Twilight – Stephanie Meyer

The fact that this was my “stretch” book, looking back, really says a lot about communities of readers and the vast influence they have. Somewhere between the hundreds of kids who very vocally love the series, both at camp and elsewhere, and the “Twilight Backlash” movement, I picked up the notion, without even reading a page of it, that Twilight was poorly written and garbage. Perhaps it’s because Stephen King, who is near and dear to my heart, counts himself in the latter group.

Either way, I did not find the book particularly poorly written (although it’s true that it wasn’t the most masterful prose either). The figurative language and complex use of symbols ranks the writing just about the same as many other books, which do not get the same criticism. I’ve thought about this, and decided that the specific symbols used are really the discriminating factor in Twilight hatred – reflective of a fantasy-phobic society, perhaps?

Bella and Edward as characters were perfectly consistent throughout, and what Bella maybe lacked in character development was more than made up for in Edward. The plot developed well, and I think the book did have very good pacing, except at the end where things seemed to move a little too quickly.

One of the preconceptions that I had been given before I started reading it was the accusation about sexism in the book – that Bella, as a female character, has nothing to do but be saved by Edward, and Edward has to be viscerally attracted to Bella. This, of course, leads to them falling deeply in love, much to the dismay of many readers (I do want to point out that this is a time-honored tradition, and I won’t stand for a condemnation of the entire romance plot just because of some sparkly vampire). Looking back on the book, I can’t say that this accusation is without basis. Bella’s narration may be framed in a way to show that she is not self-involved like some girls, but it really does come across as “Edward is interesting, and I am boring,” despite the fact that boys are flocking over her.

As for the teachability of Twilight, I’m really not sure I would use this in a classroom. While it is by no means a terrible book, it is also not a really great book, and most of its strong points – voice, character, pacing – could very easily be taught using other texts of equal or greater quality. The real reason that I think I would avoid using Twilight is because of its massive popularity and the massive hatred of it. Young readers really have strong opinions about this book, but a lot of the opinions seem to be based more on hearsay and popular views rather than actual personal feelings on the text. At my camp, I heard so many arguments over the book that as I was reading it, I found it impossible to separate my own reading from the voices of bickering children. I suppose that in a few years, after a lot of the nonsense has blown over, it will be more likely that I will use it in the classroom. I would certainly not hesitate to recommend it to an individual reader who was interested in the genre, of course.