This is the story of when I read Twilight.
My roommate loves Twilight. Like, a read all the books multiple times, counts down the days to the movies, and lines up at midnight kind of love. I was a Twilight skeptic. I had heard bad things about the books and was sick of hearing about the movies all over my (admittedly beloved) celebrity gossip websites. But, last summer, I had some downtime between school ending and jobs starting, was rolling around my London house looking for stuff to do, and my Twilight-loving roommate convinced me to read the first book.
So I did.
I hated it.
OK, OK, "hate" may be a strong word. I strongly disliked the writing and really disliked a lot of the main characters. But I understood the appeal. I was interested in the story and kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened next. Compelled to find out what happened when the book ended, I read the second book, New Moon.
I hated it even more.
Not only was the writing bad, there was no story and the characters were even less likable. I still get the appeal. Spending two books with the same characters could leave a different sort of person needing/wanting to know what happens to them. A different sort of person may enjoy reading 200+ pages about a girl who likes a guy but doesn't know where he is so she wonders where he is and kind of starts liking some other guy, but OH NO she doesn't know where the first guy is and she really likes him but she's starting to like this other guy, and he's really nice and all, but what about that first guy....
Aaaanyway, I watched the movie and, needless to say, didn't like it either. Something about the way it was filmed (cinematography?) was ridiculous, but I did like seeing how the characters and story were represented.
So I think it's pretty clear that I don't like Twilight as a piece of literature/film. But I do like that lots of tweens/teens like it. It's getting "reluctant" readers to read and encourages them to read similar books outside the series, which may lead them to an even broader range of literature. The media tie-in makes the books accessible to an even wider audience. I'm reading through the Margaret Mackey chapter and hope to have some more intelligent things to say soon....
My roommate loves Twilight. Like, a read all the books multiple times, counts down the days to the movies, and lines up at midnight kind of love. I was a Twilight skeptic. I had heard bad things about the books and was sick of hearing about the movies all over my (admittedly beloved) celebrity gossip websites. But, last summer, I had some downtime between school ending and jobs starting, was rolling around my London house looking for stuff to do, and my Twilight-loving roommate convinced me to read the first book.
So I did.
I hated it.
OK, OK, "hate" may be a strong word. I strongly disliked the writing and really disliked a lot of the main characters. But I understood the appeal. I was interested in the story and kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened next. Compelled to find out what happened when the book ended, I read the second book, New Moon.
I hated it even more.
Not only was the writing bad, there was no story and the characters were even less likable. I still get the appeal. Spending two books with the same characters could leave a different sort of person needing/wanting to know what happens to them. A different sort of person may enjoy reading 200+ pages about a girl who likes a guy but doesn't know where he is so she wonders where he is and kind of starts liking some other guy, but OH NO she doesn't know where the first guy is and she really likes him but she's starting to like this other guy, and he's really nice and all, but what about that first guy....
Aaaanyway, I watched the movie and, needless to say, didn't like it either. Something about the way it was filmed (cinematography?) was ridiculous, but I did like seeing how the characters and story were represented.
So I think it's pretty clear that I don't like Twilight as a piece of literature/film. But I do like that lots of tweens/teens like it. It's getting "reluctant" readers to read and encourages them to read similar books outside the series, which may lead them to an even broader range of literature. The media tie-in makes the books accessible to an even wider audience. I'm reading through the Margaret Mackey chapter and hope to have some more intelligent things to say soon....
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