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September 06
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New comment on DeLaina's review of
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4)
(see all 15 comments)
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Doran Barton
read and liked
DeLaina's
review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4):
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
1. It was a quick read-6-7 hours.
2. It stretched my willing suspension of disbelief to the very limit (vampire baby in stone placenta), but really, what should I have expected? It IS a book about vamp...more
So, here are my thoughts on Breaking Dawn:
1. It was a quick read-6-7 hours.
2. It stretched my willing suspension of disbelief to the very limit (vampire baby in stone placenta), but really, what should I have expected? It IS a book about vampires and werewolves who live among us.
3. I enjoyed the book more before I started dissecting and analyzing it. It's a good, interesting story.
4. Once I did start thinking about it, I became a little annoyed that in the first three books everything hinged on Bella's decision to become immortal-the pros (Edward, immortality, Edward, and Edward) and the cons(no children, leave her family, leave Jacob, possible werewolf/vampire war of epic proportions, death by the Volturi, etc.)-she basically had no choice by the end of Book 3: Either become a vampire or die, as set forth by the Volturi.
5. Book 4 then wraps everything up in a way that would make Disney himself proud. Talk about a fairytale ending, having your cake and eating it too, or the best of both worlds! Everything she ever wanted, some of which were going to have to be sacrificed because of her choices, was handed to her on a silver platter.
6. My biggest issue is that the consequences of each decision that Bella made along the way were completely erased by unforeseen circumstances, and I find it completely unrealistic, hence my annoyance. So although everything was wrapped up into a nice little package and tied with a pretty pretty bow, I felt let down. Perhaps I even felt a little bit that the author was untrue to the readers by painting such a morbid moral dilemma in Books 1-3, only to have it magically resolved so quickly and perfectly in Book 4. I don't think Bella suffered enough heart-wrenching loss or experienced enough angst to have everything she wanted in the end. The author brought us to the edge of the precipice with every seeming intention of having someone or something thrown over, only to have everything bundled nicely in an almost invisible safety net, a mere two feet down.
7. I also found the hyperspeed time frame of the pregnancy, and growth of Renesmee (such a Utah thing to combine the names of the grandmas!!!) a bit much.
8. EVEN with all of the annoyances, I did enjoy the book. I would put it in the "light reading" category, and I groan inwardly when I hear people compare this series to classics such as Jane Eyre, with Edward as the modern day Mr. D'Arcy, but nevertheless, it was enjoyable. Nothing more, nothing less....less
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August 15
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Doran Barton
gave
 
to:
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4)
by Stephenie Meyer
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: Readers 15 or older
read in August, 2008
Doran said:
"Unlike many people I know, mostly women for some reason, I didn't go to a August 2nd midnight release party for Stephenie Meyer's latest book, "Breaking Dawn". No, I just pre-ordered it on Amazon and checked for its arrival every day starti...more
Unlike many people I know, mostly women for some reason, I didn't go to a August 2nd midnight release party for Stephenie Meyer's latest book, "Breaking Dawn". No, I just pre-ordered it on Amazon and checked for its arrival every day starting on August 2nd. It didn't arrive until the 6th or 7th, those jerks!
This is the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and it apparently ends the series as we know it. Meyer has hinted we may see some followup books that may repeat the stories in the previous books, but from a different character's perspective. I think the soil is fertile also for future books about other characters from the stories.
So, I liked this book. I think I could have liked it a lot more, but after three amazing, best-selling novels, my theory is Stephenie Meyer knew she didn't have to work that hard. As a result of her laziness, the story isn't as imaginative as the first three and the writing isn't as rich.
That being said, I have to admit Stephenie Meyer could write 750 pages of Bella Swan walking alone on a dirt road thinking to herself and I'd just lap it all up with glee. For the most part, I love the characters in the Twilight series, especially Bella, and could tolerate a lot of stuff as long as Stephenie Meyer writes about Bella.
A couple days after the book was released, my wife told me that one of her coworkers told her they'd seen where someone had fashioned a message using plastic cups in the chain link fencing on a highway overpass that read "Bella dies!"
Well, that kind of spoiled it for me!
This being a vampire story, however, death isn't necessarily the end of a character's story. While I'm sure the sight of that plastic cup message caused a lot of people's hearts to skip a beat, I don't think it's really that big of a spoiler.
The Twilight series is aimed at young adults, but "Breaking Dawn" is definitely more of an adult book. than your standard young adult novel. While the adult themes are vague and lacking in the details you might find in a trashy paperback romance novel, this probably isn't a book I'd recommend to anyone under 15.
That being said, I think Stephenie did a marvelous job of writing more mature material without necessarily offending too many of her virtue-obsessed readers (Meyer is Mormon and has a significant Mormon readership).
There were a few points in the book where I found myself closing the book and mouthing "Holy ****!" because I couldn't believe what I had just read. While some of the other reviews I've read indicated they thought the story was very predictable, I guess I fell right into it and lapped it up so much I didn't see what others plainly saw coming.
I didn't like what happens to Jacob in this book, but I'm not sure what Meyer could have done differently. Maybe she could have let him have what he wanted (Bella) and then kill him. Yeah! No, I can't see her doing that.
I also didn't like the way Charlie was handled. It seemed... too easy.
The "monsters" in "Breaking Dawn" seemed a lot less frightning, with a couple exceptions, than in the previous books and my theory on that goes back to Meyer's unfortunate laziness. Just about every monster-character seems to embody civility and control, unlike in previous stories. That is a bit of a let-down because I found the contrast of behavior between the monsters, the humans, and the exceptional monsters to be a major component of the stories. In Breaking Dawn, not so much. Even the amazing, spectacular, "monstrous" things that happen to Bella are conveniently downplayed and controlled like they're no big deal....less
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New comment on Doran Barton's review of
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4)
(see all 5 comments)
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August 11
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Doran Barton
is currently reading:
Einstein: His Life and Universe (Paperback)
by Walter Isaacson
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
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August 08
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Doran Barton
installed the Goodreads Facebook Application 
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Doran Barton
is currently reading:
High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers (Paperback)
by Steve Souders
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Doran Barton
is currently reading:
Mastering Perl (Paperback)
by brian d foy
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 30
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Doran Barton
marked as to-read:
Back to Basics (Hardcover)
by Reader's Digest Editors
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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July 29
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Doran Barton
took the never-ending book quiz.
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