Thursday, April 02, 2009

Just another book review and more

[Warning: Might contain a spoiler for the Twillight book series. Do not proceed if you have not read the book or if you love Stephanie Meyer. The author is not responsible for any heart break due to the criticism of the book]

I commented about “Twillight”, the book series, in Ina’s blog. I am not correcting it. I stand by my opinion but I think it deserve a proper review.

I was wrong when I thought I was addicted to it the last time. Last time, I did not get addicted to the book. I was however, floating in the cloud reading it. It was too good to be true and besides the fact I know that it is not healthy for me, I read it anyways. I read ¾ of the second book and then jump to the ending. For the third and fourth book, I simply flipped through it and went straight to the ending. I was not addicted to the book. I was, however, very curious to find out how it ends.

Stephanie Meyer is quite redundant in her writing and she put a lot of details which bore me. I just want to know if Edward’s going to turn Bella into a vampire and he did. That was a disappointment because it’s too predictable. It is what the readers want. I wanted to be surprised.

Despite my negative reviews though, I found myself hung up on the series. I just cannot stop reading it, especially the first book.  I am now addicted to it. Still, I can point out so many flaws on the writing, the plot, and the characters. It puzzled me how it is possible for me to be addicted to something that I know is bad for me, emotionally.

Then again, it is not that surprising. Else we would not have drug addicts or alcoholics. After several days of thinking (obviously my life is that happening), I think I know why the book is such a success or to be precise, why I can’t just let it go.

It’s easy to relate to Bella. Almost all of the female population, age ranging from 14 to 45 is a Bella. She is clumsy, she is insecure, she feels that she doesn’t fit anywhere and she’s invisible. Ordinary, or at least that’s what we think of ourselves. Most of us are wondering if this is as far as we could go. Most of us are hoping for some miracle to happen, waiting to break out of that ordinary shell. Waiting for a savior, an Edward.

Edward is a classic Prince Charming. He is very attractive with unbelievably handsome features, husky & seducing voice, addictive smell and with supernatural powers. He is romantic. He says exactly what you want to hear and the most amazing thing is he loves you a hell lot more than you love him, which is beyond infinite. Now isn’t that something?

And then, there’s a Jacob. Meyer is quite good in tackling her audience. Not every women like an Edward. For some, despite the danger in his diet preference, he is not enough of a bad boy. He is too good that it became annoying at times. Jacob is the solution. He’s young, he’s reckless and he’s dangerous. Unlike Edward who thinks thoroughly of his decision, Jacob is the exact opposite. He is passionate about everything and he could care less about rules. A classic Bad Boy.

They are the extremes of each type and both of them love Bella to death. This is even better than Cinderella. She only got one guy saving her. Bella has two. Yet all she wants to do is be a vampire. How ambitious.

After the fifth (I exaggerated of course, it’s more than that) time reading it, I finally appreciate all the minor, insignificant details described by Meyer. If I was in the cloud before, the minor details that I later appreciate put me in the seventh heaven. People say that she is an imaginative person. I disagree with that. J.K Rowling is an imaginative person. Meyer is not. How hard is it to fantasize having a guy loving you that much? How many of us do that every day? Don’t lie. You did do that every day. 

What Meyer did is simply take the fantasy that is on the mind of every girl (even if that girl has a boyfriend) and put it into a story. Of course, I would not disregard all the vampire/werewolf details, the volturi and what not. When I said I flipped through the book, I made sure that I get the gist of it. Still, the strong essence of the book is the love story. The twilight series is a love story. No more than that.

Bella always thinks less of herself and in the story she did get saved. Then she became extraordinary. Life is much more interesting than that. It’s not always you get saved before you become extraordinary. In many cases, that is not even how it happened. You need to save yourself, prince charming or no prince charming. Don’t wait for a prince charming to save you. On the other hand do not wait to save yourself before you go find your prince charming. Just take care of your own miracle. It’ll come.

I guess it is good every once in a while to fantasize. At least it will keep our hopes up. Make the bad days easier to deal with. But let’s keep it at that. People tend to let it hold them and when I said people, I meant me. I get influenced easily and when I did, it was too overwhelming. If you are like me, we know better when to fish and when to cut the bait. I think now is the time to cut the bait.

2 comments:

Ruzlina said...

I looooveeee your review!!! You wrote it with such passion. I knew right away that you were being modest about reading twilight only the seventh time. hehe....

It is true about women needing their savior. I laughed when you wrote Cinderella only had one versus Bella who had two. But seriously, I have to give credit to Meyer to make the books a page-turner. I think she was quite clever with coming out the different 'special powers' of the vampires had and how the powers relates to each other. It surprised me to learn that Edward's inability to read Bella's mind was due to her strength to shield, which we later found out in book four.

I enjoyed this series. I have not read her other work though. Like I said in my blog, I need to take a breather from fantasy for a while. Let's learn some history!

Mardiana Kamaruddin said...

Ehe thanx Ina..

You're exactly right! I just wish she could tone down the love story a little bit.. I guess the plot and the characters are a bit too perfect to my liking..

but it is sensational though..