REVIEW: “<i>The Twilight Gospel</i>” by Dave Roberts

 I kind of expected this book to be different. I’m not exaclty sure what I expected — maybe a “don’t read these books because they’ll corrupt you” sort of thing — but I didn’t find that. Instead, Mr. Roberts says to go ahead and “enjoy” these books, just not to “believe” their story. ((Not that I’m looking for a book that says you shouldn’t read the ‘Twilight’ series… I LOVED the 4 books, and highly recommend them!)) I guess what I wanted was more argument for what I can tell my kids — especially my daughter (who won’t get to read the series for another 2 years, at least) — about what to be aware of when reading these books, and what is good/bad about them, from a Christian perspective.

For me, the book was sort of “heady”… it seemed to go around in circles a bit. Don’t get me wrong ~ there was helpful information here. I just didn’t think the author made a very strong argument. He praised the series, on one hand, but also gave a few points to watch out for, on the other. Overall, though, I didn’t feel that it changed my stance on anything, one way or another. I would’ve liked to see more of an argument about the elements that go against the Christian worldview.

One thing I really hated about this book was that it spoiled a lot of “Midnight Sun” (the unpublished, unfinished manuscript for the 5th book in the “Twilight” saga), and almost spoiled Dan Brown’s new book, “The Lost Symbol” ~ two books I haven’t yet had opporunity to read.

Overall, this is an okay book, but I’m going to seek out other, similar, titles to see if they will present me with a more in-depth perspective.

Rated: C

Edited to add: For a fantastic, alternate take on what to do with the Twilight series, please see My Friend Amy’s blog post about the relevancy of books like this!

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