Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My 21 year old daughter bought me the entire set of books. She is enamored with Edward. I understand. He's a very compelling character - he's beautiful, perfect, brilliant, protective, inhumanely strong and agile, enigmatic, the ultimate bad-boy with a heart of gold, and he has an amazing backstory and an inhumanly beautiful, loyal and loving adopted family. I get it - he's every adolescent girl's dream. And wonder of wonders, he never ages. The series is more or less about the inexplicable attraction of soul mates, inexplicable because I cannot for the life of me figure out what makes Bella attractive aside from the fact that Edward can't read her mind and she smells enticing. Perhaps it's my age, but I believe three things - the first is regarding a work of fantasy - an author must stay true to his or her fantasy. You cannot break the your own rules to give the reader what you think the reader wants. A fantasy is exactly that, make-believe...a dream, but even so, as a writer you must stay true to the rules you establish for your own fantasy. Ms. Meyer breaks her own rules. Second, characters must develop and mature. There must be a larger reason for events in a story and that larger reason cannot simply be so the hero can constantly save the heroine - which is the case here. It gets very old. Bella does not change and grow. From beginning to end she remains the same apathetic, cynical, whiny, helpless, martyred female she was when she arrived in Forks. Except when she's with Edward and then she superglues herself to his side in a manner that seems much more like the way a drug addict needs a fix than true love. She gets her happy ending but I'm left wondering what she will do with it. Anything redeeming? I very much doubt it. Third, I want my characters fleshed out. In my opinion, Jacob was the most three-dimensional character in the entire series and at times he was written in such a way that he became almost repellent to me. Throughout all four books, the same superficial descriptive words, the same sappy love-sick-puppy feelings that are supposed to pass for mature, timeless love, the same scenes are repeated ad nauseam. I would have liked to see the Cullens, other than Carlisle, do more with the their eternal existence than simply repeating experiences and 'hunting'. Oh, and saving Bella for some unknown reason. I assume they became attached to Bella because they loved Edward and he loved her, so as Laurent said to Bella in the second book - she was kind of a pet of theirs. I expect more from my female leads. Through four books I wanted Bella to mature, to become more 'human' than she was when the series began. But I'm sorry to say she never did. Edward always seemed more human and more compassionate to me and his character was diminished as the series went on. If you can get past the flawed writing, the concept works, especially in the first book. Other than Jacob Black, I was disappointed with the remainder of the story. Vampire world ain't all that exciting. From what I could tell, their larger society consisted of a bunch of overgrown, temper-tantrum prone, immature, super-powered children (I'm including the ancient vampires with the papery skin) who murder a lot of people. Their rules are simple - keep the secret. That's it folks. Would it be too much to expect that after living for millennia these vampires might develop some special perspective or philosophy greater than - we don't eat the neighbors? Okay, rant finished.