You may have noticed that I don't love inspirational fiction (if you somehow missed this, check out my review of The Christmas Jars by Jason Wright). If an author wants to inspire people, fine, but I prefer that he/she approach it in one of two ways: either write a straightforward, self-help book or weave the message into a story so compelling that I don't know (or don't care) that it's really a sermon. When my oldest son was younger, I often tried to slip educational facts into his daily activities. I must have been obvious, because he would always say, "Stop teaching me, Mom!" I find myself screaming this same sentiment (in my mind, of course) to authors of inspirational fiction - Stop teaching me! Inspire me, please, but don't be so obvious about it.

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

This week is going to be a fun one at BBB - I'll be drawing a winner for the Taken By Storm giveaway, announcing more giveaways, and I may even have a review or two. But first, I must rant. Hubs and I watched Twilight last night - oh boy, have I got a few things to say about that! If you adored the movie, you may just want to skip this post. If not, read on ...

So, I know I'm the last woman on Earth to see Twilight. I had plans to see it when it came out, but after hearing friends' mixed reviews, I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it at all, let alone pay astronomical amounts of money for theater tickets. Now that it's out on DVD, though, curiosity got the better of me - hubs brought the movie home last night and we watched. And snickered. And rolled our eyes. And giggled. It was soooo, soooo bad. Honestly, the best part of the movie was the scenery. Of course, I'm Washington born and bred, so I could be a bit biased ...

Perhaps I'm being a bit too critical (Me? Never!), but seriously, the movie was awful. The plot was choppy - I don't know if it would make sense to anyone who hadn't read the books. None of the actors seemed comfortable in their roles - Bella was too serious; Edward too awkward; Jacob too - I don't know - wrong. The relationship between Bella and Edward progressed too fast, and I didn't feel any real chemistry between the two. In fact, all of the actors seemed stiff, cold and melodramatic. The only person in the movie who acted naturally was Stephenie Meyer herself! And as for the dialogue - yikes. Cheese, cheese, cheese.

All you have to do is scroll through this blog to see that I am a Meyer fan. Not a screechy, obsessive, prom dress-wearing, psycho fan, but a fan. I adored Twilight, loved New Moon, and liked Eclipse. True, I haven't quite gotten around to Breaking Dawn (even though it's been sitting on my shelf for months), but I will. Like I said, I'm a fan. Of the books. The movie just didn't capture the drama and passion of the story at all. Not that I'm surprised - in my opinion (be it ever so humble), films rarely do justice to the books on which they're based. There are exceptions, of course (Gone With the Wind comes to mind), but Twilight is soooo not one of them. I did stay awake through the movie, which is saying something since I snoozed through The Dark Knight, Quantum Solace, and every other DVD I've viewed lately, but I think that had a lot more to do with the two glasses of Mountain Dew I drank rather than any magic happening on-screen. Or maybe it was my husband laughing uproariously on the couch next to me. At any rate, I think you get the picture - Twilight (the movie) just plain sucks. And yes, the pun was intended.