No girl should ever have to decide between a vampire and a werewolf but if she does, and she happens to weigh 92 pounds, live in the Pacific Northwest, and run around with blue lips most of the time, she should pick the warm-blooded one. It's just more practical.
As promised, here is the story of how I came to read the Twilight books...
I adore Charles de Lint. He's a delightful man and I have huge amounts of respect for his body of work. As far as I'm concerned, Urban Fantasy owes its current revival to him. He is the original and if you want to read the best, start with his Newford books. They aren't a series because he doesn't believe in them but they are all set in the same world with many repeat characters. Pick up any one - each book is a complete story and can be read on its own. But I digress.
I attended one of his book signings several years ago. I had his current YA book signed for my little sister, Traci. He asked who Traci was and we had an actual conversation (rare for book signings in my experience) about how I had moved to Portland from Arizona to get away from the sun but I missed my family, so Traci and I would read the same books and then talk about them as a way to stay connected. He thought this was a wonderful idea. And then this light came on behind his eyes, he perked up, and made his assistant go find him a piece of paper. He knew what book we had to read next - a book about a girl who moves from Arizona to the Pacific NW and meets vampires who live there to get away from the sun. He had only read the first one but he enjoyed it and thought the series showed promise.
At this point in time, there was no Team Edward or Team Jacob. The books were new enough that I hadn't even heard of them. Besides, what would you do if your literary idol told you to read a book? I bought the book. We read it. We read all of them.
I will say that I enjoyed the first book. I'm a sucker for a vampire story. I was less than fond of Bella in the beginning, and by the last book, I downright disliked her but I still wanted to know how it would end. I was fairly certain she'd end up with Edward but held out hope for the underdog (pun intended). Edward is a teenage girl's dream - he lives for her, moons over her, cuddles endlessly without pressuring for sex, drives a fast car, and even saves her life. Jacob did all of the above with the exception of living for her, he has his own life and his own challenges. Plus, being with Jacob had the added bonus that it wouldn't have disrupted (or ended) her life. He even encourages her to live her life and to be herself. All Bella does with Edward is love him. She has very little identity of her own. So why choose the vampire? With Edward, Bella also gets a family that adores her to unreasonable lengths. I believe absolutely in the importance of family, the family you're born with and the one you choose, but it bothers me that she had to give up one family to gain another for all time. It also bothers me that I now think of vampires in terms of the Mormon faith.
To say that I was disappointed in the ending would be understating it. Vampires can't have babies. Not even sparkly Mormon vampires. Becoming a mother destroys what little was left of Bella's self-identity. Not to mention that the ludicrous pseudo-compromise of Jacob imprinting on Bella's baby was just disturbing. I don't regret reading the books though. There is a silver lining in all of this, and that is thousands of teenage girls asking for romance and chivalry, demanding to be treated as well as Bella was treated, and putting the emphasis on emotions, rather than sex. Maybe expecting a boy to save your life is a bit over the top but asking a boy to respect that you're not ready for sex is a damn good trend. So thank you, Mr. de Lint, I'm glad that I read the books and even more glad that Traci and I got to talk about them.
