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.
