Twilight on My Own Terms, Part 4: James is the most evil being ever?

I am a bit behind in my writing; I finished reading Twilight last week. As I have already had the book reclaimed from me (literally – she snuck into my house without my knowledge, leaving nothing but gifts and Christmas cheer in her wake), I will be blogging from memory.

There are two major things I remember from chapters 16-20 that aren’t the usual fawning and creepiness: baseball and James. Vampire baseball was described in an incredibly intriguing manner. I think she left out the part where Vampire Weekend plays “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as the seventh inning stretch, but that’s okay. The rest of the game entertained me, as well as the description of how and why they needed to hide their game. This did bring up some interesting questions, though: does the vampire venom count as a performance-enhancing drug? Should Edward Cullen be playing in the sunless Metrodome for the Minnesota Twins? Is Mark McGwire actually a vampire? How do vampires feel about a designated hitter?

These thoughts were immediately pushed aside as THE MOST EVIL CREATURE IN THE WORLD EMERGED FROM THE FOREST WITHOUT ANY PRIOR WARNING. I am not exaggerating the abrupt qualities of his entrance. In one page, he does not exist; two pages later, all the main characters are running for their lives (literally and metaphorically). Talk about making an entrance. Neither am I exaggerating the depravity of James’ character: we are supposed to believe that James is evil to the core. The only explanation for why he’s evil? “That’s how he is.” I’ll give you an extra line to let that sink in.

wow.

I would be okay with the most evil character in the world appearing if there had been some foreshadowing before. I do not agree that the first two pages are foreshadowing; they tell us the end of the story, not drop clues. They’re meant to hook, not enlighten. There are no clues dropped whatsoever about the lurking presence of the blackest of black souls. Alice’s continued weirdness does not count, because seriously, she could be freaking out over seeing World War III. Who knows what she’s freaking out about. Doesn’t count as foreshadowing.

After James lands in a meteoric crash, Twilight pt. 2 starts. Part One was all about romance or something. Part two is about a cross-country chase. The parts have the same characters, but almost nothing to do with each other, in that the things that Bella does in part two (self-sacrifice, most notably) have almost no correlation with her sensational self-absorption in pt 1. If this had happened gradually, it would be called character development. In the Meyer context, it’s a bit over-the-top (as Bella/Ms. Meyer tends to be). Regardless, the plot moves quickly, the action is interesting, and the dynamics of the characters are put in the forefront (stress tends to do that). As such, chapters 16-20 were the best chapters thus far, mostly because something happened. Even if it did happen illogically.

Conclusion: her editors told her she needed more fight scenes right about this point in the book.