The Twilight Saga Analyzed

Have you ever read a book and been painfully sad when it ended? This has happened to me before for sure. It usually happens with series of books, such as Harry Potter or the Tales of the City, but it has also happened when reading lengthy books such as IT or The Stand. When it's done, when you've spent so much time with these characters, when they've almost become your friends, a searing lonliness sets in for me. It was no different when I closed Breaking Dawn just a few minutes ago. The story ends on a totally happy note, but when I got up from my bed there was this pang of lonliness...a feeling of "What do I do now?"

I was able to tear through these books so quickly because I have a large amount of free time on my hands since school ended for the semester. I was happy to have something so gripping to do with myself that didn't really cost much money. And now it makes me wonder what WOULD I have done if I hadn't had Twilight to keep me company over the last few weeks.

Many thoughts about the books have crossed my mind while I was reading, and I hope to chronicle some of them here.

Stephenie Meyer is not the strongest writer in the world. I would never argue with someone over that. The writing was very simple and she had to work extra hard to draw you into this world: it wasn't so hard for me to get drawn in, already loving the subject matter. She had a different challenge than, say, J.K. Rowling because Rowling had both the luxury and the struggle of truly creating a new world. While the wizarding world technically exists in tandem with the real world, the atmosphere and everything in it is otherworldly. She got to make up new words, new items, new creatures to dazzle you with. Now don't get me wrong, J.K. is hands down a better, tighter writer than Stephenie could probably ever be. But Stephenie did a competent job of creating an otherworldly atmosphere within our own world, of making us question whether or not perhaps these things (vampires, werewolves, etc) exist without us knowing.

Her most compelling characters are the vampires, hands down. Edward remained the most interesting to me until the end, even though he became somewhat of a pussy in the last two books. Each family member, and the extraneous vampires as well, were drawn so vividly, from the facets of their beauty to the extraordinary powers that some of them possessed, even for vampires.

Unfortunately, Bella, our heroine, could never compete with the level of interest piqued by the vamps. And now that I'm finished, I wonder if this was Stephenie's plan all along. We go along with Bella, getting annoyed by her decisions, annoyed that she sees herself as so plain when Edward clearly thinks she's the bees knees, annoyed with her general grumpiness and whining. And just when I hated her the most, during the whole pregnancy terror, she turns around on you. When Edward turns her into a vampire to save her from the impending death looming due to giving birth, she becomes an amazing character. All of her annoying human qualities dissipate and she's a strong, ass-kicking, powerful vampire who stuns everyone. Which is exactly why I wonder if this was the plan all along. I haven't met anyone who likes Bella much, and more people who hate the last book. I was with them for the first half. I was horrified at the introduction of this baby, horrified that Bella was making Edward so miserable, and really horrified at the horrible choice of baby names: Renesmee. Horrible.

The only thing I have to say about the pregnancy stuff is that it presented the most gruesome images to date in the books: Human Bella drinking cups and cups of human blood to appease her unborn child, Bella getting bruised and broken from the inhumanly strong being inside of her, and Edward using his teeth to tear the baby from her nearly unconscious body. This was the sort of imagery I found terribly lacking in a story about vampires. This is also imagery that I can't imagine them including in the eventual film.

Another general complaint I have involves content. She could have made these books a lot shorter by NOT having her characters argue about the same shit over and over again. Edward is constantly feeling bad about putting Bella in danger. Bella is constantly making bad decisions and trying to put her own life before Edward's. Jacob is constantly trying to win Bella's love. Stephenie could have eliminated a half a books worth of content by toning these arguments down a bit. Another piece of annoyance that is usually necessary comes from the lame recaps given at the beginning of each book. I'm used to this with book series but I hate it still. Anyone who picks up a series in the middle deserves to be confused.

Another thing that I champion J.K. for over Stephenie is J.K.'s willingness to kill people. With what Stephenie had going on at least ONE major character should have, logically, gotten the axe. I didn't especially want to see any of them go but with so much fighting all the time it seemed logical, but in the end everything was tied up in a neat little bow. Which is okay sometimes.

Mostly I just feel sad to be done. These characters have plagued my mind and even my dreams for weeks now so...I don't quite know what to do with myself. None of the things I can think of seem as comforting as hunkering down with those books. Especially because no matter what, I can never recreate the magic of reading them for the first time. The second time around, knowing what's coming, the things that annoyed me initially will be more annoying exponentially.

But I'm happy to have made this a part of my life. I got a thrill today when, walking from my car to the movie theater, a couple of teenagers on a bench complimented me on the tattoos on my arms. They didn't even ask to read them. After I thanked them, I turned to walk away and the SCREAMED when they saw the TWILIGHT on the back of my teeshirt and cheered me as I continued on my way.

One of the screamers was a boy.

I'm pretty sure he was gay.