By Laura Mae
My favourite hate-read needs no introduction. The movies dominated basically every aspect of
society in the years that the franchise peaked; not only capturing the hearts of pre-teen girls
everywhere, but provoking strong criticisms from many people. The Twilight saga.
I initially read the books in my teenage years and recently revisited them due to the recent
release of ÔÇÿMidnight SunÔÇÖ. I donÔÇÖt recall what I thought about the books when I was younger, but
now I realise why the books are so widely hated.
Firstly, the main characters. Bella is borderline insufferable, and Meyer does nothing to help her
case, writing her as a feeble person who struggles to do anything without Edward having to come
to her aid. Speaking of Edward, the man basically stalks her for months and she still falls into his
arms. The interactions between these two characters are mostly made up of them staring at each
other, or speaking but not saying anything that could drive the plot forward. And letÔÇÖs not even
get into Jacob and his whining and pining. I genuinely have no idea what his role in the story is,
besides being the other piece in the very strange love triangle that dominates the first 3 books.
The writing of the Twilight saga also completely ruins it for me. Personally, Stephanie Meyer is
not someone that I would put on a list of the best writers. Her descriptions are boring, flat and
donÔÇÖt add anything of value to the book as a whole. She wrote Edward and BellaÔÇÖs relationship to
be incredibly immature, and acted as if it was love at first sight (when in reality itÔÇÖs just a minor
infatuation on BellaÔÇÖs part!) The lack of character building or plot development is simply
upsetting, given what potential the original idea had.
You must be wondering, ÔÇ£If theyÔÇÖre so bad, why are they your favourite?ÔÇØ As much as they have
no literary value, the entire saga is an easy read, and the events of the books can be somewhat
enjoyable to read at times. My absolute favourite was ÔÇÿMidnight SunÔÇÖ; which is actually
interesting, and is written 100 times better than the earlier books. If you are willing to read any of
the saga, IÔÇÖd definitely say this one is the least insufferable.
If you want a Twilight fix, IÔÇÖd definitely stick to the movies.
