Heather's review
status:
Read in August, 2008
** spoiler alert **
I've generally liked the Twilight series. Twilight just had that something that made it appealing even if there were Mary Sue characters and the writing wasn't perfect. I don't think I liked any of the following books as much as that first one. I'd really give this one 3.5-3.75 stars.
Breaking Dawn, though still the same style and the same characters, seemed a million miles away from Twilight. Bella and Edward get married pretty early in the book. They go on a honeymoon to a remote island where Bella begins to obsess about sex. While there is nothing really inappropriate about her situation (not getting into whether a vampire is considered dead) because she's 18 and married, it still is a teen book and there was a lot of sex talk.
My first WTF moment in the book, though not the biggest, was when we find out Bella is pregnant. Somehow, after nearly 100 years, Edward has viable sperm. But Bella's pregnancy is moving more quickly than a normal one. So they go back home where Edward tr...more
I've generally liked the Twilight series. Twilight just had that something that made it appealing even if there were Mary Sue characters and the writing wasn't perfect. I don't think I liked any of the following books as much as that first one. I'd really give this one 3.5-3.75 stars.
Breaking Dawn, though still the same style and the same characters, seemed a million miles away from Twilight. Bella and Edward get married pretty early in the book. They go on a honeymoon to a remote island where Bella begins to obsess about sex. While there is nothing really inappropriate about her situation (not getting into whether a vampire is considered dead) because she's 18 and married, it still is a teen book and there was a lot of sex talk.
My first WTF moment in the book, though not the biggest, was when we find out Bella is pregnant. Somehow, after nearly 100 years, Edward has viable sperm. But Bella's pregnancy is moving more quickly than a normal one. So they go back home where Edward tries to convince her to kill the baby. Bella enlists Rosalie to keep the baby safe.
The book then switches POV from Bella to Jacob. This was weird because only the last little bit of Eclipse had Jacob's POV rather than Bella's. This lasts through 1/3 or so of the book. Jacob finds out that Bella is home and sick. He thinks that this is just a cover for turning her into a vampire and he wants to kill all the Cullens over it. When he gets to the house, he finds out that Bella is pregnant with something that is killing her. He and Edward kind of bond over the desire to save Bella. Jacob's pack feels like this is such a threat that they have to kill it, even if it kills Bella. Jacob breaks from the pack, becomes an Alpha, and goes to protect Bella.
Everything is fine and there is an uneasy truce between Jacob and Edward until Edward finds out he can hear the baby's thoughts. He now feels like the baby is a person and is not nearly so hateful towards it. Jacob is pissed.
Bella goes into labor and they have to cut her open to get the baby out. She's dying and Edward doesn't know if he can save her. Rosalie takes the baby away and Jacob wants to kill it. He goes to find the baby and... my biggest WTF moment of this book... he sees the half human, half vampire baby and imprints on her. Not to mention the stupidest name ever, Renesmee, and the stupidest nickname ever, Nessie. At least Bella later mentions that they are calling her after the Loch Ness Monster.
After the imprinting, the POV is back to Bella and it stays there for the rest of the book. Bella is in the process of changing into a vampire. She does what others can't- she is able to ride through the pain of the change without moving or screaming. She finally finishes and we find out that she is able to do something else others can't- she bypasses the whole first year of fledgling vampirehood to become immediately in control of herself and her cravings. Now, what she craves is sex with Edward.
After the initial finding out about Jacob's imprinting, everthing is peachy for a while. Charlie finds out only enough to stay in Bella's life. Wolf and vampire get along mostly. General happiness.
Then they find out the Volturi are coming after them. Apparently, there have been vampire children (Claudia, anyone?) that posed a danger once-upon-a-time. They think the Cullens created one.
In the end, Bella finds out that he ability to block mind attacks is her gift. Not only does it protect her but she can include others in it. Conveniently, every major attack by the Volturi is a mind attack and Bella can stop it. There is no actual battle at all. There was lots of talking and threats. Bella saved the day.
Bella became a real Mary Sue in this book. She developed major superpowers and was so much better at the vampire transition than anyone ever. Still, she always had been one mostly so it wasn't that new.
Everything was wrapped up so neatly. The love triangle didn't have to be resolved by Bella. It ended when Jacob imprinted on her child. She got to keep Jacob around, but not have him after her and angry about not getting her. The imprinting also took away the fact that the wolves wanted to kill the baby and made them stronger allies. Charlie got to stay in her life because he accepted supernatural stuff without any curiosity to know more and put himself or anyone else in danger.
Still, the writing was the same as the others. If you liked the others, you'd probably like this. I don't know. A lot of people seem betrayed by this book. I'd read online that people hated the ending. I'm not really sure what was so bad about it. Like I said, it did wrap up rather neatly but it was not as bad as I was expecting because of the internet buzz. I didn't hate it. I was satisfied that it had an ending that wrapped up and wasn't left hanging. I am glad, though, that this is supposed to be the last of the series. I don't think it could have gone on longer and still been any good....less
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) 
