Breaking Dawn review
I might write a completely different review if I waited until I've had a chance to absorb, re-read, discuss, etc.
But,
You know, I think Stephenie Meyer has some clear-cut strengths and weaknesses as an author, and one of her biggest strengths is her characterization. She gets my eternal undying love for creating Edward Cullen and almost nothing can detract from that. :) I really do think her ability to make her readers empathize and understand and stand in the shoes of her characters is, hands-down, her biggest strength.
So, what did I love and what did I hate about "Breaking Dawn," the final installment in her Twilight trilogy?
Well, you may not recall ...... but I do: I re-read Twilight obsessively for 6 weeks straight in June/July 2006. I literally read *NOTHING* else for at least 6 weeks. I might be on the low-end in fact. I was as infatuated and obsessed as I had been with Harry Potter in the early days of 2000 and *that* was something I never expected to see again. The thing that I loved most about Twilight was the unassailable constancy of Bella and Edward's love for each other, and I got EXACTLY what I wanted with the end of the series. I could not have imagined a more pitch-perfect HEA than the one Meyer delivered, even if the road thereto was a bit ragged in spots. I struggled for a long time internally with how Meyer might resolve the seemingly intractable dilemnas facing our heroine in her resolution to become a vampire and spend eternity with her Edward. I had no idea how she would reconcile all the issues to satisfaction, and it seems from reviews I've read that she disappointed a fair few fans. I was not one of the disappointed (and honestly, as a die-hard H/H shipper in the HP fandom, let me just say that it ROCKS to be on the winning side!!!! :D ) I got the fairy-tale ending I was expecting from Day One, and color me utterly and completely delighted. I was so happy to see Meyer returning to the earlier standard of Twilight and New Moon with this last book; I was [extremely disappointed in Eclipse] and was relieved to see her returning to the earlier standard of the first 2 novels in this series.
I LOVED that Bella married Edward and was finally happy about it, even at the 11th hour. I LOVED the entire wedding sequence ---- quite nicely done. The honeymoon was, as expected, skimpy on the details, but sensual and tantalizing in a very Meyer-esque way (my own less constrained imagination can substitute plenty of detail, thank you very much). And .....
I LOVED that Bella and Edward *were* able to become biological parents before Bella turned. I have issues with the lack of foundation and internal inconsistencies (see below) with that plot point, but with the end result, I'm most definitely pleased. I wanted Bella to reach some resolution on what she was sacrificing in becoming Edward's mate and turning into a vampire, and I really did not expect her 18-year old self to appreciate fully the sacrifice of motherhood. It was a very nice touch for Rosalie to be her protector and defender through the ordeal of her pregnancy. I can go with the "Bella is an old soul" to explain away a lot that would be lacking in a non-fantasy setting. 99.9% of 18 year old women are not prepared to make a decision about whether they will want to become a mother in the next 25 years ....or not. I'm glad we readers are not left to wonder "Gee, what if she regrets not being a mother sometime in the next few decades?" It's an obstacle to her future happiness that is removed, and I was glad to see how she handled it. And having Edward able to read the mind of the fetus towards the ending stages of the pregnancy was *brilliant* ---- really, really nice addition. I was worried about the outcome of Bella's insistence on having the child on her marriage until he was able to connect to her. It was a huge relief to see Edward bonding with his child. I've seen some reviews critical of both Edward and even Bella for putting their own relationship ahead of their child, but I honestly did not read the book that way at all. I thought they were both utterly devoted parents, and I think after the shock and the worries about Bella were resolved, Edward was fairly bursting with pride at being a father.
I LOVED the entire sequence from the point where Bella gives birth so violently through her transformation and her first few days as a new vampire. That was really effective and powerful writing. The "first hunt"? OMG. Totally surpassed all expectations. *Amazing.* Bella did mature as a character (finally!), and I loved the chance to see Meyer's take on the vampire POV through Bella's newborn eyes.
I applauded her decision to have Alice seemingly defect from the Cullen family. The fact that she valued Jasper above all else (a point Meyer actually foreshadowed in New Moon) made the supposed defection all the more believable. Alice did seem to be missing from a good bit of the book, and I would have wished for more emphasis on and further development of her as a fantastic character in Meyer's universe, but I was "wowed" by the unexpected and plausible twist of her forcing Jasper to bolt when it looked so bad for the Cullens.
I will take a moment (or two) of pats-on-the-back for my in several ways prescient fanfic "What I Saw". My lovely beta-reader, heart_of_wine, demanded more than once if I was *sure* that Carlisle would refer to Edward as "son," and I squealed with delight to see that confirmed in BD. :) It's the little things, you know ...... :)
Okay, so what did I not like?
Well, #1 on the list ---- I'll join 99.9% of the reviewers I have read online say What the HELL were you and your editors thinking in having Bella and Edward bestow the name Renesmee on their daughter? WTF!!!!!!!!!! In addition to being more than slightly trashy as combined names so often are, it's completely unpronounceable (I can't *wait* to hear the audio book reader trying to say that one over and over). Hello ...... go with the normal and cute "Carlie" that combines Carlisle and Charlie that you used as her middle name. Seriously, what WAS she thinking? Renesmee? OMG. That puts Albus Severus and the Ron/Hermione kids to shame. Someone said it sounded like the idle doodlings of a 13 yr old contemplating marrying her first crush, and I couldn't agree more. Bella, who reads Jane Austen and Shakespeare, would NEVER name her daughter such a God-awful name. Edward's biological mother was Elizabeth. Give Renee and Esme the same middle name of ........Katherine, Grace, Claire, anything normal and name the child with those 2 names. Renesmee? Holy Crap.
Imprinting ----- Okay, I'm still soooooo not a fan of the whole concept. Hence, I am not wild about the notion that Jacob has imprinted on Renesmee (henceforth in this review to be known as Nessie, the name Jacob sensibly bestows on her). I *was* actually very squicked by imprinting of Quil and the 2-year old Claire ----- sorry, but that's just ick, no matter how non-sexual it might be. When exactly is it "okay" to transition to the eventual sexual? And I just hate the notion that it seems to be MALE werewolves (shape-shifters we are now meant to call them) imprinting ON these females. There's no free will involved for the males, but there darn tootin' isn't any free-will for the females. What if Nessie has different ideas when she is older? (And, I was really hoping, despite the lack of imprinting, that Jacob and Leah might eventually pursue some sort of relationship as there seemed to me to be a spark of something there).
At base, I still have a huge quarrel with Meyer with the entire Jacob storyline, when you get right down to it. I think her purpose for Jacob ----- having him be a solid friend for Bella who gets her through the trauma of Edward leaving her in NM and being the "look what you're giving up besides your parents" carrot for the debate about whether she really should become a vampire or not ------- I think all those purposes could be served just as effectively, if not more so, by having Jacob as a purely platonic friend. I can see where it made some sense to have Jacob have a hang-dog infatuation with Bella in Twilight ..... thus allowing her to extract the needed legends so she can deduce the truth about Edward and the Cullens. But, backtrack on that in NM ..... let him be over that little crush and totally focused on just being her friend. Let it be a tantalizing "what if" that never materializes maybe. Don't get sidetracked from the main event with a love-triangle that you didn't lay the foundation for. The problem, you see, is that Meyer never ever once gives us the inkling that Bella might be falling for Jacob, and so I felt utterly and completely betrayed by Eclipse in that regard (not to mention finding Jacob himself to be utterly reprehensible and disgusting in Eclipse).
And, that, I think, is Meyer's greatest failing as an author thus far. If characterization is her greatest strength, failure to lay the foundation for later plot points is without question her greatest weakness. Not only the entire Jacob debacle of Eclipse, but most importantly ..... what are all the negative reviews of BD screaming about at base? Lack of foreshadowing that Bella being pregnant was even a possibility in Meyer's universe. And rightly so. Meyer has been consistent in portraying the vampires as being devoid of all bodily fluids other than venom. The Twilight Lexicon includes this as part of their section on Vampire Physiology. And if Edward's bodily fluids were all replaced with venom nearly 100 years ago, how on earth does he have any live sperm to create Nessie? One paragraph that says that human males are unchanged from puberty to death and has Bella recalling Charlie Chaplin fathering a child at an advanced age (ala' "When Harry met Sally" I might add) does NOT cut it in terms of explaining this sea change in her foundation on how her vampires work. Alice doesn't "see" this eventuality? Carlisle doesn't think to warn Edward of the possibility when Edward confers with him about the honeymoon? These are all loose ends that should have been tied up neatly - where the HELL were her editors? Better still, the seeds should be subtly planted throughout the series for such a HUGE plot point.
Back to imprinting and Jacob ---- I still fail to see how anything was served by having this romantic interest between Jacob and Bella, albeit mostly on Jacob's side and only an after-thought on Bella's. Now that I've read BD, I fully stand by my criticisms of Eclipse. The same purposes would be served much more effectively if she'd left Jacob and Bella with a strong platonic bond (and never introduced imprinting at all, since it totally undercuts her powerful messages about free-will and choices). Jacob could still warm to Nessie just because he grows to love the child, not because he has imprinted on an infant not even one-day old.
Jacob, however, redeems himself as a character (mostly) in BD, and as I said above, I was glad that my own fanfic was on the right track in that regard. I was happy to see him become the Alpha wolf that was his birth-right, but I still desperately wish that Meyer had gone a completely different direction in the development of this particular character. I think he was unnecessarily distracting from the main event of Bella and Edward's love story and for no greater good that could not have been served by purely platonic friendship.
I was a bit disappointed with the lack of concrete detail regarding the HEA, from a practical perspective I guess. I mean ...... will Bella/Edward and the other Cullens continue to live near Forks, at least until Nessie matures (7 years down the road)? If so, what will they *DO* during this time? Avoid the town during the day because they are all supposedly in college (or out in their own professions now) and for sure Bella can't be seen? If they are leaving, how do the others (Jacob, Charlie & Sue, Seth, Leah) fit into that equation? What about Renee? For all her part in the name (Renesmee, Gads) of the child and for being Bella's self-described "best friend" in Twilight, she really seems to figure very little in the series and in BD in particular. We see how Charlie can integrate relatively seamlessly into the lives of the Cullen family, but I wanted to see some resolution on Renee as well. How does Jacob being a werewolf/now-a-shapeshifter with a shortened life-span figure into the equation of Nessie's life-mate? She's going to live an extraordinarily long-life but is maybe not fully immortal. But, she is certainly going to outlive her werewolf with a short life-span mate, isn't she? Again, sooooo much simpler if Jacob was just a good friend with a kind-hearted interest in Nessie's welfare.
A few trivial points: why after 3 novels of him being referred to consistently as "Jasper" are all the family members suddenly calling him "Jazz"? That was jarring.
The wealth of the Cullens --- I would have liked more under-statement in the entire series, but most particularly in BD. The casual pilfering of money in increments of $5,000 bills for forged documents for Nessie and Jacob is just way over-the-top. It fairly screams naivete on some level for one thing. And it's just crass. I wish she'd handled that much more subtly.
So, when I rate BD for amazon purposes, I'll probably give it 4 stars, just because it's NOT a perfect book. But, I am utterly and completely elated with the ending. Jubilant and rejoicing about Bella and Edward's HEA! With a big sappy grin on my face. :D
But,
You know, I think Stephenie Meyer has some clear-cut strengths and weaknesses as an author, and one of her biggest strengths is her characterization. She gets my eternal undying love for creating Edward Cullen and almost nothing can detract from that. :) I really do think her ability to make her readers empathize and understand and stand in the shoes of her characters is, hands-down, her biggest strength.
So, what did I love and what did I hate about "Breaking Dawn," the final installment in her Twilight trilogy?
Well, you may not recall ...... but I do: I re-read Twilight obsessively for 6 weeks straight in June/July 2006. I literally read *NOTHING* else for at least 6 weeks. I might be on the low-end in fact. I was as infatuated and obsessed as I had been with Harry Potter in the early days of 2000 and *that* was something I never expected to see again. The thing that I loved most about Twilight was the unassailable constancy of Bella and Edward's love for each other, and I got EXACTLY what I wanted with the end of the series. I could not have imagined a more pitch-perfect HEA than the one Meyer delivered, even if the road thereto was a bit ragged in spots. I struggled for a long time internally with how Meyer might resolve the seemingly intractable dilemnas facing our heroine in her resolution to become a vampire and spend eternity with her Edward. I had no idea how she would reconcile all the issues to satisfaction, and it seems from reviews I've read that she disappointed a fair few fans. I was not one of the disappointed (and honestly, as a die-hard H/H shipper in the HP fandom, let me just say that it ROCKS to be on the winning side!!!! :D ) I got the fairy-tale ending I was expecting from Day One, and color me utterly and completely delighted. I was so happy to see Meyer returning to the earlier standard of Twilight and New Moon with this last book; I was [extremely disappointed in Eclipse] and was relieved to see her returning to the earlier standard of the first 2 novels in this series.
I LOVED that Bella married Edward and was finally happy about it, even at the 11th hour. I LOVED the entire wedding sequence ---- quite nicely done. The honeymoon was, as expected, skimpy on the details, but sensual and tantalizing in a very Meyer-esque way (my own less constrained imagination can substitute plenty of detail, thank you very much). And .....
I LOVED that Bella and Edward *were* able to become biological parents before Bella turned. I have issues with the lack of foundation and internal inconsistencies (see below) with that plot point, but with the end result, I'm most definitely pleased. I wanted Bella to reach some resolution on what she was sacrificing in becoming Edward's mate and turning into a vampire, and I really did not expect her 18-year old self to appreciate fully the sacrifice of motherhood. It was a very nice touch for Rosalie to be her protector and defender through the ordeal of her pregnancy. I can go with the "Bella is an old soul" to explain away a lot that would be lacking in a non-fantasy setting. 99.9% of 18 year old women are not prepared to make a decision about whether they will want to become a mother in the next 25 years ....or not. I'm glad we readers are not left to wonder "Gee, what if she regrets not being a mother sometime in the next few decades?" It's an obstacle to her future happiness that is removed, and I was glad to see how she handled it. And having Edward able to read the mind of the fetus towards the ending stages of the pregnancy was *brilliant* ---- really, really nice addition. I was worried about the outcome of Bella's insistence on having the child on her marriage until he was able to connect to her. It was a huge relief to see Edward bonding with his child. I've seen some reviews critical of both Edward and even Bella for putting their own relationship ahead of their child, but I honestly did not read the book that way at all. I thought they were both utterly devoted parents, and I think after the shock and the worries about Bella were resolved, Edward was fairly bursting with pride at being a father.
I LOVED the entire sequence from the point where Bella gives birth so violently through her transformation and her first few days as a new vampire. That was really effective and powerful writing. The "first hunt"? OMG. Totally surpassed all expectations. *Amazing.* Bella did mature as a character (finally!), and I loved the chance to see Meyer's take on the vampire POV through Bella's newborn eyes.
I applauded her decision to have Alice seemingly defect from the Cullen family. The fact that she valued Jasper above all else (a point Meyer actually foreshadowed in New Moon) made the supposed defection all the more believable. Alice did seem to be missing from a good bit of the book, and I would have wished for more emphasis on and further development of her as a fantastic character in Meyer's universe, but I was "wowed" by the unexpected and plausible twist of her forcing Jasper to bolt when it looked so bad for the Cullens.
I will take a moment (or two) of pats-on-the-back for my in several ways prescient fanfic "What I Saw". My lovely beta-reader, heart_of_wine, demanded more than once if I was *sure* that Carlisle would refer to Edward as "son," and I squealed with delight to see that confirmed in BD. :) It's the little things, you know ...... :)
Okay, so what did I not like?
Well, #1 on the list ---- I'll join 99.9% of the reviewers I have read online say What the HELL were you and your editors thinking in having Bella and Edward bestow the name Renesmee on their daughter? WTF!!!!!!!!!! In addition to being more than slightly trashy as combined names so often are, it's completely unpronounceable (I can't *wait* to hear the audio book reader trying to say that one over and over). Hello ...... go with the normal and cute "Carlie" that combines Carlisle and Charlie that you used as her middle name. Seriously, what WAS she thinking? Renesmee? OMG. That puts Albus Severus and the Ron/Hermione kids to shame. Someone said it sounded like the idle doodlings of a 13 yr old contemplating marrying her first crush, and I couldn't agree more. Bella, who reads Jane Austen and Shakespeare, would NEVER name her daughter such a God-awful name. Edward's biological mother was Elizabeth. Give Renee and Esme the same middle name of ........Katherine, Grace, Claire, anything normal and name the child with those 2 names. Renesmee? Holy Crap.
Imprinting ----- Okay, I'm still soooooo not a fan of the whole concept. Hence, I am not wild about the notion that Jacob has imprinted on Renesmee (henceforth in this review to be known as Nessie, the name Jacob sensibly bestows on her). I *was* actually very squicked by imprinting of Quil and the 2-year old Claire ----- sorry, but that's just ick, no matter how non-sexual it might be. When exactly is it "okay" to transition to the eventual sexual? And I just hate the notion that it seems to be MALE werewolves (shape-shifters we are now meant to call them) imprinting ON these females. There's no free will involved for the males, but there darn tootin' isn't any free-will for the females. What if Nessie has different ideas when she is older? (And, I was really hoping, despite the lack of imprinting, that Jacob and Leah might eventually pursue some sort of relationship as there seemed to me to be a spark of something there).
At base, I still have a huge quarrel with Meyer with the entire Jacob storyline, when you get right down to it. I think her purpose for Jacob ----- having him be a solid friend for Bella who gets her through the trauma of Edward leaving her in NM and being the "look what you're giving up besides your parents" carrot for the debate about whether she really should become a vampire or not ------- I think all those purposes could be served just as effectively, if not more so, by having Jacob as a purely platonic friend. I can see where it made some sense to have Jacob have a hang-dog infatuation with Bella in Twilight ..... thus allowing her to extract the needed legends so she can deduce the truth about Edward and the Cullens. But, backtrack on that in NM ..... let him be over that little crush and totally focused on just being her friend. Let it be a tantalizing "what if" that never materializes maybe. Don't get sidetracked from the main event with a love-triangle that you didn't lay the foundation for. The problem, you see, is that Meyer never ever once gives us the inkling that Bella might be falling for Jacob, and so I felt utterly and completely betrayed by Eclipse in that regard (not to mention finding Jacob himself to be utterly reprehensible and disgusting in Eclipse).
And, that, I think, is Meyer's greatest failing as an author thus far. If characterization is her greatest strength, failure to lay the foundation for later plot points is without question her greatest weakness. Not only the entire Jacob debacle of Eclipse, but most importantly ..... what are all the negative reviews of BD screaming about at base? Lack of foreshadowing that Bella being pregnant was even a possibility in Meyer's universe. And rightly so. Meyer has been consistent in portraying the vampires as being devoid of all bodily fluids other than venom. The Twilight Lexicon includes this as part of their section on Vampire Physiology. And if Edward's bodily fluids were all replaced with venom nearly 100 years ago, how on earth does he have any live sperm to create Nessie? One paragraph that says that human males are unchanged from puberty to death and has Bella recalling Charlie Chaplin fathering a child at an advanced age (ala' "When Harry met Sally" I might add) does NOT cut it in terms of explaining this sea change in her foundation on how her vampires work. Alice doesn't "see" this eventuality? Carlisle doesn't think to warn Edward of the possibility when Edward confers with him about the honeymoon? These are all loose ends that should have been tied up neatly - where the HELL were her editors? Better still, the seeds should be subtly planted throughout the series for such a HUGE plot point.
Back to imprinting and Jacob ---- I still fail to see how anything was served by having this romantic interest between Jacob and Bella, albeit mostly on Jacob's side and only an after-thought on Bella's. Now that I've read BD, I fully stand by my criticisms of Eclipse. The same purposes would be served much more effectively if she'd left Jacob and Bella with a strong platonic bond (and never introduced imprinting at all, since it totally undercuts her powerful messages about free-will and choices). Jacob could still warm to Nessie just because he grows to love the child, not because he has imprinted on an infant not even one-day old.
Jacob, however, redeems himself as a character (mostly) in BD, and as I said above, I was glad that my own fanfic was on the right track in that regard. I was happy to see him become the Alpha wolf that was his birth-right, but I still desperately wish that Meyer had gone a completely different direction in the development of this particular character. I think he was unnecessarily distracting from the main event of Bella and Edward's love story and for no greater good that could not have been served by purely platonic friendship.
I was a bit disappointed with the lack of concrete detail regarding the HEA, from a practical perspective I guess. I mean ...... will Bella/Edward and the other Cullens continue to live near Forks, at least until Nessie matures (7 years down the road)? If so, what will they *DO* during this time? Avoid the town during the day because they are all supposedly in college (or out in their own professions now) and for sure Bella can't be seen? If they are leaving, how do the others (Jacob, Charlie & Sue, Seth, Leah) fit into that equation? What about Renee? For all her part in the name (Renesmee, Gads) of the child and for being Bella's self-described "best friend" in Twilight, she really seems to figure very little in the series and in BD in particular. We see how Charlie can integrate relatively seamlessly into the lives of the Cullen family, but I wanted to see some resolution on Renee as well. How does Jacob being a werewolf/now-a-shapeshifter with a shortened life-span figure into the equation of Nessie's life-mate? She's going to live an extraordinarily long-life but is maybe not fully immortal. But, she is certainly going to outlive her werewolf with a short life-span mate, isn't she? Again, sooooo much simpler if Jacob was just a good friend with a kind-hearted interest in Nessie's welfare.
A few trivial points: why after 3 novels of him being referred to consistently as "Jasper" are all the family members suddenly calling him "Jazz"? That was jarring.
The wealth of the Cullens --- I would have liked more under-statement in the entire series, but most particularly in BD. The casual pilfering of money in increments of $5,000 bills for forged documents for Nessie and Jacob is just way over-the-top. It fairly screams naivete on some level for one thing. And it's just crass. I wish she'd handled that much more subtly.
So, when I rate BD for amazon purposes, I'll probably give it 4 stars, just because it's NOT a perfect book. But, I am utterly and completely elated with the ending. Jubilant and rejoicing about Bella and Edward's HEA! With a big sappy grin on my face. :D