Red’s Comments (group member since Jun 29, 2014)

Red’s comments from the Twilight Read-along! group.

Oh and I realize how small this is, but Edward is the only one that can make asking someone to go to Seattle as cute and charming as asking them to a dance.

I don't disagree at all and I think calling her a poor writer is extreme, judgmental, and far from the truth. I think Stephen King is so far removed from adolescence that I don't think he realizes a well-captured teen voice when he reads it and criticizes it just because it is not a book to his tastes. After all, if the love was supposed to be mature she would have created a completely different story surrounding a different age. If she was a poor writer, she would not be as successful. I love my Stephen and my Stephenie...even if they don't always get along haha.

♥♥Mari♥♥ wrote: "Red wrote: "Gaby wrote: "I absolutely agree with you guys. I love the way Stephanie wrote this book and expressed the way Bella feels and her self-awareness of her infatuation with Edward. It is ex..."

I do agree it is a beautiful passage, and I still believe she has beautifully chooses words. She isn't grammatically incorrect in every sentence, but it is frequent enough that I notice. I try to overlook most of it though, but not everyone might have that problem. I'm just acutely observant when it comes to grammar in publications to the point it annoys myself; I'm totally aware of that haha.

Gaby wrote: "I absolutely agree with you guys. I love the way Stephanie wrote this book and expressed the way Bella feels and her self-awareness of her infatuation with Edward. It is extremely relatable, to me ..."

I, personally anyway, don't think the poor grammar was a way of being in someone's head. I just think proper grammar is a fading writing standard since it's rare someone deliberately challenges grammatical structure (and even then, it is generally done by someone with a thorough understanding of grammar in order to do so successfully.) That being said, grammar aside, I do think her word choice and actual syntax is very effective and I totally agree that she does a good job of keeping us inside Bella's head. I love books that can actually pull off a first-person narrative. A lot of authors try, but break their own character illusions when there are clear opinions that belong to the author...not the character. Stephenie Meyer doesn't do that, and I absolutely love that, because it keeps us in Bella's head, not Stephenie's.

Plus do people totally forget about teenage hormones? Think back to high school (or currently if you're still in it) and how often do you see your friends or classmates saying they love their boyfriend of two-to-seven days. No exaggeration. Now THAT'S insta-love. Besides, the development of their relationship and interaction happens over a period of weeks and months. Just because she decided not to write out the boring parts in between we wouldn't care about doesn't mean they fell in love overnight. There were weeks in between their first meeting and their second alone.

That was one of the things I caught too! I must have reread that like seven times because it bugged me so much.

Selena wrote: "*some more possible spoilers**

I loved when Bella was all upset about having to go on a stretcher and Edward got to walk out of there all casual!!
Man, poor Bella
I forgot how funny this book co..."

I know! The movie totally influenced my memories, and I remembered her being way more flat than she really is. Some of her comments I'm like "Haha that's so what I would say!"

Somehow this self-awareness makes her Edward obsession a little more bearable.

One thing that has bugged me that I didn't catch when I read it when I was fifteen...just how grammatically incorrect this book is. I'm totally an English nerd, so that's probably why it irks me. There was one sentence in there (I can't find it now) that clearly had an extra word that wasn't supposed to be there.

Selena wrote: "LOL!! Yes!
*possible spoiler*

"You have quite a temper don't you?"
Or something like that, after she gets all sassy about him evading all of her questions. I Lolled"

Haha right? I like hotheaded Bella.

Also, did anyone else catch the irony when she talked about how high his level of influence was on her and how unhealthy it was?

I love Bella's temper. Why don't I remember how pissed off she was all the time? Haha.

I'm so excited for the live show! Just finished this week's reading and I'm already dying to talk about it.

Just finished this weeks section. I'm surprised how easy it was to fall back into.

I started last night, thought I'd only get through a few pages and got through about half of this week's reading instead. Would have read more if I didn't start dozing off!

I started reading the series when I was 15 and I'm now 22 and I'm so excited to reread them and see my perspective on them now. No doubt I'll see the characters pretty different from how I did the first time.