[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by pelagius

I will probably regret this but I read the series last week. I felt compelled to read them given they are close to cultural phenom status. Here is the review I wrote for my sister who likes the series.

I can't say I really like the series. Its ok and I do find it mildly enjoyable. I think the best think going for the books is that they are a very easy read. You really don't have to engage your brain much and they are a quick read despite their length. Also on the positive side, I think Meyer is clever particularly given that her subject matter involves vampires and werewolves (Although, at some points one does get an *Interview with a Vampire* vibe). Also, I think her pacing is pretty good too.

On the downside the books are just sickly sweet. I almost stopped reading the first book several times because I felt like Meyer had forced my jaw open and poured maple syrup down my mouth with a funnel. I suppose if one has a high tolerance for sickly sweet then this isn't much of problem. Actually, as near as can tell many teenage girls actually have a preference for sickly sweet so I suppose for many this is a feature and not a bug.

Actually, the sickly sweetness is not, in my view, the biggest flaw in the series. For me, its character likability. I don't like any of the three major characters. Bella is annoying. Ya, we get it; there is a hole in your heart and you really want to by a polyandrist. When she was begging Edward for sex in book 3 I quite frankly hoped that Edward would comply and lose control so I could be put out of my misery. Also, her character is woefully underdeveloped. From the very first book it was hinted that she wasn't normal and had gifts: she can smell blood, faints at the smell of blood, is supernaturally clumsy, every guy in Forks appears to be supernaturally attracted to her, she has some sort of physic bond with Edward, and she is immune to some vampire special powers (and don't get me started on how Meyer messed that whole thing up by making here immune to some but not all powers and the ridiculous explanation she gave for it at the end of the book 3). However, she hasn't developed that aspect at all; Bella has just grown increasingly more annoying and whiny.

I think Bella is the reason I don't like the other characters either. Everything is shown through Bella's eyes (except for prologue in the third book where we briefly see through Jacob's eyes). I think it was a mistake to only write through Bella's eyes (its fine for one book but not for something that masquerades as an epic series). Silly 18 year olds have a silly world view. I only see Jacob and Edward through Bella's eyes so I don't like either one of them. I don't understand why Edward loves Bella besides that her scent is delicious. A really enticing scent is infatuation and not love. At some point I need to know why he loves her. Also, wanting to watch Bella every night while she sleeps is not love. Its some bastardized overly sentimental teenage misunderstanding of love. Maybe Edward is only capable of counterfeit love because he was made a vampire as a teenager. It does bring me some comfort that the preceding may turn out to be true.

My review is probably unnecessarily harsh. The books actually are somewhat enjoyable. After all, I did read the whole series. I usually enjoy pages 300 to 450 quite a bit. I suspect the books are the pinnacle of the teen romance genre. However, the books have the pretense to be much more than that and that is where I think they fall flat on their face. Don't worry, I also thought Harry Potter failed in this regard as well. Just not as badly.

I read the first two pages of the first book because there wasn't a soup can label available and I needed to spend some time in the bathroom. Two pages were all I could take.

I can understand why my 15 year old daughter would like it as she is a teenage girl.

IMO, the obits in the newspaper are better written.