Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

66 reviews

slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So I finished Twilight?
I was so ready to be done with it I listened to the last half of the audiobook at 2,55x speed.

Giving Twilight a 1star rating somehow feels so incredibly misogynistic..? I promise I'm not just shitting on something teenage girls love. It is not a good book and I won't fully get into why exactly here, because I just can't be bothered. I already wasted too much time reading this book...

If you like Twilight, maybe do not read this review. I don't want to make you mad, but I really did not have a good time reading it.

It's quite similar to the movie but so much less entertaining. It's just really irritating.
I know I'm not the target audience but I honestly do not think I would have liked it if I read it when I was younger.

I still hate Edward and Bella is boring. We got some more backstory for Alice which was interesting. Besides that though nothing much is new.

The kind of obsession portrayed in this book is ridiculous and honestly not warranted. I don't understand WHY Edward and Bella like each other, except for the fact that they are both đź’«differentđź’«...? Bella is so obsessed with Edward pretty much from the first time she sees him and I do not understand it!

I was quite surprised that reading this book actually felt like reading any other mediocre fantasy book. It is truly nothing special. I thought it would at least make me angry, if not make me laugh. It did neither. I got annoyed and bored and sometimes disgusted. That's it.

If you haven't read this book yet, don't. The movie shows you everything you need to know. I promise you're not missing out on anything.
I honestly feel like this was a waste of my time, but at least now I can brag (?) about having read Twilight?
Definitely won't be continuing the series though or reading anything else by Stephenie Meyer. I assume it's only going to get worse.

I feel like Twilight deserves 1.5 stars simply for being such a cult classic that I felt like I missed out on a great experience by not having read it. I thought I could hate-love this like I do the Twilight movies,... but I don't. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
slow-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I didn't like many things in this book, so let's start with what I did like. Meyer's writing itself is very good. She has this pleasantly descriptive writing style, suitable for a romance book. 
The plot, however, I didn't like. It felt like I was chasing a climax throughout the entire book. I'd always expect something plot-twist-like happening, only to be let down. I even made up a term for it, climax-baiting. 
The romance... where was it? It seemed to me that Bella and Edward were only physically attracted to each other (inspite of their "sexual and romantic attraction go hand-in-hand for me" discussion). 
Don't even let me get started on why the entire premise of a 100-something y/o vampire lusting for a 17 y/o's blood and falling in love with her is wrong. And that's BESIDES his stalking and possessiveness.
I finished the book, but didn't feel like it. Not in a good way. More like a "there was nothing to miss" kind of way.
The last 100 or so pages were intriguing. The first 300-odd were plain boring and at points frustrating.

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lighthearted slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

pretty much all that can be said about twilight has been said already, but ill say that it was better than the movie by far, bella had 2 whole traits (she’s clumsy and she reads) instead of none in the movie, and her conversations with edward are actually a little cute and flirty. i think a lot of this book is a “what not to do” guide for parents whose kids are in an abusive relationship though… also there is some textbook gaslighting from edward in the beginning which isn’t cute :/ also the writing is not strong

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is maybe one of the worst books I've ever read. I am legitimately unsure why my eleven-year-old self enjoyed them as much as she did. Probably for the reasons I gave it two and a half stars, which is pure entertainment value and being unintentionally hilarious at times. But seriously, I'm not sure how this book was even published. The writing is terrible, the characters are all incredibly annoying (all for completely different reasons), and Edward and Bella's relationship, which is held up as being romantic and perfect and star-crossed, is actually very toxic and abusive (one of their first ever conversations is just Edward gaslighting the hell out of Bella and it made me quite uncomfortable). This book (and the series) makes an excellent hate-read, and I'm definitely going to be finishing out the series at some point soon. The only people I think I'd seriously recommend this book to are eleven-year-old girls or someone who I really want to confuse. However, I'd recommend it to anybody else looking for something comically bad and cringey to read.

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

✨3.25/5✨
Quite honestly, this was a good book. It was written very well and the plot was indeed very interesting. However, although the characters do pique the readers' interest, there was just wayyyy too many problematic scenarios that were posited by the author. I couldn't simply dismiss them off with a wave of a hand. 

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Such a hard book to rate. We all know it's not a great piece of literature, and Meyer's racism and obsession with weird age gaps definitely depreciates the quality of the literature that is there. But it is so fun. I had a blast reading it. It's silly, very of-it's-time, funny at parts, and a very interesting take on vampires. The background characters are far more interesting than Bella and Edward. I read this for class but I am tempted to read the rest of the series again. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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