk in her sleep?!) because he's pretty and wants to suck her blood.
  
  Okay, so Rose (a girl from Dlair) tells me being stalked is now back in vogue (and is very romantic, thankyouverymuch), and I'm behind the times. slim_frame tells me it's only stalking when the girl says 'go away' and illidanstr makes some points about movie stalkers.
  
  But stalking is stalking. Men are raised from a young age to consider this behavior to be the sign of a sick and damaged mind. It's not romantic, it's illegal and up in the pantheon of sins against women somewhere near rape and public humiliation, in the same vicinity as abuse. And yet, women find this character to be the model of a romantic man.
  
  Is it his slavish devotion? The misty-eyes stare? Or the inability to be without her? (I thought that particular trait was lame, too.)
  
  Yet, Edward is not only romantic, he's sexy. I'm a little disgusted, and once again am starting to see that maybe taking women at their word when they say 'girls don't like stalking or domineering men' wasn't a good idea. Maybe if I'd done more stalking back in high school, I might have gotten laid more.



• I get it. Meyer is writing about love at first sight. Transcendent love, that breaks down and through barriers, that builds bridges, topples obstacles, and overcomes all - the kind of love that is often considered to be Great Power. But I have to beat my suspension of disbelief into a corner of my mind with a very large stick before I can buy into it, because there's not real build-up or connection or exploration of feelings.
  
  Then it gets slushy, mushy and gushy.
  
  The lurid language and over-the-top love doesn't make or drive the story; it detracts, and gives me a headache from rolling my eyes so much.



• All the folk mad at Harry Potter for it's supposed 'messages'? They should hate this more, because at least in Harry Potter, there wasn't a pedophiliac psychosexual stalker out to (romantically and erotically, of course) suck the main character's blood.

Overall, it wasn't bad. It wasn't good, either. It was the kind of thing I would never read again or really be in a hurry to pick up book two.

Though, there is a part of me who is invested in the character of Bella that really, really wants to know what happens next. I hate not knowing the ending, and this was just good enough I don't hate it.

So I shall read onward and borrow from someone a copy of New Moon. I might even keep blogging, if people want me to.