Vampires inc.

I spent most of today, when not interrupted by power-cuts, reading Stephenie Meyer's New Moon and Eclipse. I'd already read Twilight.

I don't know yet whether I like the series, though I'm usually faster at making up my mind.

The thing is, I get the concept, I even like the story the woman's selling. But what I don't like is that she doesn't really ground her mythical monsters in reality. We don't see much of the small-town life that the protagonist apparently leads, her school seems to have no memorable classes or strange teachers, the friends she makes slip away like so much smoke and are only very partially brought back, and that only as plot devices--the few fast friends she makes turn out to be myths themselves. I'm not even gonna start in on what I think of the girl herself. But I absolutely love Jacob Black. Rather more than beautiful, perfect Edward Cullen, actually. Though that's to be expected, I guess, I always side with the one who's left behind.

Though, frankly, what I just read about the plot of the fourth and final book does not impress me at all, about any of the characters.

S. Meyer writes rather well, but I think she'd have done better to read more of vampire and werewolf fiction before she attempted this. Dracula, at the very least?

Oh, and thank you for giving me the books.