Wednesday, July 16, 2008

twilight, new moon and eclipse: my reviews...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently finished reading the Stephanie Meyer books, twilight, new moon and eclipse. I was compelled to read them because so many of you recommended them. And when I say "so many of you", I mean a lot of you guys recommended them. I was somewhat taken aback that so many of my blogging buds had read and loved these books. So what could I do? I had to have them. Now, after I tell you what I thought of them, we'll see how many of my blogging buds still like me. lol Warning: If you haven't read the books yet but intend to, you might want to stop reading. Spoilers ahead!!

To begin with, I loved twilight. It was interesting, it was fun and it was even a little bit, well... hot (much to my surprise!), but without any sex, explicit or otherwise. The love story between Edward and Bella was just plain good. I'm not usually big on romance books. In fact, I usually steer pretty clear of them. I like murder and mayhem, thankyouverymuch. But twilight was an exception to that rule. I could hardly put it down after I started it. Luckily, I had new moon waiting in the wings for when I'd finished twilight. Or maybe not so luckily, because new moon didn't really do the same thing for me that twilight did. It was okay...not great, but certainly okay. I guess it was worth reading, but after the delight of twilight, new moon was actually kind of disappointing. I mean Edward took forever and a day to stop with the whole martyrdom thing and Bella very conveniently having a passport (as well as the journey that followed) seemed a bit contrived and it took entirely too long to have them back together again. But, even though I thought most of the book was wasted on Bella and her questionable mental state, it was still a good enough read to have been worth my time. Then came eclipse. Geez. I gotta tell you people, and at the risk of ticking everybody and their sister off, that book almost drove me over the edge. If Bella had fainted one more lousy time or if she'd felt the need to "curl up" in a lap and "be held", either by Edward or Alice or Jacob or anybody else because of the stress of being hunted (while at the same time being oh-so courageous and noble, blah, blah, blah) I thought I'd bite my own neck and drain my own blood just so I wouldn't have to read about her poor, quivering yet brave self for one more minute. But the absolute worst part of it was her "torn between two lovers" dilemma. Hello, Stephanie!!! You were writing a series of books about one of the greatest loves in the whole entire history of love! How can it be considered a "greatest love" if one of the parties of the greatest love duo is also in love with someone else at the same time??? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I mean come on. I had at least bought into believing that Edward and Bella were soulmates, even if I did want to smack Bella around for being a goober so much of the time, and then Meyer up and announces that Bella is in love with Jacob, too. What the hey? You know, if I'm going to be drawn into a romance series, I'd just as soon be rewarded with a romance worth sighing over. Sure, I was doing some sighing here, but it wasn't the "aaahhhh" kind of sighing, it was more the "oh no she did not go there" kind of sighing. Big. Honkin'. Difference.
Of course, having enjoyed about 1/2 of this series thus far (and even taking into account that I suffered through the other half), I'll still be checking out the final book (breaking dawn) when it's released on August 2nd. Why? Because hope springs eternal that Ms. Meyer will redeem herself and bring Bella back from the brink of utter stupidity and into the arms of that cold, marble skinned, hunk of frozen vampire love, Edward. (Hey, who says I'm not a romantic at heart, eh?)

16 comments:

  1. So, Kari, tell us what you REALLY thought about these books! I've heard of them, but have had no desire to pick them up and read them. Still don't.

    There's an award waiting for you over on my blog - check it out.

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  2. Like you I really loved "Twilight" gave me great hopes for this series. Reading "new moon" now and also like you eh..not done yet but it doesn't have the same zing the first did. I'm holding out for the other two in paperback at this point based on that. You're gonna be busy girl. There's something for you at my blog too. hehe

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  3. LOL, Kari, I was going to save you the trouble, $$$ and aggravation and just read #4 for you!!! I'll be picking up my pre-ordered copy on Aug.2 and diving right in. I have to agree with you on Twilight being good and the other 2 kind of going downhill. Except I liked finding out Jacob's story in #3. Remember, with the exception of Edward, most of the characters are HS teenagers. They're supposed to be uber-dramatic :~)
    (Oh, I wondered how she got that passport so quickly as well!)

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  4. Hi Kari,

    I've never read any of these books but if you say you like them I will check them out the next time I hit the book store which is alot. There are certain writers who I'll buy because they are consistantly good and you can always depend on a good read.

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  5. Ohhhh giggggles... You write one honkin' good review there Hon!! Even if I don't totally agree with you. I love it. I do.

    After reading nothing but swooooooooooooning over this series, it's actually refreshing to read someone who wasn't totally enthralled. Really. Even if you think I'll just *hate you forever* or whatever. {Does that sound teen-age enough?!?} -giggles-

    And first off, my 14 year old Grand, and my 16 year old Grand and I... slogggggged through 'New Moon'! Slogggggggggggggged. So see, even the 'hooked' can recognize not swoon material when they read it.

    And of course I wanted to slap Bella now and then. Of course. But I think if she was written too perfectly, she would be totally unbelievable, as a teen. As is, Bella is a very mature teen, which makes the series accessible to more than just teens and pre-teens. But... if she was tooo mature, she'd kind of... well... be totally unbelievable. Maybe???? My view. No need for you to agree.

    Yaaa, you do have to get into the coming 'Breaking Dawn' though. Good! I applaud you. Others would just have thrown up their hands and said.. "I'm done."

    Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, do you know about 'Midnight Sun'? The story, from Edward's point of view? Not completed. First chapter can be read on the Net, though. {I have not, I like to wait} Hopefully, Stephenie will work on completing this, next. Since Edward is so mature, I think that should be less emo, right? :-)

    See, I handled your 'I don't love it' review, very well, did I now? :-) Of course!~ Not everyone will love every book!

    Oh and the triangle bit. Maybe I'm standing up for Stephenie too much but... isn't 'The Eternal Triangle' a basic part of lots of romance lit?

    Hugs,
    Miss Mari-Nanci
    Smilnsigh
    Photos-City-Mine
    When Twilight Embraces

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  6. I'm not going to read it all... I have started Twilight and just haven't finished it yet. I'll come back and read when I get it finished.

    I am trying to figure out why Edward was acting mad at the beginning of the book.

    Oh well.

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  7. I'm going to start with Twilight...Mari-Nanci says I must..I mean Miss Mari-Nanci...maybe I'll check the others out at the library...what do you think? Congrats on your award...you deserve it...love ya
    Aunt Sandi

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  8. Kari: Thank you, now I am prepared. I will still read the follow ons after TWILIGHT, but ready to not exactly dig them.

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  9. No spoiler for me, I'm not a fan of romance novels so it was refreshing to read your review and reinstate my desire to only read my horror/murder kind of books.

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  10. You so crazy! I posted some new pics of the monkey from today, so go check them out. Nick called today. He's good just busy. He said your phone didn't even ring, it said you don't accept calls from unknown numbers. He also left a voice mail on the cell (Jake's). So hopefully he will get a hold of you soon. Take care and I will talk to you soon. Oh and how are you liking The Notebook?

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  11. Kari - I have something for you on my blog today, come see!!!!

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  12. Thanks for the review Kari. I can't remember the last time I read a romance novel. I'm not sure I'll read any of the series, but I'll have a look at them.

    Pat

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  13. OOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOO! Say it isn't so! TSK! TSK!

    Of course, you already know that I am eagerly awaiting the next book!

    I LOVE them! YEP! LOVE! ROFL!

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  14. I was going to cruise right on through all the blog posts of yours I have missed when I just had to stop and comment on this one (the previous cheap art one was a classic also). I laughed out loud at your review. It was great. I haven't read the books and don't plan to (vampires? Just not my genre). Thanks for giving an honest review. I'm sure if I read them, I'd have the same opinion. :) I love the classic romances and anything modern just really lacks in something.

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  15. I just found this post about you reading the Twilight books - I'm going to wait to read your post because I'm just starting Eclipse and don't want to know anything about it yet. But, I LOVE the first two books and can't wait for the movie.

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