NOTES/THOUGHTS/REACTIONS:
This opens with Bella reading Macbeth. Once again, I'm getting masochist vibes from this girl. Alice somehow manages to get her car in the lot without her hearing it. How you cannot hear a big truck pull into the driveway I don't know. What this has to do with this chapter or the story at all, I don't know.
After the pointless opening paragraph we get more drama from her "friends". I keep putting quotes around friends, because Bella doesn't even like them or care enough about them to get any info beyond their names and gossip. Notice we never hear anything about Jessica's homelife or any of their families. No. Bella doesn't care. They are just there for her to hang around with. So yeah, they are not friends.
Anyways, she and her "friends" are going to the beach, which of course, she is not excited about at all because it'll be boring. One suprise though, turns out there is a girl named Lauren who ;gasp; DOESN'T LIKE BELLA. Yeah, I know. I died of shock too. But of course, Bella immediately puts her in the "mean girl" category and notes how nasal sounding her voice is. You know in the decent YA novels, authors try to give all characters, including the mean ones, some sort of depth. Take Cordelia from Buffy or Lana from Princess Diaries (BOOK Lana, not movie Lana, who later in the series becomes kind of awesome). But somehow, I doubt Meyer will do this with Lauren.
We get the next day and all of a sudden we actually get SUN.
I'm sorry but WHAT? How the hell can the sun be in the wrong place? Does Meyer even READ this as she's typing? Does she not realize how STUPID that sounds? I'm also beginning to get mighty tired of Bella's vivid desriptions of the weather. What, does she want to be a weather girl or something? Having all this in there is pointless and makes no sense. Just say it was sunny and then move on. This brings me back to the too many descriptions and lack of editing reason on my list of why I dislike this book.I hurried to the window to check, and sure enough, there was the sun. It
was in the wrong place in the sky, too low, and it didn't seem to be a s close
as it should be, but it was definitely the sun.
From Twilight, page 113
So after the riveting description of the weather Bella actually lowers herself to hang out with the locals. She immediately notes that there is one other girl besides Lauren who doesn't like her (and it's obviously because she ran into her in P.E. cause you know, we girls are that petty) and doesn't even remember her name. This is of course going to ruin her day. Once again, it's called OPTIMISM Bella. Also I'm sorry but two girls not liking you, out the hundreds of people that do, is going to ruin your day? Really? You barely even know these girls, so why should you care so much if they like you or not?
We then get the fun discussion of who drives in what car and riveting description of the scenery. In another Meyer contridiction, Bella has suddenly decided she likes nature now because she goes on about how breathtaking it all is. When earlier she was complaining about how it was too green.
Then we get more "thrilling" adventures with the group of friends describing what they did on their day. The girls all stayed by the camp fire while the boys went hiking and Bella decides to go with them. This brings me to my next reason for disliking this book.
REASON SIX FOR DISLIKING TWILIGHT: Slight sexist overtones.
I know some of you are probably now rolling your eyes and I agree. I get tired of people calling sexist every chance they get on one little detail in a book. I usually don't even go into stuff like this as my reasons for disliking something. However, in Twilight's case, there was just too much of it to ignore. The first book is not AS bad. But later in the series? Good God, it's like feminism never happened.
Normally I would not care, but women keep tauting this book as "empowering" for them when IT IS NOT. This series is all about Edward ladies, don't kid yourselves. Edward swoops in and saves Bella constantly (later it's Jacob and in some cases, it's both). Bella cooks and cleans, she does EVERYTHING Edward tells her to do and never questions him (at least not seriously). This part here where the girls all want to stand around and gossip at the fire and the boys want to go on a manly hike is just one way this series can be sexist. I will point out other ways as we get further.
Moving on, Bella goes hiking (and of course manages to scrape herself up, though how you can scrape yourself while walking I don't know) and during all of this we get vivid descriptions of tide pools and Bella of course thinks about Edward because as established, she is obsessed. Then we get this stupid thought:
Sigh. First off, that is a run on sentence yet again Meyer. EDIT. Second, you don't start sentences with and. Third, this is called REGULAR LIFE. Edward and Forks have NOTHING to do with this which is of course, what Meyer is trying to imply.I was thinking about how disjointedly time seemed to flow in Forks, passing
in a blur at times, with single images standing out more clearly than others.
And then, at other times, every second was significant, etched in my mind.
From Twilight, page 118
When Bella and the boys come back from their hike, some kids from the La Push reservation have come to socialize. This is where the foreshadow starts. We meet Jacob Black. Yep, that Jacob. Anyone who knows anything about pop culture knows this story has a big love triangle and you've all probably seen the team Edward and team Jacob shirts so I probably don't need to explain why this is a big foreshadow.
Naturally, after one conversation, Bella's pheromones work their magic on Jacob and he obviously now has the hots for her. Lauren is watching this all and is clearly disgusted (I don't blame her, it's pretty lame how all these boys grovel at this girls feet after talking to her ONE TIME. Don't men have more self respect then this? I used to think so, after reading this book I have to wonder now). But since Lauren is now resident mean girl, her disdain is seen as bitchiness by Bella (who might as well be Meyer speaking to us). She paints Lauren out as rude when she asks Jacob questions that any normal girl in their right mind would ask. But no, since it's the girl who doesn't like her, she's being a bitch. Petty much Bella?
Lauren brings up the Cullens of course and Bella senses hostility from the group as one guy says the Cullens don't come down there. Well, Bella thinks this is odd because how could anyone not like the perfect Cullens? So she hatches a plan: she's going to seduce the info out of Jacob.
Just so you know, this is another sexist point. Women of course always use their feminine wiles to get information out of men. We wouldn't dream of just ASKING. I hate how this is the first idea that pops into her head. Not just clever round about ways of getting the info. No, Bella has to flirt. I do love the great message THIS sends to teenage girls. Ladies, men are weak against our feminine wiles. Flirt with them to get what you want and then throw them away when you're done. This isn't just sexist for women, it's sexist for men too.
So Bella flirts. Badly. But since it's BELLA, it works. Jacob, because he is now under our Mary-Sue's spell, tells her about the legends around La Push talking about the "cold ones" and his tribe. This story is so much foreshadow I was pretty much going "oh, well now I know what will be coming up in the next book". His people walk with the wolves. Seriously, how obvious can you get?
What had me banging my head though, was this:
Oh COME ON. How stupid IS Bella? Anyone who knows anything about pop culture can tell you: the natural enemy of the werewolf are VAMPIRES. DUH. Even someone who has never seen a vampire or werewolf movie can tell you that. Then there was Jacob describing them as the "cold ones". Seriously, how hard does the clue bus have to hit this girl?"Werewolves have enemies?"
"Only one."
I stared at him earnestly, hoping to disguise my impatience as
admiration.
From Twilight, page 125
So the Cullens are the "cold ones" aka vampires. Though Bella, being you know DUMB, hasn't figured that out yet. We get more foreshadow as she and Jacob say good-bye and she notes that they could be good friends. Then she and the rest of her "friends" leave as I am still waiting for this so-called "suspense" that was promised to me on the back of the book.
WORDS A TEENAGER WOULD NEVER SAY: attenuated, russet
WHINES: none for this one either! Progress!
MARY SUE/GARY STUISMS: Jacob-I'm smitten with you already even though we've talked once.
MEYER CONTRIDICTION: Bella says earlier that she doesn't like all this nature but describes the scenery on the way as breathtaking.
BOOK THAT IS BETTER: Young Wizards series by Diane Duane
WHY IT'S BETTER: Better plot, better characters, and actual suspense and suprises because you don't know where the series is going at the beginning.
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