Book #9 - Breaking Dawn
Title: Breaking Dawn
Author: Stephanie Meyer
Um.. wow. Its been about 2-3 weeks since I finished the book. I read it the weekend it came out, I started writing a blog about it, and its taking a while because its long. I really need to shorten it before I post it (I will post it), but I wanted to get some comments up before I forget.
I didn't like it. Not nearly as much as I LOVED the first 3. It read like the kind of fan fiction that I skip over because there is no way it could remotely relate to the books. I don't read much out of cannon, slightly out of cannon is fine, but something with a human pregnant with her vampire lover's baby is something that I wouldn't have considered canon. WOW was I wrong.
I was about 200 pages in and was ready to just give up and hit the internet for spoilers because it was just... that... bad. I was waiting for the 'bad dream' I thought Bella was having to end. But, no. This was no dream, no nightmare, not anything more than the story that was being told. I read on, more out of morbid curiosity than waiting for the story to get better. I was surprised when the story DID get better toward the end, maybe the last 200 pages or so were pretty good.
It ended too perfect, no story ends with a nice bow like this one. One person does NOT get everything they want with little or no sacrifice. Bella has a baby (which she never knew she wanted), becomes a vampire (which she's wanted since she laid eyes on Edward), is NOT a crazed newborn (cause she 'prepared'!), and along with the rest of her vampire family and friends managed to escape certain death (or win a chess match, however you want to look at it) with this newly developed shield power she's got goin on, oh yeah and they live happily ever after. the end. Oh WTF! The way the Volturi was written in New Moon, they don't often just let people walk away without some kind of fight. And here they just turned around (with witnesses!) and said "ok, no one dies today.. lets head back home".. ONE person dies in the book, a character that the readers didn't get a chance to get attached to/hate enough (again, perception of the situation) to care if they died. Although I liked the end of the book as a whole, I didn't like the way this showdown was written up leading to some great climatic battle or something, only to have it not be so much a battle, but a chess match of sorts. I understand it, I get it, I just felt more of a letdown from the buildup.
But, it wasn't so awfully terrible that there was nothing likable about it. I liked that Jacob finally stood up as Alpha and got a mini-pack of his own (I know that packs don't need to have a certain number, but still..). I liked the parts with Jacob and Leah, where we find out more about Leah. I was hoping that something would develop there, but no more than friendship, which is fine, I still liked that part. I also liked the little hunt that Alice had sent Bella on, well, I got to think along with the character to try and figure out what she was supposed to find. I also liked how Bella finally did figure something out on her own, and went about doing what she had to in order to save her daughter. The best line out of the book - "goodbye Jacob, my brother, my son". I didn't like the fact Bella gave birth to a vamp/human hybrid, or the whole Jacob imprinting thing, but that line wasn't about that really. If you look at the broader concept, its about acceptance. Edward had accepted Jacob as a brother, for all the times he's helped the family, and knows that someday he'll marry (*shudder*) his daughter but he knows she'll be safe, and that is what matters, so he accepted it.
And thats really about all, till I post my longer comments on each of the 'big' things that happened.
Author: Stephanie Meyer
Um.. wow. Its been about 2-3 weeks since I finished the book. I read it the weekend it came out, I started writing a blog about it, and its taking a while because its long. I really need to shorten it before I post it (I will post it), but I wanted to get some comments up before I forget.
I didn't like it. Not nearly as much as I LOVED the first 3. It read like the kind of fan fiction that I skip over because there is no way it could remotely relate to the books. I don't read much out of cannon, slightly out of cannon is fine, but something with a human pregnant with her vampire lover's baby is something that I wouldn't have considered canon. WOW was I wrong.
I was about 200 pages in and was ready to just give up and hit the internet for spoilers because it was just... that... bad. I was waiting for the 'bad dream' I thought Bella was having to end. But, no. This was no dream, no nightmare, not anything more than the story that was being told. I read on, more out of morbid curiosity than waiting for the story to get better. I was surprised when the story DID get better toward the end, maybe the last 200 pages or so were pretty good.
It ended too perfect, no story ends with a nice bow like this one. One person does NOT get everything they want with little or no sacrifice. Bella has a baby (which she never knew she wanted), becomes a vampire (which she's wanted since she laid eyes on Edward), is NOT a crazed newborn (cause she 'prepared'!), and along with the rest of her vampire family and friends managed to escape certain death (or win a chess match, however you want to look at it) with this newly developed shield power she's got goin on, oh yeah and they live happily ever after. the end. Oh WTF! The way the Volturi was written in New Moon, they don't often just let people walk away without some kind of fight. And here they just turned around (with witnesses!) and said "ok, no one dies today.. lets head back home".. ONE person dies in the book, a character that the readers didn't get a chance to get attached to/hate enough (again, perception of the situation) to care if they died. Although I liked the end of the book as a whole, I didn't like the way this showdown was written up leading to some great climatic battle or something, only to have it not be so much a battle, but a chess match of sorts. I understand it, I get it, I just felt more of a letdown from the buildup.
But, it wasn't so awfully terrible that there was nothing likable about it. I liked that Jacob finally stood up as Alpha and got a mini-pack of his own (I know that packs don't need to have a certain number, but still..). I liked the parts with Jacob and Leah, where we find out more about Leah. I was hoping that something would develop there, but no more than friendship, which is fine, I still liked that part. I also liked the little hunt that Alice had sent Bella on, well, I got to think along with the character to try and figure out what she was supposed to find. I also liked how Bella finally did figure something out on her own, and went about doing what she had to in order to save her daughter. The best line out of the book - "goodbye Jacob, my brother, my son". I didn't like the fact Bella gave birth to a vamp/human hybrid, or the whole Jacob imprinting thing, but that line wasn't about that really. If you look at the broader concept, its about acceptance. Edward had accepted Jacob as a brother, for all the times he's helped the family, and knows that someday he'll marry (*shudder*) his daughter but he knows she'll be safe, and that is what matters, so he accepted it.
And thats really about all, till I post my longer comments on each of the 'big' things that happened.
posted by Jennifer Imparato | 9:59 AM
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1 comments
