Breaking Dawn - A Review
Like all of Stephenie Meyer’s books, this one was a page turner. But now that it’s over and I’ve given myself time to mull over it, I realize how little I like it.
***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***
Stephenie Meyer took me by surprise this time with her direction. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t have ended up ok, but it didn’t. I was so used to constant angst over Bella’s two lover boys in the previous books that I definitely anticipated more Jacob vs. Edward story line in this. But Stephenie Meyer nixed that right away and shoved engagement, prophetic dreams of a child and marriage to Edward in our faces as fast as she could. All the tension she built up in the first three books over who Bella would choose is resolved in the first three chapters and replaced by a very muddled story line.
Shortly after their honeymoon, Bella finds herself feeling oddly hungry all the time, and then suddenly very sick. This is followed by a realization that she is pregnant with Edwards spawn. The fetus is growing at an alarming rate as well. Only five days after her missed period she feels the baby nudge her. Here’s where we go from puerile teen vampire love story to most bizarre.
In the second part of the book we find Jacob Black narrating as Bella is slowly being killed by Edward’s spawn. She refuses to let Edward or Carlisle abort the baby in order to save her life and she’s recruited Rosalie to help her in this endeavor. With Jacob at the helm, we witness Bella’s declining state and his anger over it. Then, thanks in part to Jacob, the family realizes that perhaps the baby needs blood to thrive. So Bella starts drinking Carlisle’s stash of donated human blood. What the fudge?!?!? I found the casual manner in which Bella accepted this idea most horrifying. Then comes the bloody and gruesome scene of delivery (they won’t be able to put that in the 4th movie if they want to keep it PG-13), the snapping of Bella’s spine by the little nudger, so called, Edward’s desperate frenzy to start the process of transformation before Bella’s heart stops beating and Jacob’s resolve to kill the newborn as he faces his most acute pain ever in losing Bella. A pain I frankly did not share with him. Then he imprints on Edward and Bella’s new baby girl instead! I saw that one coming but really hoped I was wrong.
After this point, things really get ridiculous. Bella doesn’t die after all and not only that, she’s more amazing than any newborn vampire they’ve ever seen. She can control herself around humans and her physical desire for Edward has only strengthened. One gets the feeling from her descriptions that just to touch him causes her to…*shudder*, I can’t say it. But you get my drift. It’s seriously creepy.
Suddenly everything is easy street for Bella. Just like she’s always deserved, eh? Whine and cling and stay with the man who controls you and one day all your dreams will come true. You’ll embrace unexpected pregnancy on a whim, your physical pleasure will be heightened, your unhealthy relationship will right itself overnight, the lover you didn’t choose will suddenly fall in love with someone else and you’ll be stronger and more beautiful than you ever expected. Fantastic message! The end was also very anti-climactic. Stephenie Meyer spent 7 or so chapters building up to the confrontation with the Volturi and at the end Bella’s shielding power (which she conveniently figured out how to control right after they arrived) scared them away.
The last chapter is titled, The Happily Ever After. Sometimes I’m ok with a happily ever after in stories. Sometimes it’s hard earned and well deserved and is simply…right. But this one felt too contrived. By the end of the third chapter of Breaking Dawn I felt that the interest and concern I invested regarding whom Bella would choose and how she would grow while reading the previous books was wasted. I felt that an easy way out had been in the authors plan for Bella all along. The emotional growth and soul searching possibilities for Bella alluded to in the prior books had no place in this book. It was a disappointing end to a story with such potential.
:heart: 
Amen! I’ve read the books, and they bug. You just say it better and nicer!
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I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. I can say that about all three books though… nothing amazing. I actually liked the section written from Jacob’s perspective… although I didn’t feel like the writing was different enough - but the titles of the chapters made me laugh. And, um, the baby’s name? Resenmee?? WHAT THE CRAP?!? Worst baby name EVER! I too didn’t like the way it ended with the Volturi. For me, an enemy needs to be defeated somehow (think Voldemort) but now it feels like that part of the story is just hanging there. Maybe she did it on purpose. Maybe “Nessie” and Jake will take on the Volturi after we have to read about their romance… or maybe they’ll just join the Volturi ;) Either way - I’m done with this series and I’m contemplating selling all four books on ebay.
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I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve heard similar sentiments from other people. What a let down.
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Fascinating. I’ve been very open about the fact that I hate Bella and haven’t loved the series. However, I really liked this one. Go figure. I actually liked vampire Bella better than human Bella. I, for one, was glad to see the teenage angst go away.
There are still a myriad of things wrong with the book, I actually enjoyed this one. I still can’t believe I’m saying that! And the baby’s name? Stupid.
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I’m going to come back and read this once I finally get around to reading it!
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Thank you. I’ll not waste my time by moving on in the series. What a let down, especially when she could have made such a powerful statement to the contrary of the direction she took it in.
lonis last blog post..Prawn Cocktail
I didn’t dislike it, but then my expectations weren’t too high. I was satisfied with the way she wrapped things up–even though, yes, it often felt contrived and utterly convenient. The two things that bugged me the most—Renesmee is the stupidest name I’ve ever heard, and the build up to the big battle at the end, and no one dies.
I have heard similar things Im thinking of just not reading it…
I can definitely understand your point of view, and I’m glad to hear differing opinions. But for me, as I’m sure you already know because of my blog, I really enjoyed the book. Sure, it was probably a little bit too much of happy ending, but I really enjoy that every now and then. My biggest gripe about the book was the lack of a fight scene after all the build-up towards it. (Oh, yeah, and the name, too… although I’m getting used to it, now.) Still, I keep wondering if there’s something wrong with me for not being bothered by the “message” the book sends to young girls. I totally get what you’re saying, and agree that it’s a very bad thing to make people believe, but somehow I just don’t *feel* like it’s meant to be anything other than happy fairy-tale type of story. I dunno. Anyway, I liked the book a lot.
And, I also took some of your suggestions for new reading material (I finally got my hands on The Princess Bride, and I also picked up Howl’s Moving Castle). They’re next on my list of things to read!
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I agree about it being very anti-climactic! What the heck?
Also, as I was reading, I kept wondering how they’re going to make this book into a movie that’s not rated R. Especially with the birth scene - - and then things like when Renesmee goes hunting and ends up with blood dripping down her face, etc.
I wanted to like the book. Really, I did.
JustRandis last blog post..3 Hours of My Life I’ll Never Get Back
I loved your review.
I have been seriously underwhelmed by Stephanie Myers books.
I was disappointed in it :o(
I t was just didn’t LOVE it like the others. But I am glad I read them all.!!
Judis last blog post..???
Summer, you made me giggle. I agree it was creepy. The whole series was kind of lame, but I read it all anyways because I was curious. And Stephenie is a great story teller, even if it’s a little weird. And creepy. And her main character is an idiot. I really enjoyed your review. = )
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I really did not like any of the books, this one included. My biggest gripes were the same as most of your other commenters’- the stupid, stupid baby name and I really wanted a fight and defeat there at the end. I did like the vampire Bella more- at least she grew up, but the whole book could have easily been 200-250 pages and been so much better for it.
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i havent read it yet but i have read a few chapters online and half of it at a friends house and i thought it was pretty good so far because i didnt read all of it.
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Though I agree with just about everything here, with Twilight I think it should be taken into account that the books are not from a neutral perspective - they are from Bella’s most of the time, with Jacob chiming in for a while at one point - and neither Bella nor Jacob are writers.
Stephenie Meyer has been compared to J.K. Rowling, and as such both of their famous works have been compared to each other. As far as writing goes, a lot more favour has been put by critics for Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which is from a neutral perspective (that is, none of the characters are narrating the story, it is just being told from the third person). What I’ve noticed about this is, when a story is in third-person it’s a lot easier to make the writing of the highest possible quality, especially where vocabulary and structure is concerned. Whereas when a story is in the first person like the Twilight series, it’s not as easy to do such a thing and still retain its believability - it needs to be taken into account the fact that a specific person is giving the description, and that person is not always a professional writer. Bella is the narrator of the bulk of the Twilight series, but she is also a young teenage girl. There is no mention of her having a writing background so can we really expect the “writing” to be quite as top-notch as the Harry Potter series?
This is just something that’s occurred to me as to why the Twilight series receives such criticism for its writing quality, especially compared to Harry Potter.
In addition to that, a third-person story can pretty much tell as much about about the story as the author wants, but a first-person story can only tell what the narrating character can know - in the Twilight series we can only really know Bella’s story completely, because she can’t get into anyone else’s head (unlike a third-person story and of course, Edward lol). In the Twilight series we only get information on other characters and events elsewhere if:
a) somebody tells Bella,
b) Bella overhears somebody saying it
c) Bella comes across it somehow
Because it’s Bella narrating, and she can only know so much and be in one place at a time, all information in the novel has to go through Bella in order to get to us… in my opinion, this would be quite a bit harder to write than a third-person story like Harry Potter.
And as for Renesmee’s name, I think it’s actually quite beautiful - do many people realise that it’s a combination of Bella’s mother’s name, Renee, and Edward’s (foster) mother’s name, Esme? I think that’s very nice. That’s actually given me an idea on a name for my daughter - combining my husband’s mother’s name, Sam, and my own mother’s name, Raelene - Salene. It’s a nice thing to do :)