Different to most of my posts, this one has nothing to do with photography or travel. I just felt the need to share my impressions and feelings after reading the Twilight series, by Stephenie Meyer. Some people already know my impressions for this series, but for some this might be news.

First, a little background. I enjoy a good vampire book or movie, sometimes very much. I really liked Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles or the Underworld series of movies. And “children” books? I’d re-read in a heartbeat Alice in Wonderland, Coraline or Stardust. So, when I heard about Twilight I was eager to see what the fuss is all about.

Last night I finished the last book of the series, and as the next one is just a re-telling of the first book (from a different perspective), I can say that now I have a complete image. The books are bad. Really bad – so amazingly bad that I’d wish I could get my hours of life back, with interest.

I disliked Narnia, and found Harry Potter series shallow. But Twilight is in a league of its own. I cannot even start to tell everything that is wrong about the book. But I’ll try…

It’s a book about vampires, teenage vampires actually. Well, it’s more of a teenage soap opera. It has all of the angst, simplicity, shallow-mindedness and stupid preconceptions. Everything is black and white, and the attempts of inner drama, turmoil, or moral decisions are laughable. It is nothing more that a long, boring, Cinderella type story finished with a boring “and they lived happily ever after”. Actually the last chapter is titled along those lines…

Style? Language? Abysmal. It can be argued that the obscene amount of adjectives and adverbs might do something for one’s vocabulary, but the usage of such terms as BFFs is an insult to any reader.

The plot is shallow, the ending anti-climatic, the characters are literally paper-thin, one-dimensional idealizations. I think it might appeal to teenagers idealizing love, relationships and for whom the ideal in life is “beautiful, rich, living forever”. Pure reading agony.

I will not punish you with any more details, but suffice to say that if the series were to be born as a short story it would have been good. Four volume agonizing pain? Not good, but appalling.

And yet, it is a bestseller. Translated in 37 languages, and sold in more than 42 millions copies worldwide.

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