Review: Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga
I guess I was always going to get around to doing this anyway, so I might as well get it out of my system. What did I think of Twilight and its three sequels? I’ll try to write this review in broad strokes rather than dwelling on details, but there will be spoilers, so if you haven’t read the books and don’t want to know what happens . . . stop reading here.
Writing Style
Stephanie Meyer can paint a scene. She knows just the right details to sprinkle into her descriptions for the scenery to come to life in the reader’s head. The emotions of her characters are thick and tangible, causing the reader to feel the same things in empathy. Sometimes, however, she can stumble over her own prose, awkwardly using the same word twice or even thrice within one paragraph and unintentionally drawing attention to it. A zap-word, we call it. The dialog is generally passable, and often reverberates effectively with tension and emotion. Stephanie Meyer certainly knows how to tell a story. I’d file her along with Terry Goodkind into the category of “not such a great writer, but incredible storyteller.”
Thematic Elements
On the surface, the story is about a human and a vampire falling in love and making things work. Pretty silly, right? I know some people who are put off by the premise alone. But in the case of all fantasy, there are more fundamental issues in play than the surface details. Essentially, the theme that makes the story so compelling is the apparent impossibility of Bella and Edward’s love, made so because of the variance in their personal backgrounds, and the monumental decisions of self-sacrifice both of them make to be together. And that is a very real, very human experience, regardless of whether Edward Cullen has a heartbeat or not.
Characterization
The mystery that is Edward Cullen and his siblings immediately grabs you, stringing you out as you wait to discover the next thing about them. After the deeper mysteries have been revealed, the story keeps you going. Edward is sometimes rather controlling and exhibits some stalker-like behavior at first. Some of his actions are forgivable only because they’re done specifically with Bella’s personal safety in mind. But he later learns how to loosen his grip. Contrary to popular belief, he isn’t perfect, and displays some very human flaws.
Bella . . . well, she’s there. Her awkwardness and her self-deprecating humor are enough to convince the reader that she actually is human. Once in a while she feels the need to remind you of that fact with a panicky emotional overreaction, which can be quite amusing in itself. Usually she’s likable enough, and Meyer’s rendering of her emotions never fails to draw empathy, but overall, I don’t think she’s a very deep character. Her primary redeeming quality is the earnestness and constance of her love for Edward, although that does waver ever so briefly. Her morose reflections in New Moon may get a bit annoying though for some, though they didn’t really bother me.
Jacob, the Native American boy turned werewolf, is a likable and endearing character at first who turns into a self-absorbed vindictive jerk who doesn’t know how to let things be. I did not particularly enjoy his point of view section in Breaking Dawn all that much.
Alice rocks. ‘Nuff said about that.
Worldview
The story of Bella and Edward has some good qualities to it, along with a major, and ultimately fatal fault.
First, I must note that the biggest criticism I’ve seen in general reviews is the fact that Bella is a bad example for young women because she marries and then conceives a child so young, at age 18, before going to college. Scandalously, she accomplishes all this with the first guy she’s ever been in love with! Well, pardon me, but that’s a much better example than the pre-marital, free-love, trial-and-error sexual license that is so much more pervasive in young adult cultural icons. If it weren’t for the story’s fatal fault, I’d applaud it.
First the good:
Twilight gives props to creationism when Edward says there is no way he and Bella could have evolved by chance, and that the same creator who designed her must have designed him as well. Not an issue I expected to come up in a vampire story.
The story is radically pro-life. Bella refuses to give up her unborn baby even though keeping it means certain death. No ordinary baby this, since it’s also Edward’s child, it breaks bones when it kicks and demands human blood for nourishment (acquired from hospital donor banks). The delivery scene is like something out of a horror film.
The story is pro-marriage. Edward refuses to have relations with Bella before marriage, and refuses to turn her into a vampire until they are married. Bella has no such qualms and initially throws a fit about both, but she eventually comes to recognize the beauty of marriage and married life.
The story is pro-family . . . somewhat. Bella initially hides her relationship with Edward from her father, and the story appears to justify it by circumstance. It’s interesting to note that while Bella is the human, her parents are divorced and she’s rather distrusting of them. On the other hand, the Cullens are a model family, with a warmth and closeness between parents and most of the siblings, with respected authority structures and familial care, and little in the way of secrecy. The interior of Carlisle Cullen’s house is decorated by a giant cross . . . and it isn’t upside down.
The fatal fault:
The great sticking point of the Twilight Saga is entirely human in nature, and has nothing to do with it being a vampire story, which, as I said, is almost incidental backdrop for the thematic material. The real problem with the story is that it deifies romantic love. Love without the Triune God? As Admiral Ackbar says in Return of the Jedi, “It’s a trap!”
Certainly, Twilight is not alone. There are hundreds of love stories that do the same. In fact, any non-Christian love story will ultimately deify romantic love. But usually they’re more subtle. When Bella begins to say things like “I’d sacrifice my own soul to be with Edward for eternity,” that sort of brings the issue front and center. This deification displays itself in some weird and ugly ways, particularly in Breaking Dawn, which I won’t go into here.
Interestingly enough, Twilight models itself largely on the story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which the lovers also stumble into the pitfall of deifying romantic love. Bella’s eagerness to offer her soul on the altar of love at all costs merely echoes Juliet’s appeal to Romeo to “swear by thy gracious self, which is the god of my idolatry.”
The difference between Twilight and Romeo and Juliet is that while Shakespeare’s play is a cautionary tale ending in tragedy, Bella and Edward commit the same offense but get to live happily ever after. While Romeo and Juliet warns young people against the dangers of deifying romantic love, Twilight positively revels in it.
Psychology
I’m adding this section after some discussion with Hannah Roorda and Laura LaPrise. It’s sort of a subset of the Worldview section, but I decided to separate it out.
There is a downfall to Stephanie Meyer’s deftly painted and highly empathetic characters. What they feel, the reader is made to feel as well. Be that love, fear, anxiety, depression, contentment, obsession, or physical desire. There is admittedly a great deal of difference between Twilight‘s long passages describing aching physical need for a person of the opposite sex and the interaction between them in Bella’s first person point of view and Shakespeare’s almost comically brief: They kiss.
Of course, Romeo and Juliet was written to be acted out on the stage, and that accounts for the brevity in the text. But prose has a powerful effect on the impressionable mind. Especially for those with vivid imaginations. Meyer avoids being graphic or explicit, but she gives more than enough for a reader to easily fill in the blanks.
Something should be said about the psychology involved in the widespread fan fascination with Edward. Another review observed, and I agree, that his appeal is because he offers to young women something they don’t get from real men.
In some ways, he is more of a man than most real men today. He sacrifices his needs and his very self against his own nature because he loves Bella. He takes control of situations, albeit sometimes with a heavy hand. He is the ultimate protector, disregarding even his own safety. And his love for Bella doesn’t drive him to give in to her every whim. He sets boundaries and sticks to them, more or less. Does this remind us of anything? It should. When a man displays these qualities in any combination and to any extent, young women are “wired” to respond in a certain way. Even if those qualities are displayed imperfectly. There is a theological reason for that.
I think when a cultural phenomenon like Twilight emerges, we should take notice of what exactly the appeal is. It might even shock us into realizing something we’ve been missing. Some will object that there are better materials to teach us that. I don’t doubt there are. The Bible is a good start. But sometimes a cultural phenomenon with its immediacy has more shock value for waking people up than a stack of “good” books.
Men today have forgotten how to be men. The feminist movement and the cry for total equality in roles as well as hierarchy has encouraged them to bend the authority structure and their very behavior to accommodate assertive women. Even those who don’t agree with feminism have been affected by a culture that neuters men and tries to empower women over them. When men won’t act like men, women are forced to step up and take control, whether they want to or not. But that goes against the natural created order. Men are still men, and women are still women. They innately know there’s something wrong with that picture. Men are responsible to lead, and women are created to follow.
Stephanie Meyer comes along and gives women something they are really looking for in a vampire named Edward Cullen. No, he’s not perfect. He has personality flaws. But Meyer has taken an ideal of masculinity and characterized it, exaggerating the virtues along with the faults. Young women everywhere have responded.
It’s interesting to note that the backlash against the series comes largely from two directions. Christians who are understandably and justifiably concerned with the effect that the series’ sensuality will have on young people . . . and feminists who can’t tolerate Bella’s submission of self to Edward.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the Twilight Saga while I was reading it (or rather, while I was listening to it on unabridged audio book). I am a quite a sucker for grand romantic tales of impossible love realized. But objectively, the Twilight Saga has a couple serious problems that would stop me from recommending it to anyone who might be especially susceptible to getting caught up in it all . . . which unfortunately includes most of its target audience of teen girls. I’d probably be more likely to recommend it to guys.
Will I read any additions to the series? Oh . . . probably. After all, it really is quite a rush.
Tags: books, Twilight, vampires, werewolves, young adult literature
Books and Literature, Creative Writing, Film and Television, Theology | Christopher Kou | 
December 22, 2008 12:24 PM
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Chris, I agree– but I was surprised you didn't say anything about the constant mention of Edward and Bella's physical desire for each other. I haven't read more than the first book, but I have heard many people call it 'squeaky clean' and talk about how innocent it is– and it isn't! I think the way Meyer writes about their desire is really appalling. It's entirely inappropriate for young, impressionable teenage girls to be reading that sort of thing, as it's incredibly desensitizing. Maybe it's a good story, and yes, sex isn't graphically described– but it's this constant undercurrent that is just plain dangerous. Maybe you didn't pick up on this because you're a guy, but the way it makes a teenage girl think is disturbing.
True. Deification of romantic love usually heightens the physical desire and the whole letting-go aspect of it. As I said, Twilight revels in it, in every way.I suppose I did pick up on it while listening, but didn't mention it explicitly because that aspect just isn't what stayed with me after the experience.I agree, now that I think of it. It was pretty pervasive. I don't think I'd call it a desensitizing effect though . . . Meyer's descriptions are a sensory overload. OVER-sensitizing might be a better way to look at it. "Don't awaken love until it pleases," right?
Excellent addition. I agree with Hannah's and my section completely. Thank you.
That was really interesting, Chris–I appreciate reading a level-minded review. I have been curious about all the Twilight hype. Thanks for posting.
A good review.I would like to emphasize the whole "writing style". You say that Meyer can "paint a scene"? I have some trouble with that. Stephanie Meyer IS very good at getting one "caught up in the moment" so to speak, she plays on one's emotions. But her whole style drove me crazy, she described Bella once in the beginning of the first book but insufficiently even then. And the wedding especially, there was hardly any description sufficient for the mind, just a vague bunch of flowers and lots of things hanging from the walls. Maybe this is just the girl side of me coming out. I guess after four books it was tiring, you didn't have to read it remember. I guess what I am trying to say is that while I enjoyed the books while they lasted they wern't strong enough to leave a lasting impression, after a few months I was even having trouble recalling some of the characters names, I didn't reread obsessively. But this is rather a minor complaint, not pertaining to the review
I guess I think that her books are rather cheaply done. Using the easiest style (playing on emotions) to draw in readers, and keeping it fast-paced enough to distract the readers from the rather lack of character developement. Oh well, I'm hungry so I'm going to go eat.
Hmmm . . . well, Meyer's writing was detailed enough to paint colorful scenes for me. Maybe I just have an over-active imagination that fills in blanks. I'm sure it was different listening to the book too, rather than reading it.I think the vagueness in her description of Bella is probably deliberate. First, because the books are written in Bella's voice and she obviously doesn't think much of her own appearance. Though be get small self-deprecating details here and there along the way.But mostly, it's probably so that female readers can best identify with the character. If Bella isn't described down to the last skin pore, a girl can easily put herself in the scene. Other writers have done much the same. Notably, Lloyd Alexander doesn't describe Taran's appearance in the Prydain Chronicles at ALL.
Good point. It's not that big of a complaint, just irritating.
Wow, much applause!! This is the best review of Twilight I've found. Actually, I think it's the only even remotely good one. I will definitely be referring back to it.
Have you read this from NRO? http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGJjZGYyODRhMzVlMDFlODQ3MTU2YWYzNGE4ODI5MTg=
Have you read this from NRO? http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGJjZGYyODRhMzVlMDFlODQ3MTU2YWYzNGE4ODI5MTg%3D
Hmmm . . . vampire as allegorical archetype. Very interesting.