The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer | Teen Ink

The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

December 31, 2009
By Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand


By now, nearly everyone has heard of the rapidly growing sensation that is Twilight. Look around you, everywhere you turn, the faces of Edward Cullen, Jacob Black and Isabella Swan are likely to be staring back, either from a T-shirt, poster or bookmark. There is no denying the series’ popularity; this review, however, is going to focus on one piece in particular, and that is the books.

Shortly after The Twilight Series was published, its fame began to spread like a wildfire. It seemed to me that whenever I saw a novel in a classmate’s hand, there sat the red apple on the cover, in all its glory. Constantly, peers and family members were coming to me and, knowing my love of reading, they proclaimed, “I just had to read this book.” Hesitant at first, I finally broke down and gave in to my curiosity, and checked the book out at the school library. Suffice it to say that I was quite surprised at what I read – though, not pleasantly so.

Let us begin with a brief summation. The Twilight Series, written by Stephanie Meyer, is a group of books portraying a time in the life of Isabella Swan, or Bella, as she is called in the book. Bella is a teenaged girl who recently moved from the sunshine filled state of Alabama, to the ever-cloudy, and seemingly eventless, town of Forks. The series tells the story of Bella’s meeting of the Cullens, a family of immortal vampires residing Forks, and largely, her relationship with Edward, a member of the Cullen family.

Often compared to J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and even to Stephen King novels, there is no doubt as to the popularity of Twilight. However, this popularity is the sole similarity to be found between them. The Twilight series is fundamentally an incredibly thin piece of literature, and I personally feel that even calling it literature is being generous.

The plot of Twilight makes up for the majority of this thinness; it is a romance story, and that is nearly all it consists of. True enough, there are rare moments of what some people call “action”, yet these are nothing more than scenes of slim playground antics, especially when compared to any other work of writing.

Sadder than the thin plot though is the fact that the romantic triangle of the story is completely unrealistic, even if you ignore that two of the triangles points are not human. The character of Bella is an overused persona of a love struck, moon-eyed girl, and she represents nothing of what a person would aspire to be in a relationship. She sees past nothing (literally, nothing) other than her desire to be with Edward, and this low ambitiousness is completely unrespectable. Jacob Black, the often ignored member of the triangle, is no better than Bella. He is willing to let Edward die - yes, you read that right – just so he can be with Bella; he doesn’t worry that he’s about to let the women he “loves” loose the most important thing to her, oh no, he just wants Bella, nothing more. Why on Earth would Meyer wish to make characters so shallow that they see nothing past their own egotistical self-gain?

The characters of Twilight, other than their obvious self-centered attitudes, were completely undeveloped ones. Be it Bella’s friends, her parents, or Jacob’s “wolfpack”, none of the supporting characters were developed enough to give readers that realistic sense of knowing; we knew that the werewolves hated the vampires, but only because we were told outright. And we knew the opinions of Bella’s friends on her relationship with Edward, but only what dialogue could reveal. Where was the subtle, unspoken development that gave great novels there richness?

Not only are Twilight’s characters and plot thin, but the vocabulary and sentence structure is incredibly unsatisfying. Perhaps it was done purposefully, but when I pick up a novel, I always hope that the vocabulary will be varied and extensive enough to provide an intellectually stimulating, yet still enjoyable experience, and the language and terminology of Twilight left a lot to be desired. Likewise, Meyer’s sentence structure was painfully unvaried, and I quickly became bored with the repetition of the organization. But who knows, perhaps the elementary level word choices were part of the motivation for the wide-spread tween fad.

All things considered, Twilight is a great read, assuming you are looking for a mind numbing piece of writing that you can use to momentarily help fill your unrealistic daydreams. If your looking for a true work of literature that will academically arouse you and deeply stir your emotions, I suggest you look elsewhere. Kudos to you Mrs. Meyer, for creating the most recent junior high bandwagon!


The author's comments:
This piece is exactly what the title suggests - an honest review of America's latest book craze. Feel free to comment and share your opinions (I'm always ready for a friendly debate).

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This article has 41 comments.


Thorn BRONZE said...
on Jul. 8 2010 at 4:18 pm
Thorn BRONZE, Baltimore, Maryland
1 article 0 photos 100 comments

Great article! First of all, I have never read the Twilight saga because I heard too much about it. I personally find romance to be cute, but in small doses. Qouting the iron words of one of my BFFs from camp, "I prefer action with a side of romance as opposed to romance with a side of action."

Second, from what I could tell with the info collected from my friends, Twilight is most definitely a shallow read, and, qouting another of my friends, "A waste of 3 months of my life."

I might decide to read Twilight one day, even if it is shallow. But until then, my mother has also decided she doesn't want me reading it. So, that makes two of us. And like you said, nothing like a little bit of numbing mind candy.

Again, great article, it made everything I thought assumed about Twilight fact.


EmmaNemma GOLD said...
on Jul. 2 2010 at 5:30 pm
EmmaNemma GOLD, The Shire, Vermont
10 articles 0 photos 43 comments

Favorite Quote:
If you think you are a hypochondriac by definition aren't you?

Most of my friends are obbsessed with Twilight but I think that this article is a perfect description of the story. I never read it because the plot seemed stupid and I just refused to torture myself. 

on Jun. 9 2010 at 1:42 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Thanks!  I love that last sentence by the way, definitely fac.ebook-status-worthy. :-)

on Jun. 3 2010 at 2:00 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Yeah, it all kind of gave me the willies by that point. Haha.

JeanGrey GOLD said...
on Jun. 3 2010 at 1:53 am
JeanGrey GOLD, Mason City, Iowa
10 articles 0 photos 258 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."-Oscar Wilde

Oh, and the "imprinting" thing...Quil to Claire??? SHE IS A TODDLER! Freaks....

on May. 26 2010 at 7:55 pm
Demon_of_Truth, Warrenton, Virginia
0 articles 0 photos 40 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I'm not a geek, I prefer the term 'intellectual bad-a**"

Finally! Most of my friends and Twilight fangilrs (and creepily, fanguys) and will here nothing bad about the fact that it was so boring I hadto try twice to get past thefirst few pages. Then I couldn't get passed the second book, it was to painful. I agree with you completely. Oh, and, as I side note:

Harry Potter defeted Voldemort. Voldemort defeted Cedric. Cedric is Edward Cullen. Therefore, Harry Pooter beats Edward Cullen.


on Apr. 29 2010 at 8:12 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Thanks Jean!
Eeee, Edward was a creeper. *Shudders* I'd be better if he smiled once in a while. Or, you know, kept his clothes on.

on Apr. 29 2010 at 8:10 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Someone said Twilight was better than Harry Potter.......
*Screams like rapid cat getting drenched in water*
NEVER! IT CAN NOT BE!!!
Oh, thanks for reading by the way! :-)

MiriamH said...
on Apr. 29 2010 at 7:27 pm
MiriamH, Mequon, Wisconsin
0 articles 0 photos 92 comments

Favorite Quote:
“I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense.”

 You are awesome!!!!! I HATE Twilight it sucks, and one of my friends told me that it is BETTER than Harry Potter!  (I would never have done it but I  did considered hurting her in some way)

JeanGrey GOLD said...
on Apr. 20 2010 at 12:15 am
JeanGrey GOLD, Mason City, Iowa
10 articles 0 photos 258 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."-Oscar Wilde

*claps* Bravo! I tried reading the first book and it was so stupid and uneventful that half-way through I already knew what would happen at the end. Edward was so wierd, the way he would tense around Bella in the beginning, and the wierdest part was that the author described that particular type of event when it happened about 3 times the exact same way...it was so unoriginal. Also, I hate Bella. She is a poor portayal of a teenage girl, and upon reading that book I was actually ashamed to be one. Seriously. The only decent character I thought at first was Jacob. He seemed sweet enough and Bella was just stringing him along to get info about the vampires. Then he turned out to be an egotistical jerk! Oh I am ranting...sorry :) Good job with this one :)

on Mar. 3 2010 at 6:14 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Hm, well I do enjoy living, so let's keep it our little secret! :-) *Shh*

on Mar. 3 2010 at 5:19 pm
Lost-In-Life GOLD, Whitby, Other
11 articles 0 photos 299 comments

Favorite Quote:
It's never to late, if it weren't for the last minute many things would never get done!

You're extremely right. There are some things I like about the series but I do agree with most of what you said, especially the shallow characters. If any of my twilight obsessed friend saw this though you would pretty much be dead.

on Feb. 16 2010 at 2:52 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

I couldn't get over the fact that she would wake up to find out Edward had been staring at her all night, and find it romantic! Seriously, what a creeper - I'd be moving to someplace nice and sunny if that happened.

on Feb. 16 2010 at 2:42 pm
Just.A.Dream SILVER, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
7 articles 0 photos 430 comments

Favorite Quote:
Part of the J7X team. :)

Wow, when I read Twilight, I never thought of it in that way.

It wasn't my favorite book, but now that you bring it up, the characters do seem kinda shallow.

on Jan. 15 2010 at 8:02 pm
JohnBosworth GOLD, Midland, Texas
10 articles 0 photos 16 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I am Jack's smirking revenge"

If your looking for great literature then check out "Blindness" by Jose Saramage (although this has a slightly difficult writing style), Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo (disturbing but thought provoking) and for a funny read Catch-22 is always great.

on Jan. 9 2010 at 10:59 pm
JohnBosworth GOLD, Midland, Texas
10 articles 0 photos 16 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I am Jack's smirking revenge"

I wish I had better things to do with my time than be her on Saturday night, but I do agree with the whole article. Yes, Twilight is awful, and yes, twilight is pathetic. Good job for lengthening that.

on Jan. 8 2010 at 1:36 pm
DreamWriter17 PLATINUM, Marengo, Indiana
34 articles 1 photo 682 comments

Favorite Quote:
learn from your past to live for the future.

Haha, I kinda figured that...but even so, I can believe it! At least Dr. Suess has better moral values!

on Jan. 8 2010 at 1:32 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Ahaha, sorry bout the last comment. Sarcasm does not translate well via internet.

on Jan. 8 2010 at 1:29 pm
DreamWriter17 PLATINUM, Marengo, Indiana
34 articles 1 photo 682 comments

Favorite Quote:
learn from your past to live for the future.

I love Dr. Suess! However, I read stories and series more for an older audience...Robert Jordan, Eoin Colfer, Robin McKinley, Suzanne Hicks....all good ones, and if YOU like reading, I suggest you read them!

on Jan. 8 2010 at 12:49 pm
Karma_Chameleon SILVER, English, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 236 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be able to say "I love you" one must first be able to say "I" - Ayn Rand

Why thank you dreamwriter. If you like reading, I would most definitly tell you not to pick this series up. Look for one that has more depth - Dr. Seuss perhaps? He has more depth than all Meyers books combined.