Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of Nightlight: A Parody

Nightlight: A Parody
Nightlight A Parody
Author: The Harvard Lampoon
ISBN-13: 9780307476104
ISBN-10: 0307476103
Publication Date: 11/3/2009
Pages: 160
Rating:
  • Currently 2.4/5 Stars.
 93

2.4 stars, based on 93 ratings
Publisher: Vintage
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

14 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

ophelia99 avatar reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 2527 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 13
I liked "Twilight", really I did, but you have to admit there is a lot to make fun of in that book. So when I saw that National Lampoon had released a "Twilight" parody book called "Nightlight" I was eager to read it. Although, I have to admit I got this from the library...I knew that it had potential to be horrible as well as awesome. Well, unfortunately, this book fell into the horrible category.

This book is about Belle Goose and her relentless pursuit of computer geek Edwart Mullen. Belle has decided Edwart is a vampire, but he really isn't. Edwart doesn't even really like girls but Bella has decided she is in love with him.

Okay first I will go through the good points of this book. It picks the right things to make fun of and occasionally there are references to the book itself that make you chuckle. Also another good point is that the book is short; it took me maybe an hour and a half to read.

Unfortunately these chuckles are few and far between. I expected this book to be a clever and witty spoof highlighting all the shortcomings of the original. It was not this at all, it was more of a dumbed-down slapstick routine put on paper. If you like slapstick and find immature, stupid characters to be hilarious than you will laugh your butt off. Otherwise you will just be happy this book is short.

Then about two-thirds of the way through the book things get strange and not at all funny. As Belle suddenly goes to a vampire prom and the story totally deviates from anything we have ever read before. Suddenly what was a slightly amusing slapstick parody turns into just a plain old bad story.

I was really disappointed in this book; especially since I was excited to read it and was looking forward to a night of humor and good laughs. Add to the above the fact that I noticed a number of plain old typos in this book and I began to wonder if it had ever even been proofread.

In summary, look elsewhere for a funny parody of "Twilight"...given all the things you could make fun of "Twilight" for, there has got to be a better parody out there than this one.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 168 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Ok, my disclaimer is that I absolutely hated the Twilight series. Insecure, non-ambitous, dependent women aren't my favorite heroines. And abusive, controlling men aren't my favorite heroes.

Reading this parody was fantastic! I laughed at every other sentence. I couldn't read it in public due to laughing out loud. Seriously great stuff. I thought it was WAY better than the actual Twilight book! I hope they do a parody for all the books in the series.

The plot did sort of fall apart in the end, but I can overlook that due to some truly fantastic parts in the beginning and middle.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who had problems with the Twilight series. And, even if you didn't, this is still very funny. What I also liked about it is that it didn't just make fun of the plot. It also made fun of Meyer's writing style within Twilight. It had the same redundant sentences/adjectives that Twilight had, only ten times funnier. I gave it 5 stars.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. If I were an author, I'd be flattered if someone wrote a parody of my work! I mean, seriously, it means you've obviously "made it".
obxsurfergurlo2 avatar reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 29 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I saw this on the shelf at Target the other day and just had to pick it up. Being a huge fan of the vampire/paranormal romance genre but not too big on the Twilight saga, I found it pretty funny at first. It has its hilarious moments but falls a little short overall. However, it is a fun quick read for anyone who is twilighted-to-death. I do definitely suggest the other parody book that was beside it on the self "The Vampire is just not that into you" by Vlad Mezrich. Non-stop laughs in that one from pie graphs of prefered vampire blood types to tips on how to make your room vampire friendly.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Not what I expected. While there were a few good laughs, it reminded the typical parody movies. There were too many over the top silly situations that detracted from the story line and caused me to struggle through the reading. A book that should have taken a few hours to read, took me a few days.
daredevilgirl013 avatar reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 746 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I bought this book figuring it would be drop dead funny, and in spots it was funny, others it was like where the heck did this come from!? They tried to tell their own tale while throwing in bits and pieces of Twilight and it turned out rather awkward. Still a bit funny, a bit interesting, and a bit odd. It's a good stupid silly book to read if you need a break from the more serious books. If you like Scary Movie, or any of those "Spoof" movies, then this book would be for you.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
If you've read the Twilight series (and you didn't take it so seriously that you've gotten a "Team Edward" tattoo), you'll probably get a kick out of this easy read. Nightlight is a corny parody of Twilight, and it pokes fun at some of the more ludicrous aspects of the book. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Twilight fan, but several passages of this book had me laughing out loud, especially when I could recall the particular scene from the original story that was being parodied. If you didn't read the Twilight series though, you probably won't get much out of this.

I gave it 4 stars because even though it's not what I'd call 'quality reading,' it was damn funny as a parody, and I believe that every book should be judged, in part, based on what the author is trying to achieve.

Easy read, nice light humor, even the cover art pokes fun at the original books. Actually, a fun gift for your favorite Twilight fan (at first glance, it almost looks like a 'lost' book from the series).
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 56 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Better than most reviews would lead you to think, this book is beautifully written for what it is. If you like serious literature, you might not like it. If you like movies like "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" or "Scary Movie" and the like, you will find a book that plays out in your mind much as modern movie parodies play out on screen. It is rather solid in this respect, and could probably be made into a movie straight from the book by groups of high school kids. I laughed many times reading this book, and, to be fair, I have already read the entire Twilight series before reading this book. In a way, I really like the ending.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on
Helpful Score: 1
I found this book rather funny. Having read the entire Twilight Saga (and not liking it) I think this is a funny "version" of it. The ending was a disappointment to me, and it seems to go by to fast while the first part had a good pace. I think it was a quick and fun read :)
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Honestly, this book didn't do it for me. I was disappointed... I mean, there's a LOT to work with from Twilight, and this book missed most of it.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on
This was one of those books that was SO stupid it was funny, but there were times that this book just made me roll my eyes. It was good to read for a laugh, but it really wasn't good for much else other than the occaissonal laugh and the end book in my book shelve to keep the ones I actually liked from falling over.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 18 more book reviews
I was extremely let down by this book. I expected a great spoof of a book I enjoyed but instead got a story filled with stupidity. I felt that they were trying way too hard to make a funny story and went so far overboard that it distroyed any humor the book could have had. Don't waste your time even opening the cover of this one.
nnaylime avatar reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 14 more book reviews
This was the only thing more underwhelming than the original. there were some parts that were clever; for the most part, however it was absurd.
reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 36 more book reviews
havent reaD IT yet
Momboo avatar reviewed Nightlight: A Parody on + 2 more book reviews
This book was stupid and insulting to Stephenie Meyer and anyone who likes the Twilight series.