Bella Should Have Dumped Edward: Controversial Views on the Twilight Series

by Michelle Pan

Indulge your love of everything Twilight with this rowdy review of the series by the experts at the popular fan website, BellaAndEdward.com.

The devoted Twihard fans of the Twilight series at BellaAndEdward.com argue passionately about what really happened and what should have happened.

•Who should Bella have ended up with, Jacob or Edward?
•Should Bella have become a vampire?
•Which character was miscast the most in the movies?
•If you could be any Twilight character, who would you be?
•Which movie has stayed truer to the book?
•Which event in the Twilight saga was the most surprising?
•Should Breaking Dawn have ended with a fight?
•Which character's story would make the best sequel?
•Which vampire power would you rather have?

Genres: Nonfiction, Vampires

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Michelle Pan is the founder and owner of BellaAndEdward.com, one of the largest Twilight saga fansites on the web. She started the site in 2006 when she was just 13 years old. Since then, Michelle has had the opportunity to interview many of the Twilight cast and crew members at the movies' world premieres. At school, she participates in the marching band, where she plays the flute and is a drum major. Michelle will be a senior in high school next year. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Reviews

[Tess · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that this book is labeled as “controversial opinions” is literally just such a lie

Deidre, 22, Alberta, Canada YOU SUCK. ALL OF YOUR OPINIONS WERE LITERALLY JUST SO WRONG and why were you answering every question pls get a life and get better opinions ✋

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is a little misleading- it's not controversial at all, it's a collection of short essays from die-hard fans of the series about different questions.

Questions like:
If you could be a character in Twilight, who would you be?
Who was your favorite character?
Which movie was the best adaptation of the book?

...and so on. Not really hard-hitting, and they don't discuss any of the really controversial issues that arose from the books. No talk of Edward's disturbing creeper habits. Nothing about Bella's manipulation of Jacob. It's all very light, even the discussions that go slightly deeper into opinions on imprinting and the way Jacob's personality changed when he became a werewolf.

As someone who loves the Twilight books but still maintains a distance from the obsession, this was not the book for me. Yes, I love the books, but I also am well aware of the unhealthy relationships portrayed and am amused to no end by the purple prose.

If you love Twilight and want to read the positive gushing of your fellow fans, this is a great book for you... for those of you with a bit more skepticism- just re-read the series.

I received this book for free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

[Jessica at Book Sake · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first glance of this book I was expecting something a bit deeper delving into the Twilight books. Something along the lines of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy” or “Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds, and Space Hookers In Joss Whedon's Firefly”. What I got was a smattering of various fans views on different questions such as “which vampire power would you rather have” and “which movie has stayed truer to the book”.

Each section is divided up by the question presented. We are given a few answers and the fan’s reasons of why they chose the way they did. At the end of each section we are given “The Final Call” which I expected to be the answer chosen by most of the Twilight fans that responded to the question. Instead, we are given the authors choice. So basically this book is like having a conversation with other Twilight fans about what you like, don’t like, and think about the books and movies. I love Twilight, but I don’t feel the need to own everything with the word Twilight written on it, so maybe that’s why this book isn’t for me.

[Flor Méndez]

DNF @ 9% (pero salté a la parte de "Jacob debería haberse imprimido de Renesmee?", cuyas respuestas me dejaron ANONADADA).

Pensé que este libro iba a ser un libro de ensayos y reflexiones sobre la saga, pero en realidad son fans respondiendo a preguntas desde su punto de vista, que obvio está sesgado por el fanatismo y, en varios de los casos que leí, una falta de crítica importante al consumo de esta saga. Por ejemplo, la pregunta que planteé antes tenía varias explicaciones de por qué sí debería haberlo hecho y las dos únicas respuestas negativas se basaban en que "es una híbrida y él un hombre lobo, así que debería sentirse asqueado por su parte vampiro" y "ayyyy es una salida fácil de Meyerrrr: ahora que no puede estar con Bella está con la hijaaaa". Nunca nada sobre EL HECHO DE QUE ELLA ES UNA BEBÉ, la utilización de un pueblo originario reducido a convertirse en lobos y enamorarse de menores de edad (!), la idea de que la imprimacion es sumamente tóxica y, pensando en la historia, solo puede crear caos de ahí en adelante, etcétera. Nunca una reflexión, todo muy team Edward o team Jacob.

[Sammie Val🧸💐🤍 · Rating 1 out of 5]

kept me occupied i guess while i listed while working, but it was literally just like a q&a session :| i was hoping it would be more like Cinema Therapy’s youtube series on the Twilight Saga (super entertaining to watch btw, highly recommend that youtube series instead of this book for a lore in depth look on Bella & Edwards relationship)

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a reason why many high school students should not have book deals. The book would be liked by teens who love Twilight, I think, but the book also seems to be things you could discuss on whatever social media platform you use, so why would a teen get this?

No controversary in it or real criticism.

[Celia Catalano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was sooooo fun to read! Seeing fans point of views on the story and even learning a little hit about what happened with the cast of the movies. It is the type of book they should have for any story. Soooo fun i wrote so many notes to include my answers to the questions!

[Louisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

no idea how I ended up reading this, but it was kinda entertaining

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Proof that I will read anything handed to me: exhibit A

[Chante _mightierthanthesword_ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I still have 40 minutes in the audiobook but it won't change my mind.

[Lena Tumasyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I like the Twilight Series, I must say that I am not a HUGE fan. I picked up this book in part to satisfy my own curiousity about the series, but also in part to get a better understanding of WHY ON EARTH the twilight phenomenon pushed vampires over the cultural edge and into EVERY teenage book (and many adult romance books) possible! Sure vampires were around, but they were never so proliferious in stories until Twilight.

I appreciate that the author of the book took reviews from true fans of the books, right off the site. I think she did research reading all the reviews and it shows. I think she had a good mix of arguments and answers to questions that the fans propose. And she also had a great bunch of questions, such as "What character from the book was best portrayed in the movie", "What is the best/worst thing about Twilight", and "What if Edward was the human and Bella was the vampire"? The responses were pretty thorough and educated, well, for 14 year olds! Meaning... Even though some of the fans that wrote answers to the questions were only 14 or 15, they were very articulate and persuasive in their responses. So that's good! I also like that the fan's countries of origin, and ages were diverse.

However, I wish the author would have chosen more fans to include in the answers. I think Rachel from Canada appeared in almost every answer, and many others were repeated. This is not to say that their answers were bad, it's just that I wish I got to hear more people out. Also, I felt that the book was a little bit short. I would have liked a few more reposes per question and also a little more from the author herself. In her "Final Call" sections at the end of every questions she did a good job summarizing fans' responses, but she never really spoke her OWN mind. Such as, why she thought this or that was a bad idea, not just that it WAS a bad idea.

I recommend this book to Twilight fans big and small, old and young.

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with this book. I heard about it when bellaandedward.com was asking people to send in things for it. I even considered sending something in, but I decided against it because I was too busy writing other things.

I have two main things I didn't like about the book:

1. There are so many grammar mistakes. They weren't even small grammar mistakes. These were huge mistakes that even an elementary school kid should know are mistakes. It would have been a lot easier to read if there weren't sometimes missing words in the middle of a sentence for instance. It wasn't even just the parts sent in by fans. I found a few mistakes in the parts written by the actual author as well.

2. I think the werewolves weren't really represented well. I know there was one or two things sent in by someone who is Team Jacob, but a large majority of it was written in a Team Edward/vampire point of view. I realize that's pretty much how the fandom is as well, but I think there could have been a better effort to include a Team Jacob point of view in the writing. I'm not even talking about saying Bella should have chosen Jacob (I'm Team Jacob and don't even want them together). I just mean at least mentioning that the werewolves exist every so often. I think only one or two of them seemed to be mentioned occasionally while the vampites seemed to be mention a lot more often.

[Misty Phelan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall this was an interesting read. Though written (almost) entirely by "tweens" and teens, the questions posed to gain some interesting answers. However, you can still tell that the answers are coming from girls who have such a lack of real world experience.

That said, for a High School student to come up with the idea for this book, then follow through with it is quite a feat and hopefully the young author will put her talents to better uses in the future. My main complaint about this book is the lack of proof-reading, and also the fact that questions were not looked at from multiple sides.

[Briony · Rating 2 out of 5]

An insightful read that I would recommend to any Twilight saga fan. I enjoyed the book and read it from cover to cover, but it's not something I would read again or actually purchase, it's just a bit of fun. However with that being said, reading this book did bring parts of the Twilight saga to my attention, that upon reading the novels myself I'd over looked. It also gave me a great urge to join in and write up my own debates and answers to the questions (for some of them I have very differnet opinions and ideas!), but also a want to go and read the saga all over again! If I could give half points on here, I'd actually give it 2 and a half out of 5.

[Marjo · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was all right. I expected more of an actual debate (on eight on the questions asked, everyone answered the same thing; not much of a debate), and questions about the movies (which is the most accurate representation of the book, which actor was best cast) were a bit premature, since Eclipse had not been released in theater (neither had either parts of Breaking Dawn, obviously). But hearing from other fans is always interesting.

[Danielle Overly Bookishly Backlogged · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to try this out for giggles and had zero expectations other than the content would mirror the sentiment of the title. WRONG. The only promise the book kept is that it was as vapid as I had assumed it would be. Yes, I get that it's a collection of essays written by teens, but is it too much to ask for some editing and, dare I say, opposing views?

[Sylvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of the series, this is a really great piece. It discusses controversial points throughout the series and gives the reader a chance to reflect on his or her own opinions of the different aspects of the story and weigh in. It's also very light, nothing too deep for a light quick and easy read.

The title can throw you off if you take it too seriously though. lol

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questions posed about the Twilight series where fans give their opinions. If you are heavily into the series, you will like this book. If you have a passing knowledge, you will wonder why anyone cares. Both sides of the questions are presented. I made up my own mind that I enjoyed the stories but I don't care to go any deeper into it.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, and I was surprised that the author is still in high school. Some parts got tedious because some people expressing their opinions had the same opinion, and the author put in both opinions

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crap...didn't even finish it. Just a synopsis of paragraphs from girls around the country waxing poetic about vampires and "true love". I was hoping for a real argument of why Edward and Bella's relationship is not an ideal example for young girls. It's just fluff written by a college student.

[Cherene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting viewpoints on the Twilight Saga. Anyone want to borrow it?

[Glenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was lame and not worth my time, to find out what peoples opinions were about this and that about the "Twilight" series. I guess I am not a serious fan.

[Regina Hunter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Someone should dump the "author" , my poor boyfriend carried 32 books .... without zis it would be 31.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, I seem to like this Opinionated Book more than I actually like the original Twilight.
Is that wrong?

[Emily Benoit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the debating views in this book. Interesting!