I chose to look up Twilight on Amazon because I was sure there would plenty of reviews to choose from - and I was right. Over 5,000 people wrote critiques of the first book in the series and over 3,000 of these people gave it 5 stars. I think this says something about who's writing the reviews. If someone is going to write a critique, they probably either loved it or hated it. In this case, most of them loved Twilight.
In my opinion, Amazon invites book reviewers for this reason. Books like Twilight will get thousands of great reviews, only further spreading the hype that accompanies fantasy novels. Also, customers would much rather here the thoughts of their peers than professional critics. Who cares what these journalists think when fellow thirteen year olds think Twilight is amazing?
Although I'm not a die-hard fan, I have to admit that I've read the entire series. It was a nice way to wind down the day with a non-challenging page turner. The storyline was good enough, and the writing wasn't distracting enough to stop me from reading. Overall, I wouldn't give it five stars - but thats just me.
I found an interesting review that provided a good amount of insight. The critic basically stated that Meyer's book needed more time and editing to achieve literary merit. She said it felt rushed, that it should've been looked over more carefully and condensed to exclude the unnecessary details. She also explained that the storyline gave a bad message to its audience: the only way to get a guy is to give up everything for him. Meyer should've targeted girls older than thirteen if she wanted to use this theme. This reviewer gave Twilight 4 stars because of the character development and addicting storyline.
This review does a good job of analyzing the Meyer's novel, but the rating seems a little too kind. The critic spends all this time on what is bad, and little time on what is good. Giving the book a good rating makes it seems like she is trying to please her audience of commenters rather than give an honest rating.
Overall, I think reviews can be helpful at times but mostly they can distract you from creating your own opinion, especially if they are read before purchasing the book. I like to read them when I'm finished to see if I agree or disagree with the general opinion of whatever I'm reading, but reading reviews beforehand can sometimes ruin the story.
So here are my questions:
1. Do you agree with Amazon critics that Twilight deserves over 3000 5 star ratings? If so, is it because of literary merit or cultural influence of the series?
2. Since you have the ability to reply and comment on these reviews, is this just another form of social networking?
I personally don't think Twilight deserves so many 5 star ratings, but at the same time every 5 stars given implies someone really loved the book (or is just too nice). And it's definitely due to the hype and overall cultural influence behind the series. Vampires that aren't modeled after traditional hollywood-esque Vampires became a new fad several years ago. Also, Twilight is written not as a enthralling story, but rather an overhyped super dramatic romance thing that a lot of girls like to at least imagine could be them, despite the fact that a Vampire and Werewolf fighting for your love and you don't have to sacrifice anything in life isn't even close to reality (I've also read all the books). It has no literary merit and is more of a temporary and overrated escape novel (more so than other literature that possesses true literary merit).
ReplyDeleteWith the fact that Twilight received such an amount of 5-star ratings, it seems that perhaps this everyday people review systems work in a different way from the reviews of old. If a book can garner that much support, then it might not be the reviews that cause someone to buy and read the book, but the curiosity they obtain as to why so many people think this book is perfect. It's a weird way to look at reviews, but as time goes on, that may more and more become the way such a system operates.
ReplyDeleteReviews for Twilight are obviously a bit off. Those books can be decent, but definitely shouldn't be rated so highly by many. Obviously the author is doing something right though, so hat's off to her...
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