Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

破晓 by Stephenie Meyer

14 reviews

rafacolog's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

Faz o filme parecer legalzinho 
Nota 1/5= patético 
Leitura= 02/2020 
Eu não era fã dos filmes, mas como sempre dizem “o livro é melhor” e eu resolvi dar uma chance. Foi um grande arrependimento: história chatíssima e arrastada, me recuso a falar sobre o “romance” e mal tive forças para terminar esse livro, que dirá continuar a saga. 
Lembrei também que divulgaram na época muita coisa problemática sobre a saga e sobre a autora (principalmente racismo e apropriação cultural) que acho importante mencionar. 
Não se deixem enganar por popularidade e reboots, e evitem dar palco para esse tipo de pessoa por memória afetiva. Resumindo odiar crepúsculo não é 2010, é inevitável. 

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sav_22's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Decided to reread this, I read it in middle school and used to be a fan but decided to revisit. Whether you like or hate it, its such a landmark in pop culture; I never take it seriously, it’s a fun read if you just like shallow paranormal romances. 

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beccalove's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25


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warlockdorian's review against another edition

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

2.5


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vagrantheather's review against another edition

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

2.75


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a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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lisa_m's review against another edition

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

1.5

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 💫different💫...? 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. 

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denisesbookstory's review against another edition

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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

4.0


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morenowagain's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

3.0

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. 

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soundlysmitten's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

One star for inspiring an entire generation to start reading again. And one for sparkly vampires ;)

I think I was ten or eleven when a friend let me borrow her copy of Twilight. The suspense kept me turning pages through church, lmao. Putting myself in Bella’s place, I remember feeling really frustrated at times, but also like the swoon worthy moments absolutely made up for all the unfairness.

This time around, I felt more detached. Which is to be expected, lol. But while I still found Edward’s patronizing chuckle irritating, I was unimpressed by his “musical voice”, and did not so much as sigh. I couldn’t overlook how controlling he is in every little matter or how he talks down to Bella like she’s completely incompetent when she got by just fine on her own before she met him. Moreover, I couldn’t make allowances for how various other characters also take away Bella’s agency at his discretion (i.e. Emmett restraining her, Jasper manipulating her emotions, all of them keeping her in the dark/making decisions without her). And I couldn’t deny the fact that Bella often responds to toxic behavior in unhealthy ways (i.e. being flattered when Edward spies on her and stalks her, feeling like it’s a commendable thing for him to give her the occasional choice in a matter, not breaking up with him when he threatens to get her nurses to drug her into unconsciousness...)

Basically, Edward is obsessed with Bella in the scary sense and Bella’s got major blinders on. He watches her sleep and wants to drink her blood, and she thinks it’s a romantic display of trust not to let anyone know when she plans to be alone with him. In my opinion, she isn’t a great heroine, nor he a great hero. I get that the danger, intensity, and singularity of their love is supposed to make their story epic, but as an adult, insta love can be hard to find compelling regardless. And the way it plays out in this saga seems a bit foolish to me. Of course forgetting about the rest of the world and valuing your relationship over your wellbeing is not unheard of. But the concept in and of itself is obviously not something to celebrate, and most people would hopefully draw a line before sacrificing their humanity to bank on forever with somebody they met at seventeen 😅

Despite everything mentioned above, I’d say the writing style is alright for a YA novel meant to be accessible to younger audiences. It’s not exactly gorgeous prose, and there is some annoying and inconsistent characterization as well as a few nonsensical lines of reasoning, but everything that made me cringe had to do with content rather than delivery. In general, the language flows pretty well. The pacing seems odd at times, though. And I’m not sure whether the little twists pull any weight cause I’m too familiar with the story at this point to fairly evaluate.

However, something I haven’t considered since my first read through is the novel’s misrepresentation of Native American culture and the author’s appropriation of the Quileute tribe. The number of problematic attempts at humor—which include Bella saying she’s so clumsy she’s “almost disabled” and trying to make a joke out of albinism—also previously went over my head. And there’s a stupid part I didn’t recall in which Bella takes “unnecessary cold medicine” cause she’s too hyped on Edward to sleep. Like, I know a kid could get into a lot worse both drug and activity wise... but really?

Okay, that’s all from me.

Just kidding—back to pose a question on the incident in Port Angeles. Bella almost gets snatched and Edward tells her: “Only you could get into trouble in a town this small. You would have devastated their crime rate statistics for a decade, you know.” Anyone else think his comment is a little blame-the-victim, and that it’s messed up to fabricate attempted assault just to support the notion that a woman is incapable of taking care of herself?

Yes, fiction is fiction. But the media we consume plays a role in shaping our culture, and we consume a lot of it, so I’d personally like to see better standards set in fictional works. Especially when a piece is marketed towards young readers. I think books with controversial content should be examined and discussed, though, rather than put on a black list. And I don’t think it’s right to judge anyone for the way a story resonates with them. So if you like Twilight cause nostalgia or cause fiction is fiction and the story just gives you the feels—I hope you do so shamelessly. (Fuck misogynistic hate).

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