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i don't know what i can say that others haven't far better than i could. (then i go and write a freaking essay on my random twilight thoughts, go figure) There are many obvious issues with this book that i was aware of when reading for the first time but many that went over my head.
it's so unrealistic but at the same time knowingly how deeply (and stupidly) i loved at 17 I'd probably throw it all away for a hot vampire boy i didn't know too
i read this at some point between 2006-2008, i don't remember much of what i thought at the time. i wasn't as into it as some of the kids at my school were but i read them all and remember talking about them with my friends.
a year(?) ago i watched this youtube video called something like ‘sorry smeyer' about how she got absolutely bodied for stuff which was kind of out of her hands (basically that she was writing wish fulfilment and wasn't trying to be a model to young girls or best seller) and how while there are some questionable things in the book she didn't deserve the strength and amount of hate she got. it was an interesting video and must have planted a seed. two months ago i randomly watched the first twilight movie and unintentionally ‘ironically' got back into twilight. i found all the Twilight memes from the tumblr Twilight renaissance which had been going strong for a few years i guess. and discovered that midnight sun was officially published. i read it because i didn't want to reread the whole series but wanted to remember what fandom was talking about. i watched all the movies in a few days while i was recovering from my covid vax and a fun time was had by all. i ended up deciding to listen to twilight when i needed a break from ‘serious' reading. (hey, I've read much worse for dumber reasons)
reading midnight sun made me appreciate Bella's character a lot more this time around as she had more of an obvious personality. While it was hilarious to read from Edward's perspective it really hit home all the fucked up stuff he does (wish i could remember what teen me thought about Edward watching her sleep). i just feel so sorry for Bella. she's infatuated with a guy who is terrible for her, the only thing she seems to appreciate about him are his looks and mysteriousness (no judgement i was obsessed with a guy in high school I'd never spoken to lol, being a teen is fun) and then when unexpectedly they get together the only thing they really do is stare into each other's eyes and tell each other how much they love each other. except when edward tells Bella she's stupid and puts her down. :( like Bella IS being stupid but that's no excuse Edward!!!
The fandom for this series is so fun and im glad it's become so far removed from the author and the less savoury things in the story. i mostly enjoyed myself while reading this book but the most interesting part was the beginning when she was figuring out wtf Edward was. The longer it goes the more infatuated she gets and i feel bad for her, she really needs good friends. by the time we get to the james stuff i was
a nice little novella. it was interesting to see the world from opal's perspective. i liked the bits with the cloud girl and chainsaw best.
i loved this until Shiraha was re-introduced. i wish he had less ‘screen time' as i found it painstaking to read through his dialogue. obviously he's supposed to be an irritating character but to have so much of the book taken up by him felt like a slog, personally. i wish Keiko had shovel'd him the first night he stayed over. i was expecting her to have killed him by the end and to be honest i was hoping she would.
i dislike the timid autistic character be taken advantage of trope so I'm glad she prevailed in the end even if there was no comeuppance for Shiraha.
4 stars with 1 star for everything involving Shiraha's monologues rounds this out to a 3.
i think i might enjoy this more on a re-read knowing what to expect but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
I really liked the first half of this book, and I was very excited for the story and guessing what would happen. It was set up nicely with the mouse and rat who were similar but different characters and i was very invested in their stories. I lost a lot of interest during ‘book the third' and wasn't interested in Mig or any of the human characters. I felt like we were told repeatedly how much of a good person Pea was but we never really saw it. Hearing Mig say “Gor” about 2 thousand times was not very enticing but I get that this is a kid's book.
I found it a little disappointing how one-dimensional Roscuro was and he kinda just ended up being generic bad guy with a rushed redemption. I was expecting it to be a bit more nuanced so my expectations fell a little short.
I did enjoy this book though I thought it was cute and I loved the parts focussing on the rodents! There were a lot of really nice quote-able parts of this book and I'll be thinking about it for a while!
it was alright. i preferred the martian, suffers a bit from male writer of female character syndrome. overall a fun story and the narration was good.
i hope that there's fanfiction that gets to see those condoms that were constantly mentioned put to use bc i was very disappointed when they stopped being mentioned.
i'm reading this for the first time as a 27 year old and i thought i'd be too ‘old' for this, especially considering the odd boyband deviantart esque cover on my library copy. but age be damned, i still had my smiling face buried in my hands when blue received her flowers. i enjoyed it! the second half was a lot more exciting than the first, though i wasn't bored in the first half, i liked the setting up of the story even if it was a tad slow.
i accidentally guessed the ‘twist' without realising it. i was musing about how 60% into the book, noah - one of the main four boys had only appeared in the doorway of two scenes looming like a ghost - it never actually occurring to me that he WAS a ghost. i thought that was a nice touch, and i'm glad he came back at the end. i was grinning like an idiot when they all ran out of the church. it would have been sad to lose him. though i'm not sure what adam ended up sacrificing, if he walked out the ritual apparently unharmed. perhaps this will be attended to in further books.
i'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the rest of the books and i've grown fond of the characters. - wtf was that last line about!
it's always nice when you grow to like a character that was previously lacklustre. this happened with Ronan with me in this book. excited to see what happens next.
there were so many scenes i highlighted being like... is this Ronan being gay or is this the author making a point about homoerotic masculinity?? i think it could be both
My first Pratchett book. I started with this as an audiobook and then life got in the way and it kept getting auto-returned so I would splice in the ebook from time to time. By the end it probably ended up being about 50% read and 50% listened to. I enjoyed both. The narration was lovely for the audiobook, though a little swift. I found it easier to follow on 0.95 speed.
Being lots of little stories put together felt a little disjointed but I appreciated the world building, character development, and humour. I got a little lost at times but ploughed through and it didn't affect my enjoyment or understanding too much. Somewhere between 2 and 4 stars, a fine start to what I trust will be a fantastic series.