Breaking Dawn

[Amber G., Group Creator]

I like the idea of each of our books being separated so we can easily distinguish from book discussions and general posts.

[Amber G., Group Creator]

So, let's begin! What did you think about the pregnancy? Who else thought the book was WAY too long and could have cut a lot out of the Jacob section?
I personally thought this book was the worst in the series. Too slow, interesting no doubt, but not near the intensity of the others. Even with the pregnancy and wedding, it didn't have the depth the others did.

[Marie]

I agree -- I think she tried to fit too much into one book and it lost some of the depth and attatchment I felt with the other books. All in all I liked it okay, but not like I loved the others in the series.

I HATED the pregnancy at first. It really bothered me for some reason. I know this was a book about vampires so you have to suspend reality, but to me this pregnancy seemed too unbelievable. After she actually had the baby I didn't hate the idea as much, but I still didn't think Stephenie Meyer could have done something else.

I actually liked Jacob's section. The kid cracks me up, what can I say?

[Amber G., Group Creator]

Jacob cracks me up, too.

The pregnancy seemed too sudden, to me. I just sat there wondering why everything kept getting "explained" rather than being pulled into an experience.

I guess I don't connect with Bella very much either. Her character traits seemed endearing in the earlier books, but annoyed me in this one. I'm also a "girlie girl" and don't relate with Bella's nonchalance about the wedding, clothes, and other wonderful things about being a woman (pregnancy, motherhood, and more). I'm glad she turned out to be a good mom, but I guess I don't connect with her in any other way.

I still love Edward, but Stephenie didn't pull us into him as much this time. He seemed distant (if that makes any sense).

For a second I thought it was weird that Jacob imprinted on Renesmee (what a lame name, did anyone else think that Stephenie could have done so much better?), but after awhile I thought it fit really well into the story. It makes them seem "meant to be", and all Jacob went though with Bella worth it in the end. I still don't think she wrote Jacob and Nessie's (hello, totally lame) connection as well as the other werewolf couple (Jacob's friend, forget his name). Plus, I totally saw the whole imprinting thing way before it flushed out in the story. Did anyone else find it very predictable?

Honestly, I was bored a lot during the book, and was forcing my way through it. I still liked it, and loved finishing the saga, but was very disappointed in the writing. I guess I expected an ending similar to Harry Potter. I think JK Rowling did a wonderful job wrapping up HP.

[Beth A.]

I had to push through parts of Breaking Dawn, too. It almost could have been two books, it was resolved so completely after Renesmee's birth. (I hated the name, too.) And Jacob's POV was written very differently.

But I did enjoy Jacob's part of the story. He was my favorite character. I didn't connect well with Bella or Edward.

[Marie]

Yeah, I think that was my problem, too. I just didn't "connect" with any of the characters this time around. Everything just felt too forced. And I HATED Renesmee's name!!!

Anyone else think it ended a little too "Happily Ever After"? I mean, I love a good ending, but everything seemed too perfect which, again, made it seem fake. I agree w/you Amber about JK Rowling and HP. The way she wrapped that up was perfect without being "perfect." Does that make any sense? I didn't feel the same when this series ended.

[Kathy]

(So starting with a disclaimer: I'm a Stephenie Meyer Fanatic--help run a fansite type fanatic.) I've heard every loved it & every hate it reason out there and can totally see why some people loved it and other's didn't like it and were disappointed.
Personally I enjoyed it. It was the funnest book I have ever read, perhaps because I stayed up all night and was calling and texting a friend all night long as we read it together.
I was totally slapped in the face by the pregnancy. I was one who had thought "all" vampire fluids turn to venom and missed the all important word "most". The word that made Bella becoming pregnant a possibility. The more I have watched and read Q&As that Stephanie did the more I have gone from liking the book to loving it. I started a reread of it and am enjoying it so much the second time round. I do agree that it has a different feel than the first 3 books.

[Amber G., Group Creator]

I think the reason HP ended perfectly without being the "perfect" ending was because it took SO much to get there. There were twists and turns to the very last second.

Breaking Dawn felt forced to me, too.

I think the book would have been better as two books. She could have relaxed more and dug deeper into the character development (or character continuum).

The whole pregnancy was WAY TOO LONG even though the actual pregnancy was so short. It would have been nice to quit hearing about how much the baby was beating her up inside and just throw in more story. Why not more vampire "history"?

I would have liked there to have been more to the whole vampire showdown at the end, too. I thought for sure an important character would die, or at least there to be a good fight/chase scene. I felt somewhat ripped off.

[Amber G., Group Creator]

I also enjoyed it, but enjoyed the others so much more.

I first started reading Twilight when no one even knew about Stephenie Meyer. An email group friend of mine (who is Stephenie's sister in law) suggested we read the book to help get some fan base going.

After reading it, I was amazed how the rest of the country caught on. Book popularity spreads like wildfire!

I guess what it boils down to for me is, I very much enjoyed the books, but wished BD was more like the others.

[Stacey]

I have not read the book, BUT, I'd like to give some feedback from my teenage daughter, who was quoted by the Houston Chronicle as saying "The release of Breaking Dawn is the thing I'm looking forward to the most this summer!" (can't you almost hear the "oh gosh, oh golly" there...it was so cute)

So...she was terribly disappointed. As she devoured the first three books, she kept gushing about how much she could relate to Bella, how "right on" Meyer was about getting inside a teenage girl's head. But with the fourth book, with Bella becoming a wife, a mother, a VAMPIRE, my daughter felt a little shell-shocked. In her words, she said "Bella just feels like another character in a book now."

My daughter was also surprised at how much she didn't like Edward anymore. She felt getting so close and personal to Jacob in this book showed that HE was really the guy for Bella, and NOT for her baby daughter (my daughter did a lot of eye-rolling and harumphing over that).

To be honest, as a fan, my daughter felt some kind of door slam in her face. She felt like the first three books were totally sold to teenage girls (though clearly we moms loved them, too!), but this fourth was for some other audience. It made me sad to see her so disappointed.

[Kathy]

I do think BD has a different feel than the first 3 books. Stephenie didn't write the books for a teenage audience she wrote them for herself and her sister Emily. They were marketed to a teenage audience because the books are set in high school. I think the themes in BD are much older, marriage, pregnancy, etc. Reading it I wondered what the teenagers would think. Their reactions have been as mixed as the adult's reactions have been, from absolutely loving it to being utterly disappointed. Breaking Dawn is some people's favorite book in the series, teenagers included. I've got a wide range of reactions out of friends and people I thought for sure would hate it have loved it and others I thought would love it have hated it.