Twilight

When the movie Twilight came out, I decided to read the book to see what all the female rage was about. As I read, I must admit that I was sorely disappointed by the thematic elements within the work. So here is my personal review of the first book in Stephenie Meyer's series. 

The Summary: Twilight is about a high school girl named Bella who chooses to go live with her father in a place called Forks, Washington. It is here that she meets the Cullen family who has a very dark secret. She is immediately drawn to Edward Cullen. After a sudden whirlwind romance, Bella discovers that Edward is not just any high school boy. Instead he is a vampire. Basically the story weaves in the idea of an immortal and mortal having a relationship.

Author Background: The background of the author can sometimes give insight to the underlying themes within the author’s work. Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon who graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU). Although she does not believe in pre-marital sex, she does not oppose objectionable elements or themes.

Positive: Actually the story contains very little positives unless one would like to view the “good” vampires as a positive. And even in the story the “good” vampires struggle with human blood lust.

Negative: First of all, the concept of vampires is associated with the demonic world. The author hints at this early on in her work. Except she leaves the reader feeling that her vampires are not demonic so it is acceptable. With this aside, the story is all about teen romance, passion, and lust. The story portrays the vampire Edward’s lust as lust for Bella’s blood, but the reader can draw more from this by the actions depicted by the author. The story has multiple suggestive scenes and uses some language. In addition the main character lies throughout the entire book, but claims to despise lying. Bella continually refers to Edward as god-like. This philosophy is acceptable within the Mormon circle, but is doctrinally incorrect. And last but not least, the quality of writing is extremely poor. I assume that many will overlook the writing, because of the storyline and characters.

Conclusion: I do not recommend this book. It is certain to capture the interest of anyone who picks it up, including people lacking the ability to filter out the philosophies within the work. Since I have not seen the movie, I will assume that it contains the same underlying elements and themes with more detail. 

Caution: I suggest that parents, who do allow their children to read this series, to sit down and talk through the different subliminal messages. This book can cause the readers' to have wrong or unrealistic beliefs concerning life. 

Skin

The book Skin by Ted Dekker is unlike any other. First of all, Ted Dekker is a Christian Fiction writer. His works tend to be a little twisted and fascinating. This is one book I could not put down.

Plot: In a small town named Summerville, five characters find themselves forced together due to unexplainable circumstances. Meanwhile a man named Red is plotting against them. He manipulates and controls each character against his/her will forcing them to play his twisted and sick game. The game's name is Skin.

Can they survive? Who can explain why the small town disappears and reappears at random? What do they all have in common? Questions like these will plague your mind as Mr. Dekker keeps you captive at the edge of your seat. As you read you must learn to go beneath the surface, below the Skin.

The Poor Little Rich Girl

I wrote a children's story last year in hopes of getting it published. It will be a while before I get that accomplished but I dream of it happening sooner than i expect. So here is a short synopsis of my story. It is called "The Poor Little Rich Girl."