M.b read and liked Jilly's review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight, #4):

"[pardon any grammatical/spelling errors, I'm not reading this over again--I didn't get much sleep obviously:]

If I could give this book a lower score, I absolutely would. When you create a book series, there tends to be an issue with the n...more [pardon any grammatical/spelling errors, I'm not reading this over again--I didn't get much sleep obviously:]

If I could give this book a lower score, I absolutely would. When you create a book series, there tends to be an issue with the next book that comes out in the series having to be better than the last. Of course that is always a possibility for stories such as Harry Potter, where the plot is laced through all of the books and leads to an ultimate climax and resolution in the final book. Stephenie Meyer did not follow this example in any way, shape, or form.

Instead of possibly creating an internal plot that would follow the entire series, every book has...well, I cannot justify a plot in any of the books, save the first one (that was in the last 100 pages of the book), so I'll try to skim sweetly over this. For her last attempt, strike 4 on my count, Meyer rides this train till there are no more tracks; taking the train, and all of it's passengers on a bumpy, uncomfortable, and unforgivable journey no one had prepared for.

Bella's half-breed child shouldn't even exist, given Meyer's specific "VAMPIRES CANNOT HAVE CHILDREN", so of course she gives a pathetic, if not confusing, explanation to how Edward gets Bella pregnant. The child's name itself is atrocious; I honestly hope no one loves this series enough to name their own child that, out of their "love for Stephenie Meyer."

Let's remember what I said before: there is not a sustaining plot throughout these books, besides the fact that Bella wants to become a vampire; but even that is stretching it. So when Bella becomes pregnant, it's almost as if Meyer suddenly thought, "PLOT!" and took off at the speed of light in a direction that flabbergasted me. Has she even mentioned children in this entire book series? Besides the fact that little mutant Nessie takes the entire stage, Bella's giving birth to a mutant that should not exist (X-Men anyone?) seems to be the only thing that drives this story forward. Because otherwise, the story would have ended. Bella got married, Bella somehow someway got pregnant, Bella had a half-breed baby, Bella becomes a vampire, Jacob creepily imprints on said baby, and everyone lives freakishly happily ever after.

I shouldn't have to describe how horrific it is that the entire 800-pages of the final novel is about a baby. Bella seemed to move to Forks and somehow grow up in a year, getting married and having a baby, and living for forever with her ridiculously good-looking husband. I understand that Bella made the choice for herself, doesn't mean I have to think it was a good one. Or a good example for young girls to follow. I'm not going to step up on the soap box and preach about how many horrible morals this gives to girl's of today's generation (after feminism has fought to get us this far) because if they haven't read a cheap romance novel yet, they certainly will. Guys looking to date girls of that generation should beware however. If you don't sparkle in the sun, devote every step you take and every move you make to her, and like to watch her sleep, you might not have much of a chance.

But, back to the story, cough, I mean lack thereof. The Volturi coming in deemed itself, once again, random and overreaching for Meyer. As if she just wanted them to show up and have an epic battle, but it wasn't really epic and it didn't serve much of a point. However, if I was a 1000-year-old vampire, I'm sure I'd be bored enough to care about someone as trivial as Bella Swan too.

1/3 of the novel is in Jacob's perspective, and to be honest, that was the one part I enjoyed (somewhat). Only because I think Jacob was Meyer's best character. He shall forever be known as the character with a personality. However, as Meyer had introduced me to Jacob, and gave me reason to like him, she also had the power to do the opposite. Thank you, Stephenie Meyer for ruining one of the only realistic characters you created. *two thumbs way down* Not only did Jacob CREEP me out, he was so completely overbearing and whiny, I couldn't wait to get back to Bella, the whining queen! His imprinting on little Nessie just put the icing on the shit-cake I had been eating for the past 400 pages. I had assumed we went passed the pedophilia part with Quil, and come on, he imprinted on EDWARD AND BELLA'S BABY? Why couldn't he have imprinted on a 35-year-old alcoholic with an abusive husband and Meyer could give someone who needs saving a fighting chance by someone with super powers.

By this point, I was going to take an example from New Moon and jump off a cliff just to save myself from the rest of the book.

But I didn't, and I should have.

The rest of the book was almost as boring and laughable as the first half, but at least the first half had (gasp) fade-to-black sensual scenes.

As many people have been saying, this book is exactly like 1,000 stories on FanFiction.net--and if I can give you any advice, find a story on there and it might be a lot better than reading this.

And it would probably be 700 pages less.(less) "

M.b read and liked Karene's review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight, #4):

"If you loved Breaking Dawn and don’t want to see it criticized, I’ll warn you now not to read my review. That being said, let me begin by saying that when I first read Twilight, I was hooked. I read New Moon in one sitting. I awaited the release...more If you loved Breaking Dawn and don’t want to see it criticized, I’ll warn you now not to read my review. That being said, let me begin by saying that when I first read Twilight, I was hooked. I read New Moon in one sitting. I awaited the release of Eclipse with great anticipation. Sadly, Eclipse was the beginning of the end. It left me disappointed enough not to have high expectations for Breaking Dawn. Even at that, Breaking Dawn shattered my lowest expectations. I am stunned at the depths to which this once-revered author has plunged! From this point on I will refer to Breaking Dawn as B.D., aka “Bitter Disappointment,” or, if you prefer, “Boring Depravity,” “Bloody Drama,” “Brain Drain,” or my husband’s personal favorite, “Bloody Diapers”.

Where do I begin? How about with my least favorite character, Bella? She began the series with a lot of promise. Sure, some people said that she wasn’t well defined in the first book, but I never had a problem with her. Throughout New Moon and Eclipse, her character starts to decline. In B.D., Bella becomes intolerable. This girl is unbelievably selfish. She begins the book whining about the beautiful, expensive car Edward bought her. She whines about the wedding preparations, the dress, the ring. Poor thing has to *gasp* marry the man of her dreams! The injustice! She is far more concerned about nameless, faceless people mocking her for getting married young than she is about the happiness of the man she claims to love more than life itself. And her treatment of Jacob! Where to begin? This is a good kid had the misfortune to fall in love with her and though I had issues with his manipulation of her emotions at the end of Eclipse, still, he’s a teenage guy and you have to cut him some slack. But come on, Bella! Once she realizes she loves him, but that she loves Edward more, she chooses Edward. Fine. So let the poor guy go! Let him move on with his life! But no, she has to have her cake and eat it too. She hurts both Edward, the one she has chosen, and Jacob, the one she has rejected, by refusing to cut ties with him. She claims to hate herself for hurting him, says at one point that it’s “criminal” to injure him as much as she does, but will she love him enough to let him let go and move on? Nope. She wouldn’t “feel whole” without him, so she continues to cling to him. Even after she’s married. The culmination of this extreme selfish lack of consideration for anyone’s feelings but her own is when she slips and refers to the unborn baby as “EJ”. Did she even think to consider whether Edward would be happy about having his child named after his rival? No, she just did what she darn well wanted to do, and gave no thought to what Edward would want. Bella has become a tyrant. What Queen Bella wants, Queen Bella must have.

Now, a little bit about Edward. He was what made Twilight so magical. He was mysterious, romantic, beautiful, all the many things that the hero of a good book should be. Edward stole the hearts of most of the female readers of this series. Yet, by the time you finish B.D., you find yourself either feeling terribly sorry for him because he chose such a lame heroine, or just contemptuous of him for becoming a doormat, a slave to Bella’s whims. I thought I’d scream if I had to hear him say “If it makes her happy, I’ll do it, even if it’s not what’s best for her” one more time. In B.D., the author sends the message through Edward that love and blind devotion are the same thing. They aren’t. Truly loving someone isn’t giving them free reign to stomp all over you and everything in their path, just because they think it will make them happy. Real love encompasses the occasional appropriate guidance of the loved one away from self-destructive desires toward a better way. But here, we are taught that if you love someone, you let them have what they want, all the time, without exception.

As for the story development, my greatest frustration is that the author created a very intricate world, complete with detailed descriptions of what could and could not happen in it. Then she decided not to play by these rules. Yes, I am referring to the sudden and inexplicable ability of a vampire to father a child. This felt very contrived and unbelievable, and introduced such a bizarre, nightmarish chain of events that I could hardly believe I was reading the story that began as Twilight. This baby feeds on the blood of its mother and slowly sucks her life away? Bella has to drink human blood, while she’s still human, to save her life and the life of her child? And she LIKES IT? This is the same, human Bella that turned green and almost passed out while doing blood typing in Biology class, right? Okay, I could see that her aversion to blood was going to go away after becoming a vampire. But while she was still human? Really? I felt sick the whole time I read about her drinking gallons of blood a day to sustain the child. Bleh. I still don’t get the whole scene where Edward asks Jacob to offer to make babies with Bella. What?!? Again, is this the author’s attempt at showing us the extent of true love? It was twisted and disturbing.

And the delivery of the baby…that was just plain disgusting. Bella vomiting gallons of blood, her bones snapping right and left, blood vessels popping in her eyes, Edward biting into her womb to get the baby out, and the tender moment when mommy sees baby for the first time is marred by said baby taking a bite out of her mommy. Ick! And I’ll just join the legions of people who are saying, “RENESMEE?!?” You’ve got to be kidding. This from the author who tastefully chose names like Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Alice…why didn’t she just name her “Brangelina” or “TomKat”? Or “Bedward?” I will also join the protests against Jacob imprinting on Bella and Edward’s daughter. I could see when the concept of imprinting was introduced that it would be the author’s way of making a happy ending for Jacob at the end of the story, and that was fine. I like a happy ending, and of course I wanted to see Jacob happy. But are we so inflexible that we can’t be happy with Jacob imprinting on a nice, new girl to the story? No, Bella must have her way. She can’t be happy without Jacob as a part of her life. And we’re supposed to feel happy and satisfied that she gets her way in the form of Jacob as her son-in-law? How is that a happy ending?

At the top of my list of grievances is the destruction of the message that was communicated so clearly in the first three books. Once Bella falls in love with Edward, she is confronted with some very difficult choices. If she wants to be with Edward, she must choose to leave human life behind her and become a vampire. The value of Eclipse was that it forced Bella to look long and hard at what she was choosing if she decided to become a vampire. She would have to cut ties with her human life…her mother, father, and everyone human that mattered to her. She could never have children of her own. She would have to deal with the bloodlust of being a newborn vampire. She would spend a significant amount of time developing the self-control and restraint that the rest of the Cullens had achieved. One of the most compelling elements of the first three books is Edward’s angst, his agonizing about the state of his soul as a vampire. He grieves what he sees as the loss of his soul. This is at the heart of his great reluctance to change Bella, the reason for his disappearance in New Moon. All the vampires who have chosen not to feed on humans hate what they have become. They are conflicted about who they are. None of them who remember life as a human can say with conviction that they wouldn’t go back if they could. Bella has to confront all of this and choose to sacrifice the value of her humanity for the love she feels for Edward. All of this is well and good and presents a very thought-provoking storyline. Then, in B.D., every one of these issues is neatly sidestepped in order to create an obstacle-free path to a happily-ever after ending for Queen Bella. First of all, from the moment she opens her eyes as a newborn vampire, everything is better. The world shimmers. She experiences everything so much more intensely, things are more beautiful, more colorful, more wonderful. What’s not to love about being a vampire? Within minutes, she is exhibiting the self-control that everyone else took decades to achieve. And how about the whole I-have-to-have-sex-before-I-become-a-vampire-because-all-
my-human-emotions-will-be-gone-for-awhile? Nope! Not only does she still experience all the emotions and passions she had as a human, but they are intensified! By the time we’re finished reading about Bella’s new life as a vampire, we have to wonder why anyone wouldn’t want to be a vampire. All the build-up for Bella to grow and mature through sacrifice and self-denial, wiped away. So much better for her not to have to suffer through that stuff, right? And she manages to get immortality and a baby, to boot. We have to wonder if everyone who claimed that becoming a vampire was a serious, heavy choice was just delusional. The nobility of the message is sacrificed in order to create a neat, happy ending for everyone.

I haven’t seen much, if any, speculation on what the cover of the book is trying to communicate to the reader, so here’s my take. The big white queen is, you guessed it, Queen Bella, the white vampire. The red pawn is you (or I), the blood-red reader, about to be sucked dry in the wake of the Queen’s destruction. Beware!

I wish Stephenie Meyer had ended with Twilight or at least an extended version of New Moon. I think I’ll be hauling my copies of the last three to the local library as a donation and trying to just enjoy Twilight for what it was before the rest of this mess came into play.(less) "