Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

51 reviews

emdestructable's review

I wanted to watch the movie so obviously I “had to” read the books first. It was a complete waste of time and I missed the wave/hype 20 years ago and I just could put my adult mind into a preteen/teen perspective needed to enjoy this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Stalking

bwhouchen's review

funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

Three toddlers in a trench coat could write a better Vampire story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Hate crime, and Incest

skyeshark1's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Animal death, Pedophilia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

bmscott622's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Twilight Series is a comfort read and everytime I come back to it, my mind is shoved back to the middle school version of me that dreamed of having multiple boys entirely obsessed with me while I was entirely oblivious. A cold-blooded, bloodthirsty male lead doesn't detract from the utter fantasy of every boy in a small town high school fawning after the first-person female narrator.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Car accident

wise_old_fishie's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

this was a reread for me and gotta say that it's overrated... Bella is nearly intolerable and her relationship with Edward gets super dramatic and cheesy about halfway though the book. 
Meyer has a beautiful writing still, it just didn't really fit for me with the whole 'teen-angst' theme

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death

betonylark's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.25

The Twilight series...

• Is full of Mormon ideology and theology if you know what to look for (I'm exmo, left as a teenager, so I spotted a lot of Mormon influence) - just FYI.
• Glorifies and romanticizes controlling behavior, toxic relationships, stalking, domestic abuse, physical abuse, and SA.
• Depicts women as deprived of full personhood, intelligence, independence, and agency
• Presents various pedophilia-esque relationships in a positive light
• Diminishes the severe problems absent/wishy washy/not properly supportive parents (particularly fathers) cause in their children
• Diminishes the impact of power imbalances on consent in relationships
• Fully inappropriately and very inaccurately appropriates the culture, history, and beliefs of real people who are part of the Native American Quileute Tribe, which is a real tribe (something no white person, and especially a mormon white person, has any right to ever do; if you don't know anything about the history, look up the Mountain Meadows Massacre and Brigham Young's treatment of the Native Americans)

I rated this book 0.25 stars for these reasons, as well as the multitude of writing, character, and plot issues present. There are far better books out there with far better messaging and far better writing too. I would definitely pass up all of Meyer's writing, including "the Host," which is better overall in terms of the above issues but still has a lot of problems with it, particularly when it comes to consent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

DISCLAIMER: This is a mormon-y series written by a mormon author, and thus it's rather tame in most regards. (Too much so in many ways honestly.) In a way though, that tame-ness makes Twilight even worse, because the harmful messaging (where abuse and SA and stalking are seen as not just acceptable, but actually romantic) can be very subtle at times. Teenagers who read this will often be taking it in subconsciously rather than recognizing and challenging this messaging. That is why I put what I did as trigger warnings. It's not necessarily graphically described, but it is certainly "graphic" in it's romanticization of very alarming and even fully abusive behaviors, from the male characters and the overall narrative in particular.

snowiceblackfruit77's review

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

paigeinabook's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

amelody's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Child death and Gaslighting

arbitrary_convenience's review

lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I’m surprised it was sooo much better than the movie. I think the main reason is that the characters are t as flat—at least not the Cullens. It’s nice to have some more focus and backstory on them and their motivations. Can’t say Bella is any better than the movie. If anything Jacob is worse, but I’ll have to see if he gets better in the coming books. 

The writing was pretty bad. It was hard to follow the development at times, but the worst part was how repetitive it was. How many times can you reiterate on how beautiful or awkward someone is without adding any additional information? I got irritated. Side note, I think it’s fair to say the author has a thing for blondes. 

That said, it was a fun, brainless book and that’s what I wanted out of it. I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of my 14-year-old self to see if it would be better then, but I think she was even more of a snob than I am now. 

Obligatory note on Edward being a controlling creep. For anyone considering whether or not this is okay behavior or “hot”, nope it’s not. Run. His casual age difference mentions are classic groomer stuff. And his disregard for her autonomy is a major red flag. I don’t care if it’s fantasy, it’s not okay and it shouldn’t be normalized. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Blood