December 2, 2009 7:23 PM PST
OOOKAY. Twilight. The book. To me, it read like 400+ pages of Buffy/Angel|Buffy/Spike fan fiction. (It is a gross understatement to say I am a huge fan of the Buffy-Angel universe, traveled non-stop to LA on a worknight to meet James Marsters who played Spike at a concert and meet n' greet and was only a couple hours late for the work the next day...in Florida) Angel (in the Whedonverse) swears off human blood feeding only on animal blood, hates the monster that he has become, devotes his existence to trying to be a better man, falls in love with a human girl who seems too good and pure to ever feel love for or trust in him. Except for Buffy being a Slayer, it sounds real familiar here. At one point, Edward is even mentioned as being "a vampire angel".
BUT, really, Twilight made me feel like the author had a few key phrases macro'd into her system. She referenced Edward's eyes sooooo many times that I literally (no pun intended) began to picture him as a set of eyeballs and nothing more.
There is a really cool story here to be told, but there needed (for me) to be more story and less swooning and brooding and glaring and staring and heart pounding and shuddering. I do still have a bit of a problem with the whole body-glittering vampire thing...but I can get past that in consideration of the story here. To me, they may be some sort of mutated vampire. That I can buy. The story of Bella and Forks and the Cullens and how Bella and Edward come to care about each other is a great storyline, but the meat to me is the chase/hunt, when James (the tracker) is hunting Bella and all the characters come into play in that drama. THAT'S a good story crisis and marks the turning point in the bigger picture. Where are the lines of allegiances drawn? Who can be trusted to protect that most treasured object of Edward's affection? The Bella/Edward love story could be a very strong secondary plot point, serving to drive the whole momentum of the chase. :D
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Midnight Sun is Twilight from Edward's perspective and for me, this was a much stronger story (even though, technically, its the SAME story---we get the background on the Cullens Clan and see sides to them and their family/clan dynamic that is barely hinted at in Twilight). It initially reads in a more mature voice, as it should I suppose coming from an 80 year-old highschool junior. ;) This story is posted in partial draft form on the author's website, the completion postponed due to a HUMONGOUS copyright infringement. I can't even imagine how sick Ms. Meyer must have felt when this draft was circulated out on the web. Makes me wonder how the Potter books have managed to stay under wraps as well as they have been all these years as they were being written. Anyway, loved Midnight Sun, right up until it headed into the same "She loves me, she loves me not" territory. But even so, the cartoonish eyeballs of Twilight were finally given a fleshed out, full bodied character here in Edward and I found myself hoping HOPING a certain scene would make it into this draft, but it didnt. haha! Bella remains sort of generic and vanilla and plain and non-descript, except to find out she has a heart-shaped face. How sweet. :) And I'm beginning to think there HAS to be a medical reason for her clumsiness beyond just the awkwardness of puberty, maybe some severe vertigo, some malformation of her inner ear. :D
And, I suppose, I will read the next books in time. I'm on the beggars cant be choosers waiting list of friends and acquaintances. Again. LOL!
