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August 08
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Shannon
read and liked
Jen's
review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4):
"**WARNING SPOILERS!!**
I was prepared to give this version one star about 250 pages ago, but the ending ironically redeemed this installment for me. After reading other comments and reviews, I see I'm in the minority with the ending, but in truth...more
**WARNING SPOILERS!!**
I was prepared to give this version one star about 250 pages ago, but the ending ironically redeemed this installment for me. After reading other comments and reviews, I see I'm in the minority with the ending, but in truth, to me, it was the better part of this book as I saw the rest of it being impossible cheese that was hard to stomach. But let me rewind to my critique of the entire book from the beginning.
I realize the genre of this book: teen romance/adventure? story. I don't, as a general rule, have the stomach for romance books of any shape or form. So after Twilight (which, in my opinion, was the best of the four), I had had just about all I could take of Bella pining for Edward and Edward's teasing (yes, I'll throw you on the bed and make out with you until you go TOO far, then gently chastize you that we just simply can't go there...gag). So, after the scmaltzy wedding and honeymoon (which was better done than I expected it to be, I'll give Meyer that), I was relieved that something else had finally taken the center stage of their relationship besides Bella's hormones.
AND THEN, we come to the wacked out pregnancy. Having been pregnant myself, I admit I saw it as a freakish parody of the human pregnancy experience. It just didn't work for me. It was in some ways downright funny (I realize that sounds cruel, as the main character was suffering, but I couldn't help it). I actually enjoyed hearing Jacob's perspective for a change in Book II, mainly because I always felt Bella's POV really injured her character. Again, I am in the minority on this, but Bella has never been my favorite character. I just got tired of the damsel in distress mode she was always in.
Here's what I couldn't stomach, no matter how I willingingly suspended my disbelief:
1. Jacob's imprinting. I realize this was introduced in prior books that a wolf could imprint on a child. It creeped me out then. It's the era in which I'm born, and I guess my paradigm can't envision a safe relationship between a grown man and a baby where the man wants "everything good for the girl" and yet in the back of his head, knows this girl is going to end up being his lover. It doesn't work for me, no matter how much it is explained. It's just creepy. C.R.E.E.P.Y.
2. I realize that explained why Bella needed Jake around all the time, but holy crow (to pull a phrase from Meyer's book), that was just sadistic and incredibly selfish of Bella to beg for Jacob to be around her, despite the pain it caused him. I guess the other vampires didn't give a crap about Jacob's feelings, but for Bella to not care either just seemed so self-absored it was a little repulsive. Again, I realize Meyer explained all this, I just didn't buy it.
3. Rosalie's interest with no dialogue or perspective from her on to what she was feeling about Bella (except as filtered through Edward's consciousness) seemed like a ball dropped by the author. Rosalie's role was key in the second half of the book, but then it just disappears in the latter half of the book, which pretty much lamed her character and left a huge, unfulfilled hole for me.
Okay, so I said I liked the ending. Here is why:
1. I liked Bella a lot more as a vampire. Finally, a main character with a backbone. She still had that lack of confidence in herself, but now at least I could see why everyone around her adored her (again, this is why I felt 1st person POV had crippled her character before...I just didn't get what Edward and Jacob saw in her). Now she could actually save someone else instead of everyone saving her.
2. Despite the creepiness of the pregnancy, the imprinting, and the stupid name (yes, I agree, it was distracting to read it...I usually stumbled over it as I read), the child added a new dimension for the book that I thought worked. I guess only a mother could appreciate this fully, but a child changes people's perspectives entirely (if they have normal, compassionate feelings). People think outside of themselves more fully than ever. So that part rang true for me. I ENJOYED the fact that it wasn't always about Edward and Bella, wondering how they could get each other alone for the umpteenth time. I was actually GLAD Edward took a backseat for once (no more totally unhealthy 'I control your world so you can't possibly hurt yourself' crap).
3. I really enjoyed getting glimpses of other vampires and their stories. I jut wish the core coven, Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett, Alice and Jasper, could have had more "air time." Of all the vampires, those are the ones I always wanted to know more about. The Volturi are among my favorite villains, so I completely loved their return in the end. I suppose a fight with a few casualties would have made the drama of the ending more compelling, but of the four books' endings, without a doubt, this one is the best for me. The heroine actually saves herself and her loved ones, rather than being the one rescued, and that felt infinitely more satisfying to me than the other three endings combined. I can take the fantastical happy ending, if the main character changes, grows, and solves her own problem. Which is what happens in Breaking Dawn.
Last comment (I swear!). This one addresses another debate happening now about this series:
Meyer should be beaming right now. The heated debate happening all over the internet is whether or not this book is a divine ending or a damned one to an electrifying series. People love it, they hate it, and people who normally wouldn't care a whit (like me) are taking time to type epic novels about their opinions on it. I'd say that's success.
And, in that regard, she is indeed most like that other beloved children's writer, J.K. Rowling.
Forgive me, though, but when comparing their series, I regret to say, that's the only way. :) The Twilight series never made me cry, and I didn't feel the threat of wanting to write a hate letter to the author if she killed off the beloved main character. Harry Potter made me feel this way, and I'm a grown woman! While the characters in Twilight are intriguing and definitely not without backstory, they pale in comparison to the richly detailed history that exists for even the most minor of characters in Harry Potter. So the comparison of the two series will always be a superficial one, for me, at least.
Still, overall, I am impressed. It is worth reading Breaking Dawn and each of the books in this series. Actually, the reviews of this last installment may be even more worth reading. :) I love seeing a writing phenomenon ripple through society, touching millions of people. My hat is off to Meyer...she's created a stir of which I can only dream of doing....less
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Shannon
read and liked
Jilly's
review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4):
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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 ...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
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Shannon
read and liked
Tiffany's
review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4):
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
I loved Twilight, all of it. I appreciated New Moon, though I disliked how Meyer portrayed how helpless Bella was witho...more
Before I begin my review, I would just like to state that this is a mostly negative review, with Breaking Dawn spoilers in it.
I loved Twilight, all of it. I appreciated New Moon, though I disliked how Meyer portrayed how helpless Bella was without Edward. I liked Eclipse well enough, but I felt that Edward went all out of character, and Jacob stole his spotlight in my eyes.
But Breaking Dawn is a disappointment from almost every angle I look at it from.
If I was to replace Breaking Dawn's character names with something from another book entirely, no one would realize that she was Bella Swan and he was Edward Cullen. They've all fallen out of character, their characters so different from Twilight, that without the name, they're hardly recognizable anymore.
That is what I reckon of the characters. But the plot is far, far more disappointing.
The wedding itself is fine. I personally liked it, to say the truth - and I'm not one for big weddings with pouffy dresses, but rather a Vegas one. Still, I enjoyed the wedding scene.
But right after the wedding, Breaking Dawn's quality begins to fall. The honeymoon is disappointing. There's no chemistry between Bella and Edward anymore. There's no smoldering, there's no passion - it's like a badly-written romance novel that hardly has any feeling of romance in it.
Then we find out that Bella has a child. Meyer has once stated in an interview that vampires cannot have children. True, Bella was still a human when it happened, but Edward was a vampire - unless Meyer is to give is some ridiculous explanation on how Edward magically 'turned' into a human, I will not change stand.
The actual birth scene is gory. There's blood everywhere, bones breaking from inside Bella's body, and - in Meyer's constantly used words - I cringed just reading it. Call me weak-stomached, but I honestly would have preferred Meyer to have given us less descriptive chapters regarding the birth of Renesmee.
I don't have a problem with the name. I'm not exactly against the nickname 'Nessie' either. The hype surrounding the name is simply ridiculous, but what really gets to me is that Jacob imprints on Nessie.
So all Jacob's pain gets washed away by how he is imprinted on Nessie. I would have loved to remind Meyer, Renesmee is Bella's child. Bella was the girl that Jacob fell in love with - to have Jacob fall in love with Bella's child is beyond cruel and ridiculous.
Then, Alice Sees the Volturi coming. She Sees them coming, and for some reason, she leaves an address for Bella to follow, and runs away herself. There, Meyer creates one unnecessary fuss what with the Denali clan, Egyptian clans, Amazon clans, vampiric clans of every sort suddenly visiting the Cullens.
At the end of the day, the clans shouldn't have bothered. The Volturi doesn't do anything - because they're too scared of the skill that Bella'd mastered in a week. A week - whereas vampires generally need centuries to do that. Let alone the way Bella had managed to resist the human scent of hikers.
Breaking Dawn's plot is full of holes. Her editor must have fallen asleep halfway, because the most obvious and incredulous mistake was Charlie's breakfast. On the exact same page, on Bella's wedding morning, Bella had apparently cooked Charlie his pancakes. A few lines afterwards, Charlie was 'frowning at his cereal'.
It's the mistake that an amateur editor would have made.
Then there is the clean, well-cut out Disney-esque ending for Breaking Dawn, which was the biggest problem of all, in my opinion. Even the sick way Jacob has fallen in love with his ex-love's child doesn't compete with that, for me.
The part of why I loved the Twilight saga so far was because of all the angst, all the sacrifice, found in Twilight - where Bella began to think about losing her humanity -, New Moon - Edward's leaving - and even Eclipse, where Bella considers what her life would have been with Jacob, comparing it to the eternity with Edward.
Her life with Jacob would have included a family. Children. Normality,
Her life with Edward would have been passionate (though I highly doubt that, as the readers, we would have felt that way, judging by the way Meyer has been writing the romance scenes between Bella and Edward) - but without normality. Without children.
Nessie came along, and Bella had a family. Bella was willing to give up her humanity, because she already had everything she could get from Jacob.
Where's the angst of being torn between two? The angst of making the final decision? Of forgetting the passion, of having a family - or, forgetting the family, getting the passion?
Where's the sacrifice?
But Meyer thinks that Bella can simply have it all. The passion, the family - no sacrifice needed. Everything she had created in the previous three books comes crashing right back down so that Meyer's characters can have their happy endings.
Even Jacob is happy. He's no longer in pain because Bella chose Edward over him. He's happy because he has Nessie.
It's a happy ending on all sides.
It's precisely what's wrong with Breaking Dawn.
I would have thought that Breaking Dawn would have had some heartbreak, a lot of angst, a lot of tears - but instead, we are all dragged along on a happily-ever-after, for everyone.
If you or your friend likes happily-ever-afters after a trio of dark, angsty books, Breaking Dawn after the Twilight saga is definitely for you/them. If you prefer a dark saga all the way through, it would be much more preferable for you to pretend that the Twilight series end with Eclipse. ...less
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New comment on Ann's review of
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4)
(see all 6 comments)
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Shannon
gave
 
to:
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4)
by Stephenie Meyer
bookshelves:
scifi-fantasy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Shannon said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Not to mention Bella's loveable quirks and foibles (the very things that made the first three books palatable) disappear as she becomes a vampire. BUT, not just any vampire - she becomes the only vampire who avoids the 'newborn' years of unquenchable thirst and violence and instead channels that into becoming a nighttime nympho and perfect daytime monster-mommy.
Awful. Just awful....less
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Shannon
gave
to:
Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, Book 5)
by Terry Goodkind
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April 26
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Shannon
added:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness and the Fair that Changed America (Audio Cassette)
by Erik Larson
bookshelves:
nonfiction
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my rating:
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read in January, 2004
Shannon said:
"Fantastic book - very creepy; Erik Lawson is a master at writing nonfiction in an entertaining, wholly believable way.
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November 01
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Shannon
gave
to:
The Sword in the Stone (Collins Modern Classics)
by T.H. White
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my rating:
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Shannon
gave
to:
The Once and Future King (Paperback)
by T.H. White
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Shannon
gave
to:
The Time Trilogy: A Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wind in the Door and A Wrinkle in Time (Hardcover)
by Madeleine L'Engle
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