Sunday Salon: A Week with the Cullens

My town was blessed at the beginning of last week with two days of nearly nonstop rain. The area desperately needs hydration and fall never seems quite complete without a few storms coming this way. Days like that only increase my desire for curling up with a book on the couch or cozying up under the covers in bed and reading for as long as I want. Unfortunately, duty called and I did have to brave the roads and go to work.

Still, I was able to spend some time lost in the written world, making my escape to another place if only for a short time. It wasn't my intention to spend so much time with the Cullens and Bella Swan, but that is where my reading took me. I managed to finish Stephanie Meyer's New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn this past week, even fitting in the portion of Midnight Sun that the author has posted on her website. Cold, rainy and overcast weather seemed a fitting backdrop for reading the rest of the popular series.

I am not going to write my usual reviews for any of these books nor will I be providing summaries of the books (you can read my review of the first book in the series, Twilight, here). I have been working them through my mind, trying to think of what I might say, but each time I come up empty. These books have garnered so much attention, bad and good and everything in between in recent weeks, months, and even years. Readers have analyzed, criticized and raved about these books beyond what I would have imagined possible--or even found necessary. I have followed discussions that end in bitterness as those who love the books defend them at every turn and those who do not care for the books berate them and rip the series apart, finding fault in every corner. The passion, whether out of love or disgust, the series brings out in people is, well, amusing to me.

I am not trying to minimize the impact the books have on anyone nor am I saying that people should not have strong opinions. I do like it when books get attention and encourage discourse. I just find it to be a fascinating process: which books are put on that pedestal, how the public reacts to those books, and how the craze and trends evolve. There are those people who shake their head in wonder at such hoopla and others who jump right on the wagon to see what it is all about. It is an interesting phenomena all the way around.

Reading a book is an intimate and personal process. We each are drawn to different aspects of a book, repelled or pulled in for different reasons. A character that I may find appealing may not be appealing to someone else. How I perceive a character could be quite different from how someone else perceives that same character. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. It is just one of the many facets that makes reading and the discussion of books all that more intriguing. I have enjoyed reading the various reviews of the Twilight Series immensely. If I have one regret, it is that I paid too much attention to them before reading the series for myself.

I put off reading the Twilight Series until after the fourth and final book of the series came out. I went back and forth about reading the series at all for quite a while, weighing the positive with the negative. I like vampire fiction. I don't especially care for young adult fiction, however, and too much romance bores me. I was not sure what I would think of this young adult vampire romance series. I took a chance and dived in, deciding to ride the wave like so many others.

I finished the series feeling satisfied. The Twilight Series was a good escape for me. It was just what I needed at the time in my life when I read it. Sure, Bella is annoying as all get out (I was about ready to pull my hair out a few times, especially in New Moon), and I wasn't quite put under the same spell by Edward or Jacob that so many fans seem to have been. Of all the books, I liked Eclipse the best. It flowed the smoothest and was the most suspenseful and action-oriented. I have no major issues with Breaking Dawn, which has garnered a lot of criticism among readers everywhere. I did not feel the same sense of betrayal by the author that so many others have expressed. It seemed a fitting finale, in my mind, although there were a few minor things I might prefer had been done differently. I especially enjoyed the last 300 or so pages of that final book--even holding my breath on a few occasions as events played out.

I liked Stephanie Meyer's take on the vampire world. It is always interesting to see what direction an author will go when creating his or her own stories around the fictional creatures. Will the author stick with tradition and borrow from myths already written or go down a completely new path, recreating the history and image of the vampire, different from we all have come to expect? In Stephanie Meyer's case, she borrowed from the old as well as created anew, and, for her series, it worked well.

I nearly did not read the partial draft of Midnight Sun after reading the author's note Stephanie Meyer included before she offered the link on her website. I feel a little guilty that I went forward anyway, despite the author's preference that I not. Midnight Sun is basically Twilight from Edward Cullen's perspective. I have mixed feelings about whether the book is necessary at all, mostly in the direction of hoping the author will leave things the way they are, but that really is not for me to say. The author has to do what she feels and thinks is right--it is, after all, her story to tell. The author has put the completion of Midnight Sun off indefinitely after a good portion of it landed on the internet against her wishes.

Overall, I found the Twilight Series entertaining and fun. For those who like comparisons: no, I did not enjoy it as much as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series and it will never live up to Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series. Twilight will not be counted among my favorites, although I imagine it will linger for quite a while in my memory, and I may even find myself rereading the series someday. I enjoyed the time I spent in Stephanie Meyer's world and am glad I decided to take the trip.

Week in Review:
Chunkster Challenge Wrap Up
Review of Baby Shark by Robert Fate
Bookish Chatter

Happy Reading!