Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer(Hachette, Hardcover)
Rating:
When last we left Bella, she was engaged to be married to everyone's favorite vampire, Edward. Jacob had ran off into the wilderness and the Volturi were minding their own business in Italy. Breaking Dawn begins with a wedding and ends with a supernatural throwdown. Basically, a little something for everyone.
Breaking Dawn started with a midnight party for me. I joined about 100 other Twilight fans and made tissue paper corsages, racked my brain to remember minute trivia, and dressed to the nines (okay, it wasn't exactly to the nines. It was a simple black dress, but I did have sparkly powder for my arms and face so I had a shiny, vampire glow). And then I didn't pick up Breaking Dawn again until two weeks later. When I did pick it up, I couldn't put it down.
The Good: Bella as a vampire. This was my favorite part about the book. It was so much fun watching Bella find her place in the world. I never really understood the perks and drawbacks of being a vampire until we witnessed it through Bella's eyes. Sometimes Bella's actions made her seem as if she'd been a vampire for centuries and sometimes she acted like a child with a new toy. That juxtaposition really drove home the fact that Bella was born to be a vampire. She has an amazing super power and becoming a vampire wasn't nearly as hard as she expected. Bella makes being a vampire seem fun, whereas Edward always made it sound undesirable. Jacob's section was another of my favorite parts. Without giving anything away, let's just say that the middle section of the book would have been boring if it had been from Bella's perspective. Jacob's voice gave it a sense of urgency and an element of fear.
The Bad: The plot was a little too crazy for me. If I hadn't already been invested in the outcome of the series, I probably wouldn't have gotten past the first section. There was a certain young character whose entrance in the story was weird, graphic, and not in keeping with the tone of the series. And who made Bella keep too many secrets from Edward, something that after reading the other books I'm not convinced that she could have done. The ending was also too neat. I'm not a fan of killing off key characters, but let's face it, books are better when there is loss involved. The sad parts make you appreciate the happy ending all the more. The loophole that Alice used to make the Volturi admit defeat just wasn't terribly exciting. Another silly thing that bothered me...I was hoping that Bella's dislike of blood as a human would be one of her super powers as a vampire. I thought it would be cool (and pretty smart) if she hated the smell of human blood and was never tempted to kill humans. And Renesmee's diet of "donated human blood" wasn't well thought out. If it was that easy, why wouldn't all the other vampires just do the same?
In Conclusion: Overall, this is a fun book if you've read and enjoyed the first three. Stephenie Meyer once again does what she's good at, leaves cliffhangers at the end of each chapter in order to keep you reading. Edward fans will rejoice and Jacob fans will find a new object for their fervor. Although Breaking Dawn feels like it completes the story arc, I wouldn't mind reading a book about Bella (and Jacob and Renesmee) that was set ten years in the future.
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You went to the midnight party and then didn't read the book for two weeks? That made me chuckle because there is no way I could have done that.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about how this book is actually written? Every time I'd take a look inside I was taken aback by the actual writing.....
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on that middle book. Jacob's perspective is better than Bella's. I was wondering, don't you feel sorry for Leah? I know she's not a major character but I just pity her. Really. My friends who have read Breaking Dawn said they couldn't care less, but seriously, do you?
ReplyDeleteNatasha- it was hard, but I had family in town and knew that if I started reading then I wouldn't be a very good host. :)
ReplyDeleteBeth- you would have gotten a kick out of the book club that I went to the other for Breaking Dawn. One girl didn't think very highly of Meyer's editor.
Tiqa- I kept hoping that Leah would find happiness. I thought that she was one of the better characters in this book and I definitely felt sorry for her. Especially after Jacob imprinted - then she was really all alone!
Gah! I adored the first three books in the series (especially the first one), but not this one. While I enjoyed Jacob's perspective and most of the ending, the rest just wasn't as amazing as the previous books.
ReplyDeleteAs for Leah, I was half expecting she and Jacob to get together in the end. I have no idea why. She was, however, one of my favorite characters, despite her minor role.