Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Twilight

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

17 reviews

soundlysmitten's review against another edition

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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libraryfairy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed finally being able to finish this book all the way through for the first time !!! I loved the movies, and, of course, movie adaptions will be somewhat different from the books they're adapted from, but the book gave so much more depth and character to the characters. I think it also gives more insight into how even though the book is great and it's loved by many, overall, it's about a very unhealthy romantic relationship (which is the reasoning behind why I rate this 4 stars). I caught myself going "wow, they've only known each other for a short matter of time. No normal person would say or feel this fiercely about someone they just met," but perhaps that's what's so interesting about the book.

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directorpurry's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

CW: Suicide jokes, stalking, descriptions of injuries

March 2021:
I read this book once again for my March 2021 challenge of only reading books by women writers for Women's History month! You can read more about my experience here!
I was also just having a Time™ IRL and I needed to wallow in some garbage for a minute.

Update to my previous statement: I also hate this book. I have been personally victimized by this book. I'm pretty sure I have Stockholm Syndrome from this book and Edward with his "long" Yaoi hands.
Someone help me, I shall never be free of Twilight but I keep coming back for more anyway.

August 2020:
I love Twilight. If I had said that in, like, 2014, I would have beat myself up for saying it.
I used to be majorly obsessed with this series, constantly reading and rereading them all through middle school, but I'm pretty sure the last time I read this was about 2012.

Now that I've grown, and I don't treat it as the pinnacle of art and romance, I can truly enjoy it for what it is. Most issues with the actual story I have enough distance on, I can brush them off, but the treatment of the Quileute Native American tribe is truly upsetting. I really think it would have been better, and much less malignant, if Meyer had invented a tribal group to give these fake characteristics to.

And let's not talk about the, um, let's say generously loose plot...

But really, a good time all around. I reread this in order to prep for Midnight Sun - now that I have some FEELINGS about.

Content Warnings

cgn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

2.0

Rereading this a decade later and in a language I’m not 100% comfortable reading has helped me focus on the plot instead of the vibes, and wow I understand why so many people were up in arms. It’s a fun, ridiculous dark romance, but it’s marketed as young adult, and it’s concerning to think about all the young girls who were exposed to such poor communication at a formative age and have it painted as a great love story. Overall, it’s not a compelling book to me now, though I still had fun at times.

I also watched the movie today, and it was fascinating to see how they moved things around to make it a more evenly paced film.

Content Warnings