Breaking Dawn = Breaking Dull (Spoilers Alert)
At long last, I have finally completed the mind-numbing, brain cell-draining exercise of reading “Breaking Dawn,” the fourth and final book in the Twilight saga. I loved the other books, so I determindely trudged through this one, even though I came to call it ‘”Breaking Bad” or “Breaking my Brain with Boredom.” And even though I don’t pan books here, I feel a mega bestseller is exempt because 16% of all books sold last quarter were written by Stephenie Meyer, so a negative review by me won’t ruin her.
Let’s start with a few basic issues.
1. Nothing happened for about 600 pages
2. That is unless you count being pregnant and then loving your half-vampire half-human child as something happening
3. When something finally happened, it was still nothing
4. Like, how about mixing in an actual BATTLE with the Volturi? All the Volturi did was talk, talk, talk with the Cullens and their witnesses. Yeah, there was Bella throwing her mental shield. Ho-hum. There was Jane failing to penetrate it. Ho-hum.
5. Would it have killed the vampires to actually fight?
6. I would have been OK with some characters dying off in an epic battle of good versus evil. J.K. Rowling had the guts to kill off several beloved characters and Voldemort and Harry actually FOUGHT in the end. They didn’t just chit chat and admire each other’s tchtckes.
7. The idea that Charlie just didn’t want to ask questions about his suddenly supermodel and pale-faced daughter was a cop-out
8. Finally, the other half-vampire half-human child Alice just so happened to locate out of nowhere at the very last minute was the worst (or best) example of Deus Ex Machina I have read in ages. And Deus Ex Machina is totally not rewarding for readers who have invested time and pages and mental energy.
Amethyst Adams posted: 14 Apr at 8:52 pm
BookChick,
Like you, I enjoyed the first three books in the saga quite a bit (especially Eclipse), and then came Breaking Dawn, about which I agree with you on all the points you’ve made. But. I wish to add my own.
*I could handle the seeming personality change Edward went through.
*I could handle the vaguely-explained logic behind vampiric impregnation, though it did have me rolling my eyes.
*I REALLY wasn’t happy about it, but I could handle Bella just suddenly being able to use her powers, and not only use them but understand EVERYTHING about them, right in the nick of time.
*What I could not handle was Jacob imprinting on Renessme. I cannot describe to you the level of ’squick!’ this brings me to. “Hey, babe! You’re not gonna have problem later on when you understand I totally used to picture your Moms naked during my ‘alone’ time, are you?” I could be more graphic, but I won’t.
SERIOUSLY? That’s in my Top Five of betrayals.
That said, I want to reiterate how much I enjoyed and admired the first three installments. My having such a visceral reaction to the fourth is purely personal and I do not wish to down Mrs. Meyer for the effort.
Amethyst Adams
Angel Mercury posted: 14 Apr at 9:15 pm
This list needs to be a Lot longer.
She went form being afraid of marriage to being ready to die for her child in an instant. There were no real moments of ‘Wow, this is big, can I actually handle this and vampyness?’ Or what about the lack of any real character or relationship growth. Baby aside, she stays the same needy, can’t live without Edward, child. Neither character really gets past this flaw of overly devoted lover. They just remain in permanent honeymoon phase.
Not to mention most of the book Edward is a whiny wimp who’s too scared to actually do something. I donno, maybe actually take on Rose or something. She’s been a pain of a side character the whole series, make use of that tension that was built.
Back to Edward, after being Mr dazzling super strong, and horrendously over protective of Bella he’s turned into a weakling who does pretty much nothing the whole time except give Bella a rough wedding night and a baby.
What a terrible name! I actually stopped when I read it the first time, I couldn’t believe it. Not to mention the Miracle Baby makes things so easy. She’s already self aware and she pretty much skips through all the phases of life where someone would really need care for her in the span of days. Not to mention Everyone instantly just lovers her. There really can’t be enough said about how poor a plot machine she was. And really the worst was how Meyers used her to just tidy up poor Jacob’s affection for Bella. ‘Of course! I only loved Bella cause she was going to be the one to bare my Soul Mate. Suddenly I’m not sad anymore.’ What a cop out!
Seeing as you’ve already touched on the anti-climactic battle I don’t really need to go into that, but wow was that a let down.
Meyers could have made this an amazing book about Bella rediscovering herself in her new married/college/vampy life. She could have also done what few other urban fantasy type authors have done and shown us what it was like to Be a new born vampire. Particularly one who’s fighting so hard to keep their humanity and not cave to her instinctual desires. Instead she just made Bella Special again.
I started liking the series, was a little worried at book 3. Book 4, well I’m sure you can tell how I felt.
I suggest you read Kim Harrison or Jim Butcher, to name a couple, instead. Much more fulfilling.
Brett Rounsaville posted: 14 Apr at 10:07 pm
You made it further than I did. All of the startling lack of anything happening forced me to stop at book two.
On the upside I just finished the fourth Odd Thomas book by Dean Koontz and was rewarded with a happy respite from reality for a few days! Good ol’ Odd…