Twilight Saga: Book Reviews

I want to say from the start that I’m not big on change.  When I get into a story, whether it be one told in books or on TV, I really get into it. If told right, I can imagine what it feels like to be in the various settings and they all feel like home. When things change I often get nostalgic for “the good old days.” Take the TV show Angel for instance. Even though I watched, and loved, it till the day it went off the air, I never did get over the change in the settings. I missed “the good old days” or Cordelia, Doyle, and Angel hanging out at, and working in, Angel Investigations. Then just when the hotel began to feel like home, they spent their last season at Wolfram & Heart.

I did not take to the changes within the Twilight series. I think if I had read all four books as they were released instead of in less than two weeks it would have been easier to tolerate the changes. But, that’s not to say that I didn’t love each book in their own way. I think it only fair to talk about each book separately and then discuss the saga as a whole. This will help with those of you not yet done with the series. You can only read about the books you’ve finished without worrying about spoilers. So, here we go.

Twilight

I didn’t know what to expect from this series. All I knew was that it was about vampires. I didn’t know that it was about a teenage girl falling in love with one. I thought the series was more…adult. I was pleasantly surprised because it didn’t feel like I was reading a teen book. Though it did strike me as just the type of story I would have delved into in my teens since I always read things a bit above my level anyway.

I did find myself having quite the teenage reaction to the story though. I was drawn to Bella in all of her awkwardness. The first interaction between she and Edward had me intrigued. Of course we knew that his outward hostility towards her was his way of trying control his desire, but little did we know it was his desire to kill her.

I loved the interaction between them as she struggled to figure out his hot and cold behavior. The rescue scene was both exciting and romantic.  I thought it set up nicely the fact that once she put the pieces together it wasn’t that much of a stretch for her to get to the whole he’s a vampire thing. Stephenie Meyer didn’t waste a lot of time having Bella try to convince herself, which was good. That would have been boring and annoying.

Though the story was about a teenage romance, it was surprisingly relatable.  I remember what it was like to feel completely disappointed when your school crush didn’t come to school and how you felt the day would just drag because of it… and then you considered ditching. Once the secret was out and the mutual attraction admitted, I enjoyed the back and forth between them and the days spent asking each other everything there was to know about each other. I thought Edward was charming and it was easy to see how she could quickly fall for him and so deeply.

Then the book took a turn. Just as it was accepted that he would allow her into his world and that they would try to be together, Meyer introduced a ridiculous threat. Everything that happened after the baseball game seemed really forced. It was as if she felt she needed some action and haphazardly tossed in James. Next thing you know Bella is spending days in a hotel room in Seattle with Jasper and Alice and I’m like, “Huh?”

Her rushing to sacrifice herself was sweet, but also kind of dumb. It just seemed like Meyer was at a loss for how to wrap up the book.

New Moon

This book did in the beginning (and the end) what each book seems to do at the end – introduce this ridiculous “problem” that sends everything you know into a tailspin. I thought the birthday party scene was great and I could feel the tension and “oh shitness” of Bella cutting her finger open and almost being attacked by Jasper. I could understand it setting into motion doubts that Edward wouldn’t be able to protect her, but to have all the Cullens leave town was just too jarring and didn’t make complete sense.

As a result, the whole book wasn’t as… exciting as the first… but it was interesting. It was almost like a new book in a new serious. I liked the easy nature of Bella’s relationship with Jacob, though I never really saw him as a true threat to her love with Edward. Therefore, at times, it seemed like a waste.

I did enjoy the moments when Bella would hear Edward’s voice warning her against doing something dumb. I thought it would have been more interesting to find out that he really was able to talk to her mentally especially in the scene where she contemplates kissing Jacob while hugging him. She wonders how easy it would be to just let herself be loved by him, even though she knows she would never truly love him back the way he wanted, when suddenly she hears Edward’s voice telling her, “Be happy.” That brought tears to my eyes.

But just like in Twilight, Meyer creates an “emergency” that jarringly takes the story to a new place. Alice assumes Bella is dead and Rosalie (who I love) tells Edward. Spitefully, perhaps? Next thing you know, Alice returns to Forks (yeah, Alice! I love her!) and she and Bella are off to Italy to save Edward from suicide by homicide. Again, I felt like the ending was a bit rushed and hard to get into because it took me out of everything I knew of the series both literally and figuratively.

Then we get to…

Eclipse

This was probably my least favorite of the four. Bella is trying to juggle her relationships with Edward and Jacob while a series of murders end up being tied to Bella and a vampire’s revenge from actions that took place in Twilight. The whole plot was confusing and in the end, really didn’t make much sense.

BUT, because I love these characters (though I found myself getting more annoyed with Bella with each book), I remainded committed. Because I enjoyed Rosalie, Alice, Charlie, and Edward, and even Jacob, I stuck it out.

The part where Jasper is explaining to the vamps and the wolves how to best fight a newborn vampire was some laugh out loud bad writing. And much like in the next book, I felt like it took too long to get to the meat, to the battle.

I really enjoyed getting more backstory on Jasper and Rosalie. Especially Rosalie’s story which was both heartbreaking and scary.

But overall, I thought the plot of Eclipse was all over the place. So much so that I don’t even remember the purpose of some of the things like the vampire sneaking into Bella’s house and stealing her clothes for her scent.

If I’m not mistaken this was the first book where we learn that it’s possible for a wolf to imprint on an infant which comes into play later in…

Breaking Dawn

By this book Bella was just plain getting on my damn nerves. I know some have offered up explanations as to why it was easy for Bella to committ to being a vampire and possibly never seeing her family again and spending eternity with Edward, but have an outright aversion to marriage. Still, it didn’t make sense to me.

I called the pregnancy almost from the beginning of the book, but I didn’t see the next “twist” coming. I thought book one ended perfectly with Bella’s frantic call to Rosalie, a most unlikely ally. It left me wanting more, and at first I was annoyed with the sudden shift to Jacob’s story, but it later proved to be perfectly paced. His attitude toward the pack as he struggled to accept that he was about to lose his best friend as she became a bloodsucker was understandable and I felt sorry for him.

Everything in this book was wonderfully told from his reaction to Bella’s pregnancy and his leaving the pack, to Seth and Leah joining him (I looove Seth), to Bella’s protectiveness over the baby and Rosalie’s protectiveness over them both. I also really enjoyed the animosity between Jacob (dog, mongrel) and Rosalie (blondie.) I thought that was a nice balance to Seth’s affection for the vampire family.

Everything in the part of the book where Bella goes into labor was great.  Even when Meyer felt the need to point out several times that Jacob refused to look at the baby as she was born, I still didn’t see the next twist coming.

But, I would like to take this time to give a big ole, “What the fuck!?” to the name Renesmee. That’s just hideous.

This was some of the best stuff of the whole series…

Everything inside me came undone as I stared at the tiny porcelain face of the half-vampire, half-human baby. All the lines tha held me to life were sliced apart in swift cuts, like clipping the strings to a bunch of balloons. Everything that made me who I was – my love for the dead girl upstairs, my love for my father, my loyalty to my new pack, the love for my other brothers, my hatred for my enemies, my home, my name, my self – disconnected from me in that second – snip, snip, snip – and floated up into space.

I was not left drifting. A new string held me where I was.

Then…

It was the baby girl in the blond vampire’s arms that held me here now.

Renesmee.

Then…

From upstairs, there was a new sound. The only sound that could touch me in this endless instant.

A frantic pounding, a racing beat…
A changing heart.

Then Book Three started and the book went to shit.

1. I felt it was a total cop-out to make Bella be almost exactly as she was as a human when she became a vampire. Was it because Meyer knew the series was ending (though she could totally milk more money with a new series follwoing an older Renesmee and Jacob) and she didn’t have time to explore a true adjustment to Bella’s new life?

2. Remember the part where Bella goes to the J. Jenks guy to get new identities for Renesmee and Jacob? Why the hell was she talking like she’d been around for hundreds of years? It’s like Meyer forgot that it made sense for the others to speak differently (they were centuries old!), and just made Bella speak like all the other vampires because that’s how she was used to writing their dialogue. But Bella should have spoken like a 17 year old alive in 2008, which she was just a few short months ago.

3. I didn’t like the rush over the part of how the old pack came to accept what happened to Bella and Renesmee’s existance. Again, it felt like Meyer crammed in important events just to get to the ultra boring and drawn out ending. I also didn’t like how cavalier Charlie finding out about Jacob was treated.

4. It took way too long to get to the part where the Volturi show up and it took way too long for them to get to the killing once they got there and then… there was little to no killing! It’s like having a bunch of foreplay only to find that once the sex starts, your partner orgasms and rolls over leaving you wanting more. (Donny wants me to point out here that he totally doesn’t do that.)

5. There were way too many vampires introduced at the end of the book and I didn’t give a damn if any of them lived. If your last name wasn’t Cullen, or you weren’t a werewolf, screw you! And you know you’ve introduced way too many characters if you have to include a Who’s Who in The Vamp World style guide at the back of the damn book!

Like I said, the ending was a little sloppy and I feel like we were set up for a bigger ending than we got. Even with all of that, I’d love to read a three or four book series set in the future where Renesmee and Jacob are together, living as two dating teenagers. Perhaps Bella and Edward have to pretend to be her older siblings. Charlie, Billy, Sue, and all the other true parents are dead. Perhaps the other half-vamp child (the boy from the end of BD… too lazy to look his name up) poses a threat to Jacob and Renesmee’s relationship as he feels her rightful place is with him, someone of his kind. Yeah, I’d read that.

Oh, and another problem I had with BD is that, like I said earlier, it was too much change too quickly. Again, people who read the books as they first came out probably don’t feel the same way. I found that I missed the other residents of Forks. I missed them attending high school. I found that the whole damn book took place in the Cullen’s house and it was kind of… boring.

So to sum up…

- The best parts of Twilight was anything regarding the courtship of Bella and Edward

- Alice is awesome

- Rosalie rocks

- Bella was annoying towards the end and I think Meyer went overboard with her insecurities. OK, we get it, she’s clumsy!

- A lot of the conflict in all the books felt forced and came on way too quickly.

- Jacob imprinting on Renesmee was the best bit of plot in the whole series. Didn’t see it coming, and it made perfect sense. As soon as I read it I thought back to something Bella had said to him about them belonging in each other’s lives but somehow, somewhere, they got off track from where they were supposed to be. To what they were supposed to mean to one another. I was happy to see that Jacob later referenced that when he was trying to defend it to a newborn vampire Bella.

I’m sure I have more swimming around in my head, but I’ll let you guys talk now.

What did you think?

If a new series were to develop based on this one, what should it be about? Who should be the major players? The narrator?

BIOBaby: What in the World Were We Thinking?

I am about ninety-five percent sure I will never have another child. Not because of the physical pain. It’s true, you forget after time. In my case, it’s been 7 weeks and I find myself thinking, “You know, it wasn’t that bad.” But because it’s really emotionally draining.

I went from feeling completely overwhelmed and detached during the first trimester which made me feel ungrateful and evil. The second trimester, though better physically, found me feeling completely neurotic and worried that any and all birth defects would affect my child, not to mention the fear of miscarriage, early labor, and still birth. Finally, the third trimester was a rollercoaster filled with euphoric highs and depressive lows. And the fear that the depression would remain after my son arrived and I’d have to be kept from sharp objects and medicated.

And sometimes, even the love is too much. Nothing strips you of all your bullshit and defenses than looking into the eyes of your newborn child. The other day I said to Donny, “When Jack looks at me… I feel… funny. You know?”

“Yeah, me too.”

And that was end of the conversation, but I knew he got it. When I’m nursing Jack and he stares up at me, directly in my eyes, I feel honest. I feel naked. I feel like this kid knows me better than anyone else. That I am incapable of pretense because he is so in tune with how I feel and what I’m thinking that he’d call, “Bullshit!,” if I even tried to be dishonest with anyone. Including myself.

There are times when Donny and I will just stare at him and ask each other out loud, “What in the world were we thinking?,” and, “Where did he come from?” How’d we get so lucky? Intellectually, I know that I’m not the only woman in the world that loves her children, but emotionally, I think every parent feels as if no one loves their children as much we love our own. I know El Supremo loves his daughter, Bryce loves his son and Chrissa loves hers, but when I’m holding my son and my daughter sits next to me softly kissing his forehead I think surely no parent understands, or ccan ompete with, the love I feel for the two of them. Including my own parents.

I know my parents love me, but there are times when this love I feel for Kali and Jack is so all consuming that I think, “There’s no way one person loves me this much. Much less two people!”

I know Donny wouldn’t mind another child, but I don’t know if my heart could stand it. I already feel like God blessed us with one of each who are both, so far and thankfully, healthy. Why be so greedy?

Since Jack has been with us we’ve had a few scares. Another two today. There was my concern over the grunting and gas he struggles with. Especially when he’s sleeping. Doctor’s solution? Experiment with my diet, give him baby gas drops and gripe water, and let him sleep on his tummy occasionally. Then there was the three days he went without pooping. I found out that it is not uncommon for newborn breastfed babies to go days without pooping and that I shouldn’t worry. Then there was the heart murmur heard a week and a half ago. A trip to a pediatric cardiologist and ultrasound later, Jack’s heart is just fine.

Today something hit me. Something that a reader actually brought to my attention back on August 21st. I dismissed it and was even quite offended. She was seeing things. Making nothing out of coincidences. My baby is fine. He’s perfect. Though I kept my response polite, I hope, I now owe her an apology. Jack does have a tendency to keep his head tilted to the right. When I mentioned her observation to Donny, he also scoffed. “He’s fine.” Now, almost a month later we were both concerned.

I sat Jack up in my lap this morning and asked Donny, “Do you see it? Do you see how no matter what his head will always fall to the right?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, “I noticed it yesterday.”

We were both afraid to voice the possibility that something, anything, no matter how small, could be wrong with our perfect boy. We called the nurse who suggested that we bring him in in the next few days. When I also mentioned my concern that his little belly button had started to protrude slightly and seemed to poke out and harden when he cried, she suggested we come in today. That sent me into tears. Why so serious, I wondered.

The doctor examined Jack and noted that he doesn’t have any problems turning his head (we told him that when we give him tummy time he holds his head up and turns it left and right all the time.) He said that in most babies with Torticollis (thought keep in mind the doctor isn’t sure that Jack has this. At least not as severely as mentioned in the article) the side that is not favored will have a mass on the muscle. Jack, thankfully, doesn’t have that though he feels a slight tightness on the left side of Jack’s neck that he doesn’t feel on the right. He referred us to a physical therapist who, on Monday, will show us some exercises that we can do with Jack that will correct the behavior. By the time he is sitting up on his own, he should be fine.

As for the belly button, it’s a very slight umbilical hernia (which, coincidentally, was mentioned for the first time in Week 7 of a baby book that takes you through the first year with your baby week by week) that shouldn’t require surgery. His belly button should go in by the time he’s walking. If it ever becomes hard to the point where it will not go in when pushed, we are to take him to a pediatric emergency room immediately. Though, this is rare. Like 1 in 2 million babies rare.

I really don’t understand how we parents do it. When I was going thought that debate with Frogger on parenthood, I remember some women saying that people actually called them selfish when they expressed their desire not to become mothers. I didn’t understand, or agree with, that and I definitely don’t now. Sometimes I look at Jack and think, “What right did I have to bring this beautiful baby into this world where I know that one day he will be hurt, embarrassed, lonely, etc., before eventually dying?” All so we could have a son to love and teach sports or take fishing? Who are we to think we could handle such a responsibility or deserve such a love? How selfish!

But, God help me, when I’m nursing him and he looks up at me and sighs because he’s so content, and his hand cradles my breast because he feels safe (and loves the boob!), and he lets go of the nipple so that he can offer me a gummy smile with milk on his mouth, I think, “This is seriously what life is all about. I could do this all day long.”

Selfish? Maybe. But even with all the worry, I’ve never been happier.

Stephenie Meyer, Where Have You Been All My Life?

I love vampire books and movies.

One vampire series that I’ve been into is the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Years ago a clerk in a bookstore recommended them to me as I purchased a Buffy the Vampire Slayer calendar. In the Blake series vampires are real and everyone knows it. They live and work in our society like everyone else. They have to abide by certain laws and are even protected by some (hate crimes, y’all.) When they break these laws, that’s where Anita Blake steps in. She’s a licensed executioner. What? You think you can just lock vampires up in a jail cell?  Anita is also a reanimator. She raises the dead. If Papa dies before making his wishes clear, the family can hire Anita to raise his ass and find out who gets his golf clubs and who gets his Grandfather’s watch.  Anita falls for a vampire and a werewolf.. oh yeah, they’re real too. People can contract the lycanthrop disease and become werewolves, wererats, weretigers, swans, etc. I always pictured her werewolf lover, Richard, being played by Hugh Jackman.

Anyway, for some reason I could never get past book four or five in the series though I own them all. Reading these Stephenie Meyer books has inspired me to finally finish them.

What I want to know is why now? Why is it that it suddenly seems as if everyone I know is reading or talking about these books?  What did I miss? There are four books out so they’ve obviously been around for awhile. Why now?

Donny just got back from Walmart with book 2, “New Moon.” I’m on page 250 of “Twilight” and I suspect I’ll be done with the book by morning.

So far, what makes the book so good for me is the chemistry between the leads. It’s everything we wanted out of high school romance. It’s sexy, dangerous, and forbidden.

I just read a part where Edward, the vampire, tells Bella that he cannot give her a ride home from school because he’s leaving directly after lunch to hunt. He’s doing this to ensure he’s fed before he spends the next day with her. She says she’ll walk home. Knowing her penchant for attracting trouble, he tells her that when he leaves school he’ll go to her home and bring her truck back to school for her. Knowing that her home is locked and the key to the truck is in the pocket of a pair of dirty jeans in the laundry room, she figures she’ll be walking home. When she leaves school that day her truck is parked in the lot and there’s a note on the seat.

Be safe.

I closed the book, swooned, and said out loud, “Sweet fucking Lord.”

This is definitely a “girly” book. You’ll want your very own vampire boyfriend by page 100.

Go get the first book. Read it. THEN youtube the trailer for the movie, “Twilight” which opens this fall.

I’m In Trouble

Last night Jack went to sleep a bit earlier than usual. He started nodding off around 10:45 instead of midnight. I decided I’d go to sleep then too, just in case he only slept for a short while… I wanted to be refreshed and ready if he did. Sure enough, he awoke a little after 1am for a diaper change and feeding. While I was nursing him I started reading Twilight, the first book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series.

Oh boy. Jack was drooling on my arm and instead of putting him down in the bassinet I kept holding him so I could read. I knew that I was wasting precious sleep time, but I couldn’t help it. I made the excuse that I wanted to make sure he was in a deep sleep before I put him down so I could justify holding him and not going to sleep myself. Really, I just couldn’t put the damn book down.

Some of you wanted to know what the books were about and what I thought. I’ll give you an early answer on both.

So far, the book is about a teenaged girl who moves to be with her Dad in Forks, Washington. She doesn’t really want to, but because she felt her mother wanted to be able to travel freely with her new, and younger, husband, she makes the sacrifice to move from Phoenix so that her mother would be free to do so.  She becomes curious about five pale, beautiful, and mysterious students at her new high school… one of which is Edward Cullen.

And I’ll stop there. I’m on page 83. The writing isn’t GREAT, but it’s interesting. As is the main character, Bella Swan. She kinda reminds me of Veronica Mars, but a little more vulnerable. The chemistry between Bella and Edward is insane and I find myself totally disregarding the whole vampire element (don’t worry, I’m not spoiling anything that isn’t already on the back cover of the book) because of it. It wasn’t until a page before where I am now that it actually occurred to me that the author is so far implying these five are vampires, yet they attend school during the day. How is this possible? I can’t wait to read more and find out. I’m already thinking I should have bought all four books in the series like I started to yesterday. That’s okay. Walmart isn’t far.

Why am I in trouble? Because all night/morning I chose to read that damn book instead of sleep while my newborn slept and this morning I am paying the price. We’re taking Jack to the doctor in the next fifteen minutes and I find myself excited for the wait in the office because it will be my next opportunity to read. (I can’t read in a moving car. It gives me a headache.)

Also, I got a health textbook I should be reading! Damnit to hell I don’t need this distraction.