Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT is ripe for parody. No, let me rephrase that: It deserves to be parodied, with no mercy shown. But I’m afraid that beyond the cover design, NIGHTLIGHT isn’t it.
It comes from those fellows over at THE HARVARD LAMPOON. Their alums write awfully funny TV shows, but the yuks don’t translate to novels. One of the first books I ever bought was their J.R.R. Tolkien parody, BORED OF THE RINGS. Like this, it was better in theory than in execution.
There’s a strange stylistic choice at the start of NIGHTLIGHT that I never got over: While emo vampire Edward is rechristened with the “funny” name of Edwart, his romantic partner Bella becomes just Belle. MAD magazine would never let that slip by.
Part of NIGHTLIGHT’s real trouble is that it hews perhaps too closely to Meyer’s simple sentences. It feels like it could have been written by her, but unfortunately, that goes for its sense of humor, too. Attempts at jokes are leaden. For instance, Belle performs a Google search of the word “vampire” and the results spit back “Kristen Stewart’s Onset Romance” and “Robert Pattison Excellent Blues Singer.”
Laughing yet?
NIGHTLIGHT won’t take you but maybe an hour to read, but it’s an hour better spent elsewhere. —Rod Lott
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I’d love to read this one. But it’s quite pricey, especially at only 160 pages.