Twilight post #2, in which I may have been wrong about post #1

Well, what do you know. 

I might in fact be a Twilight fan after all! 

I finished the book. By the time I got to the last third of it, I could not put it down. 

I still think the writing is atrocious – if I had a few free hours, I would go through and count how many times Bella “grimaces” since I think it’s a world record. And the gender roles are hugely obvious and insulting, and the vaguely religious undertones make me uncomfortable. But yes, Twilight was a captivating book. I guess this means I need to read the rest of them. Anyone want to loan me a copy?

Ok. Let’s Talk Twilight.

So, I caved. I bought Twilight. I’m sticking to my story that it’s for work purposes (and it is – I’m blogging about it) but I confess I had been considering reading it anyway. 

I’m about 1/3 of the way through, and here’s what I’m thinking:

• Stephenie Meyer? Not so great a writer. I hate to be all judgey, and clearly she’s doing something right, but I’m actually finding the bad writing (and trust, it’s bad) to be distracting. I like the story so far, and I like Bella as a character, but I’d wager that Meyer won’t be winning a Pulitzer any time soon. 
• The Cullens are pale. Bella is pale. I get it. I got it the first 432 times you mentioned it in chapter 1 alone.
• Bella gets distracted when she looks directly at Edward. Surely there must be a million other ways to describe that feeling – poets have been doing it for millenia – and yet Meyer can only think of that one way. Peculiar.  
• I’m having an issue with how ALONE Bella is all the time. Her dad is never home, not even on weekends; she never talks to her mom, only emails and only, seemingly, once a week or so; she cooks dinner alone, goes shopping alone, walks to and from classes mostly alone, etc. Bella’s characterization of her life just seems to foreign to me, because even when I was a teenager, I didn’t know anyone who had that luxury of space. 

I’ll stop there, even though I have other issues with the book. But the truth is, I am enjoying it so far, despite the messes I’ve been noticing.  We’ll see if I splurge on part 2.