‘Nightlight, A Parody’ – The Harvard Lampoon (Constable)

This isn’t something that you’ll catch me admitting around here too often so pay attention! One of the first books I reviewed on here (maybe even the first) was Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’. Don’t hold it against me, everyone has to start somewhere :o) It wasn’t much of a review but, to be fair to me, ‘Twilight’ wasn’t much of a book (although it did keep me reading it)... I know that the phrase ‘wish fulfilment’ cropped up at least once, mostly on Meyer’s part I think...
Although it might not necessarily be what you want to happen, an author can gauge the success of their book by the people queuing up to poke fun at it. Tolkien’s had and so has Rowling; it’s now Meyer’s turn as the Harvard Lampoon present us with their take on ‘Twilight’...

If you’ve read ‘Twilight’ already then you’ll know the story. Come to think of it; if you’ve hung out anywhere on the internet (over the last couple of years) then you’ll know the story. A lonely misfit girl moves to Oregon to live with her Dad, while she’s there she attracts the attention of the hot loner boy in the class and discovers that he’s a vampire. The Harvard Lampoon version sticks to the story but adds a few twists of its own; the result did nothing less than have me laughing out loud and anyone who’s after a send up of Meyer’s work should give this a look though.

‘Nightlight’ did leave me wondering if I had been unnecessarily harsh on ‘Zombies for Zombies’ though as I found that, once again, a joke was stretched to breaking point and almost robbed the book of it’s impact. I say ‘almost’ as ‘Nightlight’ came across as being a lot more inventive in the way that it poked fun at its subject matter. The issue was still there though and I’m left wondering if this is more about what I’m looking for, humour wise, than the book itself. I guess I’m after several different jokes in a book rather than just one continuous one...

Like I said though, the difference here is that while there’s only the one joke the Harvard Lampoon writers attack it in a number of different ways. Even when they don’t, what they did come up still tickled the funny bone.

If you’ve ever thought that the character of Bella was a little too good to be true then you’re in good company. Not only do most people on the internet feel the same way but so do the writers at the Harvard Lampoon. What Meyer did inadvertently is taken up by the Lampooners; there’s nothing inadvertent here as Belle is made out to be totally obnoxious and believing she is better than everyone else. Take the frog dissection in biology...

“Wait!”Edwart declared. “You have to read the procedure first!”
“It’s so easy,” I said, slicing the frog down its middle. I’d done this lab before. At a pond, when I was a little girl.

Not only do the writers poke fun at how ridiculous Belle’s character is but, through the way the plot develops, they also highlight how absurd certain parts of the original book were as well. It’s almost like you get two jokes for the price of one here, seeing the original book in a new light and laughing at the jokes in ‘Nightlight’ at the same time. Belle even learns a few lessons by the end...

When I reviewed ‘Twilight’ I mentioned that the target audience was very obviously teenage girls. ‘Nightlight’ riffs off the same joke a little too much but an older audience, tired of the saccharine sweetness, will get a lot out of it. I certainly did.

Eight out of Ten.