reading rainbow
i guess i’m just a sucker for a good vampire love story
the posh deluxe reading rainbow report
today, i’m going to talk about a series of YA books that, as a teenager, i would have read and re-read and sighed over and dreamed about until my binders were covered with “i heart edward” and my journal filled with fervent thoughts of loving a vampire.
i read the first book, “twilight,” about a year and a half ago, and to be frank, i thought it sucked (no pun intended, but HAR HAR). the premise of the book was compelling: an ordinary girl named bella and a hot teenage vampire, edward, fall in love, in spite of the fact that he wants to drink her tasty, tasty blood. i’m no goth pants, but i admit i’m a sucker for handsome, dangerous vampires (did someone say spike?). but the writing?! the writing was TERRIBLE. GAH. by the end of the book, i was actually ANGRY at the author, stephenie meyer, for taking such a promising plot and turning it into melodramatic drivel. it was such a literary waste.
then, a few weeks ago, jessica sent me this email:
***
so i started reading twilight by stephenie meyer, and it’s really really addictive. two of my girls are reading eclipse right now, and a few teacher friends have burned through all three books already. it’s a well-written vampire love story, TOTALLY the kind of book i loved when i was in middle school. i haven’t stayed home to read for an entire evening in a long time, but i did tonight.
now that you have time to read it, read it! i have no idea why it’s so addictive, but it IS.
***
even though i told jessica that i wasn’t at all impressed with “twilight,” i agreed to read the next two books, since she, by that point, had transformed into a crazed, wild-eyed addict. she was no longer responsible for her actions, so i figured i would accept her drug just to keep her calm.
after reading all three of the books, i have to agree that they are certainly riveting. i don’t want to give away too many plot points, in case any of you are planning on checking out the books (ahem, talena, becky), but i couldn’t seem to turn the pages fast enough! hot vampires! psycho hunter vampires! really old and powerful vampires! school dances! awkward boys! mean girls! parents that just don’t understand! there’s even hot werewolves!!! this book pushed ALL of my teenage buttons.
i can actually picture my fifteen year old self, curled up in an easy chair, devouring every word, stopping only to breathe during the parts that are just plain TOO HOT.
there’s a great article in time magazine about the series and author stephenie meyer. the writer of the article, lev grossman, discusses how meyer manges to bring the chemistry between bella and edward to a boiling point without them ever making it past first base:
“It’s never quite clear whether Edward wants to sleep with Bella or rip her throat out or both, but he wants something, and he wants it bad, and you feel it all the more because he never gets it. That’s the power of the Twilight books: they’re squeaky, geeky clean on the surface, but right below it, they are absolutely, deliciously filthy.”
when i read the article, i found out that meyer is a mormon housewife who woke up from an intense dream one morning, sat down at a desk with her babies all around her, and proceeded to create a series that has spent 143 weeks on the ny times bestseller list.
obviously, i hate her.
ok, no i don’t, but seriously, that’s cray. i can’t help it if i’m rife with jealousy. she’s like the new j.k. rowling, except with poorer writing skills and a more gothic sensibility.
her mormon background does help to explain her decidedly unliterary style (she does not actually claim to be a writer– she says she’s a “storyteller”). even more, it sheds light on the one thing that really IRKS me about these books… the victimization of the heroine. bella is painted as a charming but clumsy damsel in distress; she is constantly being rescued by edward, who always ends up carrying her like a baby. the carrying thing REALLY got on my nerves. by the end of the third book, i felt like bella was a sweet porcelain doll being tossed between two v. manly men (i won’t spoil the plot, but surprise! the other dude is also “not of this world” and super hot!). both of bella’s love interests are literally a thousand times stronger than she is, and both have the bad habit of referring to her as “mine.”
it got me thinking about the kind of romance i craved as a teenager. sure, the “bad boy” is always appealing, but did i feel the need to be rescued? did i want my weakness to amplify his strength?
i’m not denying that ladies, even modern, feminist ones, like to be swept off their feet now and then. but now that i’m reading these books as an adult, i worry about things like gender roles. i can’t help it.
then again, maybe i’m being too uptight. we all need to indulge in fantasy from time to time and, as the times writer reminded me, it’s easy to forget how ridiculously dramatic teenagers can be:
“… Meyer’s books are full of gusting emotions. Bella never stops gasping and swooning and passing out and waking up screaming from nightmares. Her heart is always either pounding or stopping. (Bella’s histrionics don’t feel at all unrealistic. When you’re writing about adolescents, melodrama and realism are the same thing.)”
maybe i’ve forgotten about what it’s like, to feel yr heart drop out of yr body when that cute boy passes you in the school hallway, or to cry a thousand tears when you hear that yr #1 crush has a new girlfriend (that’s not you). the “twilight” series takes those feelings and elevates them to an even more extreme level– the supernatural, life and death, eternal love kind of level. and for teenagers, above all other life forms, life really IS that intense. every day, you can die from embarrassment, rage, sadness… death by vampire is just another addition the list.
that realization softens my critical eye, esp. when i think about my favorite books from ninth grade, which involved a psychic vampire and an evil “shadow man” who happened to look like a super hot cyberpunk (ok, now i’m *definitely* reviewing those books this summer).
not to mention the fact that they’re making a movie about of the first book, and edward is HOTTTT (hello, cedric diggory!). i mean, if this trailer doesn’t call to yr inner fourteen year old girl, then you’re probably a boy, and reading this post was probably a colossal waste of yr time.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBvOhfL4mYw]
um… ZOMG.
officially, i give this book two and a half pants out of four.
unofficially? I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE. EDWARD & BELLA 4-EVER.
so yeah, in spite of my reservations, i think i’m officially become an addict.
jessica, wanna go to the bookpeople party for “breaking dawn” in august? i think i’m gonna wear a shirt like this:
LINKS
buffy the vampire slayer, my #1 hero, continues to inspire women around the world, including this NPR report in baghdad (thanks kristen, for the link).
as holly golightly would say, i’m too young for diamonds, so i think i’ll just take this exquisite cupcake charm from tiffany’s instead.
you guys. i just downloaded the coolest web browser application EVER– it replaces ads with art. try it!! now, i just wish they made a program like this for highway billboards.
i love baz luhrmann, i love nicole kidman, i LOVE hugh jackman… so why is the trailer for “australia” kinda meh?
Discussion
16 comments for “i guess i’m just a sucker for a good vampire love story”
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awesome firefox extention, too bad it doesn’t work with the beta of FF 3.0. But really cool. I’ve got to get into some vampire fiction, I’ve also got to get into the Buffy.
I’m totally going to check out those books! Flashbacks to making Mam-ma take me to TWO bookstores so I could get all the LJ Smith vampire books (originally a trilogy but then she had to make 4th book).
Yeah, I haven’t read those, but I read the flap of Host which is Meyer’s new novel that is not YA… I would say adult novel, but that makes it sound like a Beatrice Small novel and since Meyer is Mormon… Anyway, Host seems interesting. Most of the teachers have read the twilight series and like them. I just haven’t read it yet, but I’ll probably borrow them if Laura will let me take them out of our library this summer. I really enjoyed Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras by Scott Westerfeld. I had to run to the store to get the next one and made Raymond go pick up Extras the day it came out, so you should definitely read those. http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/books/uglies.htm
We have book fair this week and my secret pal from work got me 15 dollars to spend there, so I will be scouting out some new books. We noticed today that the cover for Wait till Helen Comes is still the same as it was 20 years ago.
I know several people who’ve read these Twilight books, and everyone says exactly the same as you, Sarah. “They’re terrible, and yet . . .” These are the same people who keep telling me that despite being cheesy, poorly written, occassionally poorly acted and violating even the simplest laws of physics, Doctor Who is actually a great show. So I’m not sure I trust their opinion.
HOWEVER. I will be seeing this film, because HELLO CEDRIC. Good to see you alive again, darling. Or, well, not really alive. But corporeal, at least.
and for teenagers, above all other life forms, life really IS that intense. every day, you can die from embarrassment, rage, sadness… death by vampire is just another addition the list.
That is basically the central conceit behind Buffy, is it not?
also on the subject of YA books, have you read the A Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy? I’m in love with those books. I cried – actual tears! – when I finished the last one. ACTUAL TEARS. I haven’t cried actual tears in, like, ever.
Yeah, speaking of not-great writing but still somehow engrossing, I think A Great and Terrible Beauty could use some…serious improvements. But it is hella juicy.
CEDRIC DIGGORY DROOOOOOOLZ.
OMG. Becky. You just listed my NUMBER ONE FAVORITE book in third grade. Wait Till Helen Comes! So scary! So awesome! I even had the first paragraph memorized, and I think I still sorta do..Something about writing a poem for Mr. So-and-So’s class at the kitchen table while her little brother happily worked his way through 20 math questions? I have to re-read that. It makes me happy the cover’s the same, b/c it was a creepy cover!
I love Wait Til Helen Comes too. It was my favorite ghost story. The crazy little step sister, the scary ghost and graveyard.
Remember, Becky and Sarah, when we took our camping trip senior year and we drove by an old house or church and we kept comparing it to WTHC.
i totally forgot about how much “wait til helen comes” freaked me out, and i also forgot about the creepy old house, so THANKS A LOT COS NOW I HAVE THE HEEBIE JEEBIES.
erin, i’m sorry, but i read “a great and terrible beauty” and i thought the writing was terrible. the story idea was fantastic but… it wasn’t engrossing enough to get me past the bad prose. with that said, i think you’d find the twlight series to be more riveting, in spite of the unspectacular writing.
I had a children’s librarian come in to the restaurant last week who was reading that book. She mentioned the mormon author bit and also mentioned that there is absolutely no sex in the books at all but they are highly erotic. Erotic mormon sexless vampires creep me out. Totally.
I LOVED Wait Til Helen Comes! I was trying to remember the name of that book just the other day.
Anyway.
A friend of my sister-in-law, Richelle Mead, has written a few vampire romances, and I’ve read one so far (v. entertaining). Start with Succubus Blues. It’s not quite tween fiction, since the heroine isn’t in school, but it’s the same sort of idea. And I actually didn’t mind her writing style at all (says the editor
.
I have to second Becky’s recommendation for Westerfeld’s Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras. Dystopian novels that kids will actually read and enjoy. My reluctant readers were always hooked by these books.
I personally love the Twilight series. They are “clean” and I think that helps with their marketability. It is a romantic vampire novel that your mom will be okay with you reading. And at least in my school district, that is still something a librarian has to think about.
Didn’t care for Great and Terrible Beauty-a big disappointment since it came so highly recommended by so many people.
I could go on recommending books to you for days-but I’ll just throw out one. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Seriously powerful stuff.
Ooh and a plug for my lit professor from grad school-she reads YA all the time and blogs about the newest stuff. I think you’d enjoy what she has to say. Someday I want to be her: http://professornana.livejournal.com/
i noticed that about the cover of “wait til helen comes” too, and it makes me so happy that i’m not alone in spotting this weirdness!
sarah, i can’t believe you’re even asking about the book release party. i’ve been googling to find a book release party in the area for august, so it’s on. i’ll buy the puff paint for our shirts.
You, lovie, are an idiot. Twilight is by far the best book I have ever read, and believe me, I’ve read quite a few. So if you read the books only for the ‘hot’ parts then you are in my opinion one of the most shallow and common people I have ever listened too. And then you DARE to say Stephenie has poor writing skills! FYI, J.K. Rowling is a Satan-obsessed bitch who deserve absolutely NOTHING for her books. But you wouldn’t understand that. Because you are shallow and common.
Hello, I just wonder why Twilight spent 143 weeks on the New York Times bestselling list if it wasn’t an absolutely FABULOUS book and people all over the world loved it???
Wake up and smell the roses, geek. You’re outnumbered at least a thousand to one. We all love Stephenie. And if you don’t, keep it bloody well to yourself!!!
Oh my God I’m laughing so hard! Whoever this Carina person is cracking me up. She completely missed the point that you liked the books despite their flaws. And then she’s blasting you for your opinion after giving you hers simply because you’re “outnumbered at least a thousand to one”. And how is JK Rowling a satanic bitch but a mormon housewife writing about vampires is the epitome of all things Christian? Both are talented, successful writers who hit upon a genre that taps into a HUGE market of readers. Why else would a bunch of late twenties to mid thirties women be reading and discussing it on this board?
being critical of best-sellers is the epitome of shallow and common. you’re right, carina, it’s wrong to be critical of a well-loved book. sarah’s a big idiot. keep it to yourself, sarah! delete your blog!
[...] series, which i found to be spot on, esp. concerning gender roles (as previously discussed on this blog). speaking of that entry, did you guys see that random comment from “carina,” who [...]