Reviews for Breaking dawn

The average rating for Breaking dawn based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-08-03 00:00:00 Sam Hhhh If you loved Breaking Dawn and don't want to see it criticized, I'll warn you now not to read my review. That being said, let me begin by saying that when I first read Twilight, I was hooked. I read New Moon in one sitting. I awaited the release of Eclipse with great anticipation. Sadly, Eclipse was the beginning of the end. It left me disappointed enough not to have high expectations for Breaking Dawn. Even at that, Breaking Dawn shattered my lowest expectations. I am stunned at the depths to which this once-revered author has plunged! From this point on I will refer to Breaking Dawn as B.D., aka "Bitter Disappointment," or, if you prefer, "Boring Depravity," "Bloody Drama," "Brain Drain," or my husband's personal favorite, "Bloody Diapers". Where do I begin? How about with my least favorite character, Bella? She began the series with a lot of promise. Sure, some people said that she wasn't well defined in the first book, but I never had a problem with her. Throughout New Moon and Eclipse, her character starts to decline. In B.D., Bella becomes intolerable. This girl is unbelievably selfish. She begins the book whining about the beautiful, expensive car Edward bought her. She whines about the wedding preparations, the dress, the ring. Poor thing has to *gasp* marry the man of her dreams! The injustice! She is far more concerned about nameless, faceless people mocking her for getting married young than she is about the happiness of the man she claims to love more than life itself. And her treatment of Jacob! Where to begin? This is a good kid had the misfortune to fall in love with her and though I had issues with his manipulation of her emotions at the end of Eclipse, still, he's a teenage guy and you have to cut him some slack. But come on, Bella! Once she realizes she loves him, but that she loves Edward more, she chooses Edward. Fine. So let the poor guy go! Let him move on with his life! But no, she has to have her cake and eat it too. She hurts both Edward, the one she has chosen, and Jacob, the one she has rejected, by refusing to cut ties with him. She claims to hate herself for hurting him, says at one point that it's "criminal" to injure him as much as she does, but will she love him enough to let him let go and move on? Nope. She wouldn't "feel whole" without him, so she continues to cling to him. Even after she's married. The culmination of this extreme selfish lack of consideration for anyone's feelings but her own is when she slips and refers to the unborn baby as "EJ". Did she even think to consider whether Edward would be happy about having his child named after his rival? No, she just did what she darn well wanted to do, and gave no thought to what Edward would want. Bella has become a tyrant. What Queen Bella wants, Queen Bella must have. Now, a little bit about Edward. He was what made Twilight so magical. He was mysterious, romantic, beautiful, all the many things that the hero of a good book should be. Edward stole the hearts of most of the female readers of this series. Yet, by the time you finish B.D., you find yourself either feeling terribly sorry for him because he chose such a lame heroine, or just contemptuous of him for becoming a doormat, a slave to Bella's whims. I thought I'd scream if I had to hear him say "If it makes her happy, I'll do it, even if it's not what's best for her" one more time. In B.D., the author sends the message through Edward that love and blind devotion are the same thing. They aren't. Truly loving someone isn't giving them free reign to stomp all over you and everything in their path, just because they think it will make them happy. Real love encompasses the occasional appropriate guidance of the loved one away from self-destructive desires toward a better way. But here, we are taught that if you love someone, you let them have what they want, all the time, without exception. As for the story development, my greatest frustration is that the author created a very intricate world, complete with detailed descriptions of what could and could not happen in it. Then she decided not to play by these rules. Yes, I am referring to the sudden and inexplicable ability of a vampire to father a child. This felt very contrived and unbelievable, and introduced such a bizarre, nightmarish chain of events that I could hardly believe I was reading the story that began as Twilight. This baby feeds on the blood of its mother and slowly sucks her life away? Bella has to drink human blood, while she's still human, to save her life and the life of her child? And she LIKES IT? This is the same, human Bella that turned green and almost passed out while doing blood typing in Biology class, right? Okay, I could see that her aversion to blood was going to go away after becoming a vampire. But while she was still human? Really? I felt sick the whole time I read about her drinking gallons of blood a day to sustain the child. Bleh. I still don't get the whole scene where Edward asks Jacob to offer to make babies with Bella. What?!? Again, is this the author's attempt at showing us the extent of true love? It was twisted and disturbing. And the delivery of the baby…that was just plain disgusting. Bella vomiting gallons of blood, her bones snapping right and left, blood vessels popping in her eyes, Edward biting into her womb to get the baby out, and the tender moment when mommy sees baby for the first time is marred by said baby taking a bite out of her mommy. Ick! And I'll just join the legions of people who are saying, "RENESMEE?!?" You've got to be kidding. This from the author who tastefully chose names like Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Alice…why didn't she just name her "Brangelina" or "TomKat"? Or "Bedward?" I will also join the protests against Jacob imprinting on Bella and Edward's daughter. I could see when the concept of imprinting was introduced that it would be the author's way of making a happy ending for Jacob at the end of the story, and that was fine. I like a happy ending, and of course I wanted to see Jacob happy. But are we so inflexible that we can't be happy with Jacob imprinting on a nice, new girl to the story? No, Bella must have her way. She can't be happy without Jacob as a part of her life. And we're supposed to feel happy and satisfied that she gets her way in the form of Jacob as her son-in-law? How is that a happy ending? At the top of my list of grievances is the destruction of the message that was communicated so clearly in the first three books. Once Bella falls in love with Edward, she is confronted with some very difficult choices. If she wants to be with Edward, she must choose to leave human life behind her and become a vampire. The value of Eclipse was that it forced Bella to look long and hard at what she was choosing if she decided to become a vampire. She would have to cut ties with her human life…her mother, father, and everyone human that mattered to her. She could never have children of her own. She would have to deal with the bloodlust of being a newborn vampire. She would spend a significant amount of time developing the self-control and restraint that the rest of the Cullens had achieved. One of the most compelling elements of the first three books is Edward's angst, his agonizing about the state of his soul as a vampire. He grieves what he sees as the loss of his soul. This is at the heart of his great reluctance to change Bella, the reason for his disappearance in New Moon. All the vampires who have chosen not to feed on humans hate what they have become. They are conflicted about who they are. None of them who remember life as a human can say with conviction that they wouldn't go back if they could. Bella has to confront all of this and choose to sacrifice the value of her humanity for the love she feels for Edward. All of this is well and good and presents a very thought-provoking storyline. Then, in B.D., every one of these issues is neatly sidestepped in order to create an obstacle-free path to a happily-ever after ending for Queen Bella. First of all, from the moment she opens her eyes as a newborn vampire, everything is better. The world shimmers. She experiences everything so much more intensely, things are more beautiful, more colorful, more wonderful. What's not to love about being a vampire? Within minutes, she is exhibiting the self-control that everyone else took decades to achieve. And how about the whole I-have-to-have-sex-before-I-become-a-vampire-because-all- my-human-emotions-will-be-gone-for-awhile? Nope! Not only does she still experience all the emotions and passions she had as a human, but they are intensified! By the time we're finished reading about Bella's new life as a vampire, we have to wonder why anyone wouldn't want to be a vampire. All the build-up for Bella to grow and mature through sacrifice and self-denial, wiped away. So much better for her not to have to suffer through that stuff, right? And she manages to get immortality and a baby, to boot. We have to wonder if everyone who claimed that becoming a vampire was a serious, heavy choice was just delusional. The nobility of the message is sacrificed in order to create a neat, happy ending for everyone. I haven't seen much, if any, speculation on what the cover of the book is trying to communicate to the reader, so here's my take. The big white queen is, you guessed it, Queen Bella, the white vampire. The red pawn is you (or I), the blood-red reader, about to be sucked dry in the wake of the Queen's destruction. Beware! I wish Stephenie Meyer had ended with Twilight or at least an extended version of New Moon. I think I'll be hauling my copies of the last three to the local library as a donation and trying to just enjoy Twilight for what it was before the rest of this mess came into play.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-08-15 00:00:00 Brian Bolig oh yes, so VERY many spoilers! and unladylike language, sorry. p.1: god help me. Here we go. p.8: yep, Edward is already "going overboard" protecting Bella. p.20: Her parents think it's a good idea for her to marry this weirdo at 18? They never think ANYTHING is a good idea. p.33: Vampire babies! creepy! in a good way. p.58: Jacob! p.72: I swear Bella never just goes anywhere, you always have to DRAG her like a toddler. p.85: I think they just had sex!! OMG!! p.86: now of course we have to suffer through pages and pages of Edward being "guilty" which means basically he is an asshole. p.108: she MAKES him have sex with her again, on their HONEYMOON. What a slut. p.121: oh, please no. Don't be pregnant. p.123: God dammit. p.124: The pregnancy is already showing??? huh? p.132: Edward cold and furious for the 1985674th time p.145: Jacob POV! p.151: This whole thing with the imprinting on a two-year old is just so fucked up. p.153: However, "I'd seen Quil play peekaboo for an hour straight without getting bored"--HAHAHA! p.174: Oh, I get it, the vampire baby grows really really fast! And also: EW. p.177: Edward racked with guilt for the 7893902057th time. p.274: GAH! It broke her rib?? I am NEVER getting pregnant. Ever. p.327: Haha, she wants to name it either Edward (of course) or..."Renesmee"? Really? No, really??? Oh please let it be a girl. p.333: I hope we see this red-haired chick again; I like her. p.350: OH MY GOD. I know I said "ew" before, but I truly had no idea. EW EW EW EW EW. p.353: I am still horrified, but HAHAHAHA! RENESMEE!! Awesome. p.354: Wow, I really didn't think she would actually have Bella become a vampire! p.360: THIS HAD BETTER NOT BE WHAT I THINK IT IS, THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY. p.377: So apparently becoming a vampire feels like the worst torture imaginable, ever ever, but she's not going to scream because it might upset Edward. p.405: Well, thank god she is able to find a flaw in her looks even though she's a goddesslike beauty now. It just wouldn't be Bella if she didn't hate herself. p.409: Bella is the most gracefulest, loveliest vampire ever! She can even walk in heels now! p.420: Really, she is THE MOST AMAZING VAMPIRE THAT HAS EVER EXISTED. Everyone is very impressed. p.449: Oh lord, it WAS what I thought it was. Okay, so you are a teenage werewolf, and you form an unbreakable soul bond with the HALF-VAMPIRE DAUGHTER of the girl you have been in love with forever, who is ALSO now a vampire, and married to another vampire with disturbing rage issues, and you know you are going to marry this VAMPIRE BABY when she grows up (I suppose she doesn't have any choice in this), so how do you feel? Fulfilled, apparently. So what is going to happen to Leah now? I thought she and Jacob might end up together, but of course that wouldn't be DISTURBING ENOUGH, would it. Maybe she and her brother can get married or something. p.463: Waitaminute. If Renesmee (heh!) is growing that fast, does that mean...? Probably she'll be married to Jacob in a couple weeks. p.474: Bella is relieved that even though she's a vampire now, her "essential core traits" of being a killjoy and a whiner are still intact. p.485: Hee! Edward is a much better musician than the rest of his family, because while he was practicing, and reading about science, and learning languages, they were too busy having sex all the time! For real! Because vampires never get tired, so they never have to stop! Awesome. Apparently they also can only have sex if they're married. p.504: Coldly furious. p.532: Coldly furious. p.567: This entire series encapsulated in one sentence: "Wasn't shielding her more important than answering her questions?" p.586: Wouldn't it make more sense to explain first, and THEN show them the vampire baby? p.602: This whole thing about the different vampire powers is cool! p.608: AWESOME. There is a fat vampire who is beautiful and the leader of her clan! p.611: HAHAHA "someone is going to have to provide an index* (*see page 756)" p.612: Huh. New word. "ferine" adj. Untamed; feral. p.704: Coldly furious. p.736: Oh good, so Renesmee should be able to get married by age seven and avoid the extra ten years of tedious waiting to be joined with her soulmate. p.753: "No one's ever loved anyone as much as I love you." Yeah, yeah. p.755: THE END. Okay, it started out pretty horrifyingly, but I enjoyed the last third or so. I still think Edward has no personality, but I guess that's what some people like. And the red-haired girl never showed up again. Boo.