Self-Isolation #re3 - Twilight

• Title And Author: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• Publisher: Atom
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 513 Pages or 12 Hours 51 Minutes

Well, this is a turn-up for the books. I decided to reread Twilight. Now, I hold this series quite close to my heart (not Harry Potter close, but I do have affection for this series) and in times of darkness, such as self-isolation/furlodged due to COVID-19, sometimes rereading a book you love or rewatching that TV show, film or playing that video game is needed. 

So, not sure why I went to Twilight and not my normal go-on of Harry Potter or Sabriel, but Twilight I did. 

Now, this isn’t a review. There is no point me doing a review for this book as we all agree that, yes, this is a fun, beach read and a perfect read for something to sweep you along and you happily go along with it. HOWEVER, this book is very problematic. 

The book is very much split into two parts. The first half focuses on the romance, the falling in love for the first time. It’s Bella moving to Forks and falling into lust then love with Edward over a period of several weeks/months. I keep forgetting that the first chunk of the book takes place over a long period of time. That’s because Bella rarely mentions time pasting. 

And yes, people have said Bella is very blank-state Mary-Sue character as you insert yourself into her character (had to rewrite that line as “insert yourself into her” sounds increasely filthy!), and because she’s falling in love for the first time, we too are inserting our first time as well. Plus, as we all know, when you are at the beginning of a relationship, we all are wearing rose-tinted glasses and inserting the qualities we most admire onto the other person and not seeing their flaws, hence why Bella sees Edward’s behaviour as romantic and not as toxic masculainy (though why no one else in the book sees it is anyone’s guess).

Then we have the thriller second-half. I’m not against this - I read/audiobook most of this section in one or two days, but I sense that there were some aspects that were a little too easy. A little too convenient. But I read this section at speed and most readers forget this latter part as, when we think about Twilight and the Saga as a whole, we remember the romance. 

I’m surprised at some of the writing. In some places, it’s fairly solid and others, not so much. As someone who has read most of Stephenie’s novel (barring the Eclipse novel, The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner), I can see that she’s grown as a storyteller and go better with her plotting. Her adult novels, The Host and The Chemist are far better and much stronger (though, out of the two, I would say The Host is far superior. Though I do think The Chemist has its moments and would work much better as a TV show, similar vine to Killing Eve, The Blacklist or Blindspot). 

It was nice going down nostalgia reading lane, and seeing as I want to do a lot more rereads as part of my “Ten Years Book Blogging”, it was nice to reread this and make plans to reread a few other titles… gonna keep these under my hat, for now, though keep eyes peeled on my #re3 page as they might offer you clues…