Breaking Dawn [Paperback]

 

 

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I don't know if Stephenie Meyer lost her mind or if the publisher forced her to churn out a fourth book just for the money, but from page one right through the end, this was a giant waste of time.

I accept that the money I spent on this book is gone, but now I want those hours of my life back - all wasted in the desperate hope that this book HAD to get better eventually. It didn't. In fact, the one thing the author did accomplish was to surprise me with how much worse a work of fiction can actually become.

I think I have psychological damage! If I hear the ever-overused words "murmur", "flit", or "danced" in the next few weeks, I might just have a stroke. Actually, a stroke would have been more enjoyable than this book. Did Breaking Dawn HAVE an editor?

Alright, there was one redeeming moment to buying the overpriced hardcover version of this text...it was great for killing a very large spider. Otherwise...kindling?

If you've gotten to this last book in the series, it's not going to matter if other people liked it or not because you're going to read it anyways to finish it out.

That said, this was the best of the series, in my opinion, although it contains all of the same elements that bugged me about the other books such as the iffy writing and the overdone angsting. This one just interested me more than the others, and I think I was really relieved by the end of the Bella/Edward/Jacob love triangle. The beginning of the book was hard to get through but it picks up, and there's a chunk of the book that's from Jacob's perspective which was a nice change. It started out as a painful read because I was seriously tired of Jacob's inexplicable obsessing over Bella, but it got much better.

It's hard to review this book without giving away spoilers because key plot points really factor into my final impression of it. Suffice it to say that there is a point in the book where Bella finally stops irritating me and actually gets to do some interesting stuff. She's still not my favourite character, but she has a few moments of potential.

As in the rest of the series, there's a lot of talking, talking and more talking, and lots of planning and planning for the big conflict at the end, and then the conflict itself is mostly anti-climactic. This conflict was a little more satisfying than in the others, but then also more unsatisfying in some ways.

The one thing that I really couldn't get past in this one though... was the name of one of the new characters. Really hard to take the character seriously with a name like that!

Otherwise, this was the best read of the bunch. I still don't get the hype around this series, but I read it and it wasn't all bad.

When I read through the three previous books in this series, I felt they held a certain fanfiction-like quality. They were entertaining, but the writing was nothing to brag about, the characters lacked depth, and the plot was very predictable. I expected something along those lines for Breaking Dawn, but I gave Meyer the benefit of the doubt that she would have improved by this point.

Unfortunately, Meyer's writing seems to only have declined. This book was worse than all the others in the series by a long shot. I'll avoid direct spoilers here.

The beginning is, to be fair, not all that bad. It starts off in the same style that Eclipse, the prequel, ended. Only a few chapters in, however, do we hit the insanity. For one thing, Meyer contradicts herself in this book. She has stated multiple times, it seems, that certain things are impossible in her vampire world and yet these same things happen in Breaking Dawn. It completely defies science and logic without a single justifiable explanation for it. Plus, what could have been a good potential to develop her characters was abandoned for more crazy plot twists that were more disturbing than interesting. Bella, the main character, made a complete 180 in personality and felt more than ever like a self-insert (for one, Bella didn't previously hold all the same moral and religious beliefs as Meyer, but in this book I felt as though Bella had become a Mormon out of nowhere). Edward also seemed to have lost the little personality he previously had and acted in ways that were extremely shocking, and not in a good way. The only one to stay remotely in-character was Jacob, who was quite clearly the best part of this entire book. Sadly, Meyer even ruined Jacob. More crazy plot twists and some more bad writing later, Jacob fans are in outrage for what Meyer has put him through.

What was one of the only deep themes of this book was shred to pieces. Bella's choice of becoming a vampire was always a subject of controversy: Should she be with the person she loves for eternity, while giving up her pulse, her future, and her family? Or should she remain human and retain all those possibilities, while saying goodbye to a life with Edward? There were sacrifices on both sides and yet at the end of Eclipse Bella is dead set on one, knowing full well what she was giving up. It made her decision more poignant and let her grow a bit as a character. In Breaking Dawn, her decision was rather pointless anyways for she gets everything she possibly could have wanted without a single sacrifice. Breaking Dawn could have been a very touching story about what Bella was giving up and the things she learned from such sacrifices, but it ended up being a shallow, perfect, fairytale ending. If Bella wasn't already enough of a Mary Sue (the flawless character), she definitely redefined the term in this book.

Before I start gushing out actual spoilers, I will say this: Meyer seems to have lost it. I'm frankly quite disturbed by some of the messages she sent out, possibly unintentionally, to all the young girls reading this book. I'm very much an open-minded person but some of the things in this book made me feel sick to my stomach. Meyer glorified some terrible ideas and for what, over 700 pages of bad fanfiction? I do NOT recommend this book in the least. The first three were passable as easy, fun reads, but this is just crossing the line into twisted story telling. There are too many good reads out there that this too long piece of unintelligent writitng is not worth the money at all.

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4.0 out of 5 stars review
it's a really nice bedtime read. it's pretty much every girl's dream to live the life of a vampire's wife haha. always protected, treasured, loved and cherished. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Jessie

5.0 out of 5 stars couldn't put the book down!!!
once you've read or seen all of the twilight movies up to eclipse you will love how the story ends. lots of drama and keeps you on the edge constantly worth reading.

Published 12 months ago by Leanne

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad plot, bad writing
What more can I say? I enjoyed Twilight, the first book in the series, and then things went downhill from there. Read more

Published 15 months ago by JBB

4.0 out of 5 stars A great 4th book!
In this fourth and final book, Bella and Edward get married, have a child and Bella finally becomes a vampire. In my opinion, this sums it up very well, what more can we want? Read more

Published 17 months ago by Cozy Evenings with a Book

1.0 out of 5 stars Like reading crib notes... drones on and on.
I think that in her series, Stephanie gives us a good idea of what life must be life for Edward. Having to listen to the endless "what if's" that go through every character's mind... Read more

Published 22 months ago by A. Nowak

2.0 out of 5 stars not as bad as "Eclipse" but still couldn't save the saga
I went into the fourth and final installment of the "Twilight" saga hoping it would be better than "Eclipse" and somehow redeem the series from complete literary mediocrity... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Nathalie Wigmore

4.0 out of 5 stars this author could engage the reader on any topic
stephanie has a way of writing that draws the reader in, making them not want (or be able perhaps) to stop! Read more

Published on May 6 2010 by lafleurpetite

2.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely heartbroken fan...
It just kills me to write this...
I wanted to love this book. I truly loved the first three books, and was scared when I read the continual criticism for Breaking... Read more

Published on April 26 2010 by M. Ainslie

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
I liked a little more than half of it.It keep me interested. Eclipse was the best over all. I would love to see a spin-off with them annihilating the vulturi.

Published on April 3 2010 by Cheryl Davenport

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
The final book of the Twilight series is excellent. And I was glad that I got the special edition because the poster that it comes with is great and the dvd was wonderful :)... Read more

Published on April 2 2010 by Tom Turvey

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