Author: samanthaglance

Why have vampires turned from being the lurkers girls should fear into these sexually-desired men? It makes little sense to me why someone would take this monster that has represented the sinful lust of humanity since its creation is now meant to be the ultimate catch. I can’t help but wonder if people have forgotten why a vampire was made. In my on understanding, a vampire represents the worst kind assault any person be subjected to.

However, in this modern era, vampires are wanted in return. The concept makes my skin crawl with disgust, because it is not only glorification of a cruel happening in our world. People have completely overlooked the representation of a vampire and jumped straight to the passion, even though this monster was made because that passion was one-sided.

So why are modern day vampires so far removed from their original purpose?

Twilight is unlike any other story I have ever read before. It carries a level of intrigue and romance that I’ve never been interested in. Therefore, connecting this piece of the literature to something else is more than a challenge. I had to dig deep, trace the lines to long-forgotten memories from my early days of reading novels from my high school library until I found a title, one that both repulsed me and intrigued me, much like Twilight. I speak of Alice Sebold’s the Lovely Bones.

The Lovely Bones follows the tale of Susie Salmon, a young girl who is murdered by her neighbor and watches her friends and family from her own personal Heaven. Some aspects of the book, such as the Susie’s fixation on her middle school crush towards the end of the title, were uncomfortable for myself to read, much like some of the romance scenes between Bella and Edward. However, the concept of the Lovely Bones and the narration of Susie as she and those she left behind learn to let each other go captivated me.

In the same way I approached the story of the Lovely Bones, I again approached the story of Twilight. I engaged and accepted some aspects and pulled away from others.

I cannot begin to express how much I dislike the romantic element of this story. Let me be the first to say that, so far, I can at least partially enjoy the story of Twilight. However, I believe that the romance aspect is my least favorite part. Stephanie Meyers uses this budding relationship wonderfully as a tool for storytelling, using the question game Bella and Edward are playing as a way to painstakingly pull exposition from the overly reluctant Edward, as well as to make us as interested as possible in who these mysteries supernatural people are. However, I feel as if the story would be much more interesting without the romance and if it were told from Edward’s perspective. When I discovered that Edward was a mind-reader, I thought, “wow, I would love to see how that works,” which I can’t do, because this story is told by Bella, a girl who constantly calls herself ordinary.

Now, I get that using Bella as the narrator gives the reader a way to experience a world that they have never been apart of alongside a person who is going through the same transition. This is something that I believe this story does not need. The setting of the book in placed in enough of a normal world that most would be able to understand it. Adding in Edward’s perspective would be just as much of a mystery as from Bella’s perspective. If having the reader experience the newness with the narrator was so important, then just use Jacob. He seemed so skeptical about those tribal stories, having them come to life before his eyes would have been just as interesting as coming to the realization with Bella. I honestly do not think that Bella is a necessary character in the story. If her whole “I’m immune to mind-reading” thing is actually a story plot, then, again, just move that to Jacob, because that would be so much more interesting!

Again, I’m okay with the story itself, but what I am not okay with is how the story is being told. Take Bella and just press that big old DELETE button on your keyboard, Stephanie Meyers. If you need romance so bad, just ship Jacob and Edward, who are the only two characters I genuinely like at this point.