Twilight, Chapter 1: First Sight

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Bella arrives in Forks, meets the people of Forks, sees Edward and his family for the first time. This is all that goes on for TWENTY SIX PAGES. You would think that by this summary, it would be like fifteen.

REACTIONS/THOUGHTS AND OTHER NOTES IN THIS CHAPTER:
We open to Bella in the car with her Mom and it is made clear from the get go: she is not happy. With anything. Nothing in her life is even remotely okay. This chapter immediately brings up my main reason for disliking Twilight:
REASON ONE FOR DISLIKING TWILIGHT: Bella
I'm sorry, but Bella is a little emo drama queen and it drives me up the wall. She whines about EVERYTHING. She is seriously never happy. She is sure she will have a horrible time in Forks when she's never even given it a chance, she whines about how she's supposedly this big freak but when she's treated decently by people she whines about THAT. I personally can not stand characters like this. If you're going to angst, at least angst for a good reason like your parents died and you genuinely have a horrible life or something. Bella, from what we're shown, has a pretty damn good life. Yeah, her parents may need some work but not everyone has perfect parents. She is just whining for the sake of whining. I also understand that she's a teenager and they do whine. Heck knows, I had my cases when I was a teen and sometimes do still vent but I never whined about every little thing. Which in this book, Bella seems too. Maybe some people don't mind that, but for me, the whining was very annoying. If you guys think I'm being too hard on Bella, okay. I will keep track of every tiny thing Bella whines about or at least has a problem with. Then you tell me I am being too hard on her. Here are some in just the first few pages:
WHINE #1: Forks is too rainy! No sun!
WHINE #2: It's a small town! I love cities!
WHINE #3: ;gasp; My Mom is trying to talk me out of my self imposed exhile. How dare she!
WHINE #4: I have to spend an hour in the car with my DAD ;gasp of horror;
WHINE #5: Forks is TOO GREEN.
WHINE #6: Forks High is SO SMALL (please also note, she's assuming this when she's NEVER BEEN THERE)
WHINE #7: Everyone here knows everyone else. I'm going to be a big freak (again, she's assuming this when she has yet to say two words to anyone in Forks)
WHINE #8: I hate my looks. I'm so ugly, even though the description I give of myself makes me seem very pretty.
WHINE #9: NO ONE understands me! ;sob;
Please keep in mind that all of these are up to page 11. Like I said, it's ridiculous. I feel like angsty violen music should be playing when I read this book.
Another issue I have with this book are the vocabulary words that Bella (aka Meyer speaking through Bella) throws in. For instance the word verbose. Seriously. No teenager talks likes this. I don't care how much Bella reads or how much a teenager reads. I read but I never use words like this ever. No adults use these words. Not even college professors. So what is the point of throwing all these unneeded words in? Especially since it does not help your character any. If you're trying to make us believe this is a seventeen year old speaking, you are failing. From her whining, I'm guessing she is thirteen, from the vocabularly I would think it was a fourty year old genius or something. We're getting mixed messages here Meyer just so you know.
Next we have Bella getting a free car that will of course, not make her happy. She will never be happy (cue violens again) here. Then she has a big emo moment and cries herself to sleep. Because you know, choosing to move when you don't have too is JUST that horrible.
Cut to the next day where we have filler paragraphs that are not needed. There are lot of these in this book. Another thing that kind of bugs me about it. We also have some whines thrown in as she goes to school.
WHINE #10: Charlie has PICTURES of his only daughter. How dare he!
WHINE #11: Nature! Ew!
WHINE #12: Forks High doesn't look like a school. It's all welcoming and junk.
I love how Bella immediately assumes the receptionist recognizes her name because she's the police chief's daughter. It couldn't at all be because she's the only new kid and that it's her job to have the new kid's information? Sure has an awful high opinion of her importance doesn't she?
Now we have another one of those unneeded paragraphs and I have to ask this. Remember earlier when we had this told to us:

"Ch-Dad, I don't really know anything about cars."-From Twilight, Page 7

Okay. Fine. I know nothing about cars either. But here she is, sitting in the parking lot and noting the price range of these vehicles and the most expensive one. Um...first off, what kind of teenage girl who wasn't interested in cars would do this, and second I thought she didn't know anything about cars so how would she know how expensive each kind is? This isn't even going into how shallow sitting there and noting the expense of a persons car is. This is Meyer Contridiction number one.
What is a Meyer Contridiction? For the sake of this blog and for me it is when Meyer tells us something but ends up showing us something that contridicts it. She does it quite a lot throughout this series. So I'm going to point them out to you just for fun.
Now we get to see Bella going to class and here is where the Mary-Sueness starts. For those that don't know, Mary-Sues are the ultimate character that the author dreams up. They are usually self-inserts (Bella equals Stephanie Meyer) and are always superior in every way. They are always special, always important to the series, always beautiful, and have no flaws. The male version of this is Gary-Stu which Edward most definitely is so I will be keeping track of his perfections as well.
Mary-Sueism one: Bella is of course ahead in school. She's read all of this stuff already even though I've never met a teenager who has read Faulkner and Chaucer even in school. Those are usually reserved for college, unless Bella is in an AP course which considering it's not mentioned, I doubt it. If Bella were in AP classes, we'd be told. She's perfect, remember.
Mary-Sueism two: Everyone here wants to be her friend and is nice to her. Which brings me to another whine.
WHINE #13: People are HELPING me! It's so embarressing and they're just interested because I'm the new girl anyway.
I also must comment on this little comment after the dumb albino joke she made:

He studied my face apprehensively, and I sighed. It looked like clouds and
a sense of humor didn't mix. A few months of this and I'd forget how to use
sarcasm. From Twilight, page 16

Gee, Bella, way to make a judgement on a town after ONE conversation with ONE person. I'm sorry, why are people supposed to look up to this girl again? I also have to roll my eyes when she thinks everyone in the cafeteria is gawking at her. People have lives outside of you, Bella. Somehow I doubt everyone there was neglecting their lunch to stare at the new girl.
At lunch we see the beautiful (of course) Cullen family for the first time. I will insert Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu points for the fact that they are all so breathtakingly gorgeous. I also must ask how a teenage girl knows what kind of names are popular or not. Also, aside from Jasper and Roselie the names are not all that unusual. I find it kind of rich that a girl named ISABELLA SWAN finds THEIR names weird.
Another thing I must comment on is that just because a person doesn't like another person it does not always boil down to jealousy. But in this book, that is the only reason a person doesn't like another person. Couldn't at all be the way the Cullens all act like they're better then everyone else. Nope, Jessica is obviously jealous and was rejected. She's bitter. Way to make the world seem black and white Meyer.
Another thing I must mention is that if the Cullens moved to Forks TWO YEARS AGO, then they are obviously not new people anymore. Where the hell did that come from anyway?
Next we cut to science where naturally Edward is there and she sits next to him. Oh look, he's being mean and not talking to me. Wah. Never mind that earlier, Bella was just complaining about having too many people pay attention to her. Seriously, there's no pleasing this girl.
WHINE # 14: A boy wouldn't talk me!
After we are introduced to Bella's only character flaw: she's clumsy and bad at sports. Cause you know, that's not at all an overdone stereotype in teen girl heriones at all. Then cut to after classes she hears Edward trying to get out of biology and he turns and glares at her. She bursts into tears as she drives home.

NUMBER OF WHINES: 14

NUMBER OF CONTRIDICTIONS: 2

MARY-SUE/GARY-STUISMS: Everyone loves Bella!
School is so easy!
I'm so important even though I don't want to be
All the Cullens are so beautiful and graceful

WORDS A TEENAGER WOULD NEVER SAY:
Omnipresent
Inconsequential
Hare-brained
Verb0se
Permeable
Bulbous
Swallower (actually, is this even a word?)
Devastatingly, inhumanely beautiful

BOOK THAT IS BETTER: The Princess Diaries Series by Meg Cabot
WHY IT'S BETTER: It's hysterical for one, with dialogue that doesn't sound forced. Also, THIS is how a teen sounds. Meyer, please take notes. Also, note that I am talking about the BOOK, not the cheesy Disney movie. As cute as the movies were, they don't hold a candle to the books they are based on.