Twilight

So, I finally got around to reading Twilight. We saw the movie last week, and liked it, and, after hearing that this was "The next Harry Potter," I decided to finally give the book a chance. I'll admit, I thought comparisons to Harry Potter were slightly blasphemous. I was right, sort of. While I really liked the story, and the ideas (vampires are always an interesting myth), the novel itself was clearly written for teenagers, its style a bit too dumbed-down for my taste. Harry Potter, on the other hand, was so perfectly crafted, so that adults as well as teens, as well as children, could enjoy it. I still don't know how JK did that.

But "Twilight" was a very enjoyable read. I'm used to more complicated writing, I suppose, since I like to read mainly classic lit and don't consider contemporary lit to be very overwhelming in general. The story is a timeless one: Average Girl falls for The Bad Guy, The Romeo, The Prince, The Rebel. Of course he's gorgeous. Of course he's mysterious. And, as an added twist....he's a good vampire, torn by his need to drink her blood and his love of her as a human.

I love romance, so that part was nice. I didn't quite feel the "obsessive" love she has for him, and he for her. They seemed very much like the teens they were supposed to be, rather than people ahead of everyone else.

The dark mood was there, sort of, but I'd have made it a much darker story, and him a much darker character. I guess I prefer the "monster" idea of a vampire.

I saw a History Channel special on Vlad The Impaler, the original basis for the Dracula legend, and let me say, it bothers me to this day. He was such a cruel and inhuman person, based on what history tells us. He actually was reported to have drunk the blood of people he had impaled to death. Hence, the stake through the heart for killing vampires. Possibly more disturbing, was that (I saw this in another special about the Vampire Legend. History Channel rocks.) during the hysteria over vampires several centuries ago, many innocents were killed and abused because of superstition and ignorance. Many of the "signs" of vampirism were nothing more than the natural decay process and signs of illnesses.

So, given its dark history, and the fact that my ideas about all of the mythical monsters come from older books or The X Files, I thought "Twilight," while enjoyable, was a little too....light.

But I'll have to admit, picturing Robert Patinson the whole time was nice. :)
Who knew Cedric Diggory would turn out to be so hot? haha

I recommend the book and the movie, but for vampire nerds, maybe, stick to the classics.