Review: Breaking Dawn, Pt. III

Friday, September 5, 2008

Annnnnd... I'm back. Sorry again for such a short post the other day, I was just exhausted and I was posting that at the wee hours of the morning as it were. Also, as many of you have heard, the east coast is being hit pretty hard by storms, so I've been making preparations.

Anyhow, I'm back now for round two, part II of Part III (wow, that's a mouthful. Say that five times fast.) Enjoy! If you haven't read part I of my review for Book III: Bella, check here.

Book III: Bella

Things I loved:

-Edward teaching Bella how to hunt and his amazement.

- "'You nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness Monster?' And then I lunged for his throat." Hilarious.

- When Renesmee is recounting her thoughts for Bella. "Or the song Edward had crooned to her that was so perfect Renesmee played it for me twice; I was surprised that I was in the background of that memory, perfectly motionless but looking fairly battered still. I shuddered, remembering that time from my own perspective." ... a new melody! yay!

- The cottage. I love love love that they have their own home. I'm all for privacy. Which brings me to a few quotes I adored:

"He ducked down and yanked me up into his arms so fast that I didn't see it coming- and that was really something. 'Hey!'...'Thresholds are part of my job description,' he reminded me."



"Edward had always thought that he belonged to the world of horror stories. Of course, I'd known he was dead wrong. It was obvious that he belonged here. In a fairy tale. And now I was in the story with him."

"I sighed. My baby, the sea serpent."

"We're going to tell Alice that I ran right to the clothes," I whispered, twisting my fingers into his hair and pulling my face closer to his. 'We're going to tell her I spent hours in there playing dress-up. We're going to lie.' He caught up to my mood in an instant, or maybe he'd already been there, and he was just trying to let me fully appreciate my birthday present, like a gentleman. He pulled my face to his with a sudden fierceness, a low moan in his throat. The sound sent the electric current running through my body into a near-frenzy, like I couldn't get close enough to him fast enough. I heard the fabric tearing under our hands, and I was glad my clothes, at least, were already destroyed. It was too late for his. It felt almost rude to ignore the pretty white bed, but we just weren't going to make it that far....I could really appreciate him now - could properly see every beautiful line of his perfect face, of his long, flawless body with my strong new eyes, every angle and every plane of him. I could taste his pure, vivid scent on my tongue and feel the unbelievable silkiness of his marble skin under my sensitive fingertips. He was all new, a different person as our bodies tangled gracefully into one on the sand-pale floor."



Side note again: I literally laughed out loud that she was wondering when they would have to stop and actually do stuff. Haha, must be good to be a vampire. Hell, if I was Bella, Edward would be my personal sex machine, too. lol Though did anyone else realize that almost every scene ends with Bella- Edward- sexy time?

- "What were you doing last night? Discussing the national debt?" HAHA

- "I'm sure you'll ace your classes...apparently there's nothing interesting for you to do at night besides study."




- I really like Vladimir as a character. I think he's really interesting. I also think it's hilarious when Jacob says "They're the good guys, they're here to help, they're going to save us all. Etcetera, etcetera. Say what you want, I think Dracula One and Dracula Two are creep-tacular."

- The one part that really pulled at my heart strings:

"I love you," I told her. "More than anything."
"I love you, too, Momma," she answered. She touched the locket at her neck, which now held a tiny photo of her, Edward and me. "We'll always be together."
"In our hearts we'll always be together," I corrected in a whisper as quiet as a breath.

and then on p. 722

"Renesmee reached for Edward, and he took her in his arms. They hugged each other tighly. "This is what you kept from me?" he whispered over her head. "From Aro, " I breathed. "Alice?" I nodded. His face twisted with understanding and pain. Had that been the expression on my face when I'd finally put together Alice's clues? .... Edward kissed Renesmee's forehead and both her cheeks, then he lifted her to Jacob's shoulder."


- " Edward took my hand. He knew that he was included. When I said my fate, there was no question that I meant the two of us. We were just halves of the whole." Love that last line - halves of the whole. Perfect.

- "And I half- climbed the giant russet wolf to rip my daughter off his back and then crushed her to my chest. Edward's arms were around us in the same second. "Nessie, Nessie, Nessie," I crooned. Jacob laughed his big, barky laugh and poked the back of my head with his nose. "Shut Up," I mumbled. "I get to stay with you?" Nessie demanded. .... "Forever," Edward echoed in my ear. I couldn't speak anymore. I lifted my head and kissed him with a passion that might possibly set the forest on fire."



- I love that Bella can now let Edward hear her. It was such a sweet moment. Edward + Bella = "Forever and forever and forever."

Things I hated:

- Did anyone else feel that the whole Bella-jumping-over-the-river scene was done purely to tie in the movie? I sure did and it kinda annoyed me.



- "You shouldn't be able to do any of this. You shouldn't be so...so rational. You shouldn't be able to stand here discussing this with me calmly and coolly. And, much more than any of that, you should not have been able to break off mid-hunt with the scent of human blood in the air. "

That's right, Edward. Bella shouldn't have been able to, but then again when Meyer's breaking the rules... hell, why not break all of them? Meyer's thought process while writing Breaking Dawn: "Let's see how much crazy shit I can get away with in the book without my editor telling me anything. Oh, haha, how silly of me... he's not going to say anything because I'm Stephenie Meyer, bitch and I bring in the big bucks!" ... Speaking of which, didn't I read somewhere that they did not want to publish Breaking Dawn, but Meyer pushed and pushed for it, so they finally gave in. Perhaps that's the reason they couldn't afford to get a good editor seeing as how there are like 1,000 mistakes in the book (both grammatical and plot).

On another note, I don't care how much time Bella has had to think over being a vampire, her newborn qualities are innate with transformation. She is supposed to be giving into her primal side because that's just part of her make up now, instead we get a super sexified Bella who can walk around like she's taking a stroll down Park Avenue. We get a Bella that can apparently manipulate her emotions and qualities at will. That's almost as illogical as getting a lion out of the wild and saying "Ok, now I'm going to release the lion into society and see what happens." Um, no. That lion is wild and untamed, there's no way, NO WAY, that the lion would be able to control itself. Bella is fresh from transformation, there's absolutely no way she would be able to do the things she's doing no matter how much time she's had to think over her decision. Sorry, but no.

- Super fast growing Renesmee? Creeeeeepy. A baby who remembers her birth? Creepy. A toddler who speaks like they are 20 years old? Even creeepier.

- Jacob imprinting on Renesmee? That's going to be such a great convo when she's older. "Hey Nessie, you know I used to be in love with your mom, I even tricked her into making out with me, but hey it's cool cause I love you!" Good times.

- On a side note. I forgot to mention this in the last post. Wouldn't the transformation process have started when Edward bit through Bella's skin to get Renesmee out? If so, why wasn't she screaming in pain almost immediately? Not to mention, Edward ripping through her skin mustn't of been the most pleasant of experiences, so why is she so calm when looking at Renesmee for the first time?

- Yet another big bow: As I said before, I wasn't crazy about the fact that Meyer let Bella get everything out of life with no sacrifice other than giving up her mortality. So when Jacob tells Charlie (or rather shows Charlie), I got extremely annoyed. I think it is ridiculous that he knows (or at least has an idea.) Honestly, it's absurd. And how convenient that now that Charlie has somewhat an idea of what's going on, he suddenly "doesn't want to know specifics." So Bella gets out of confronting Charlie, which is something she really doesn't want to do. Yet again, Bella gets off the hook. Awesome.

- "Renesmee could speak with flawless grammar and articulation, but she rarely bothered, preferring to simply show people what she wanted." The fact that Nessie doesn't want to speak is just so aggravating to me. That coupled with the fact that the baby already looks older, speaks like she's 20 and can even read... at 3 months... is just so over the top.

- In many ways, I felt like too much was going on in this book. The wedding, the pregnancy, the wolves, the transformation, Nessie growing up and then when I thought nothing else could happen suddenly The Volturi are coming to kill them all! Too much. Way too much.



- I hated that Alice left. Point blank. I hated it.

- Hated that Alice sent Bella on this wild goose chase for absolutely no reason at all.

- Edward please stop being a pussy and teach your wife how to fight! She's a vampire, not a Barbie doll.

- P. 633 - Since when does Bella refer to her dad as "Charlie" to his face?

- Eleazar. Oh, Eleazar. Let's introduce a character for the sole purpose of getting Bella to realize her power with absolutely no effort on her part. AWESOME!

- For that matter, let's just introduce a thousand different characters at the very end of the novel for absolutely no reason.

- Which brings me to my next point: The Volturi Showdown. Or lack there of. Meyer builds, and builds, and builds up this epic battle between the Volturi and the rest of the vampires and then at the very last minute, after Garrett's impassioned speech and we are all on the edge of our seats, Meyer goes "haha! Just kidding! Fooled you all!" Terrible. Just terrible.

- Oho! Suddenly there are more half-vampires in the world! Can we say COP - OUT?

- Suddenly, the wolves are all connected by the Alpha? Cop out?

- And we have arrived at my favorite illogical part in Book III. The werewolves are suddenly SHAPE SHIFTERS? WHAT? And Edward knew all along? What? Then please tell me, why he keeps referring to them as werewolves throughout the whole series. Please tell me why he gives Bella a huge sermon about "young werewolves" after his return in New Moon? Why all of this when suddenly they are "shape shifters"? I'll tell you why. Three words: Big Red Bow.

- " Goodbye, Jacob, my brother... my son." Son? Your former enemy is now your son?? No. Just no.

- The anti-climatic ending in general. Such a disappointment!

All in all, Breaking Dawn was not my favorite of the series. I think the Twilight series should have been a trilogy. However, since it's not, I have to say Breaking Dawn was... decent. It's not great, but it's not 100% terrible either. Whilst it had a lot of bad parts, it still had some good ones and therefore we shouldn't just write it off.

I still think it reads like fan fiction in many parts. I also think that Meyer lets Bella take the easy road, which is a bit disappointing. In terms of her writing, I think that her working on The Host, Midnight Sun and Breaking Dawn all at the same time probably took away from the quality of her writing, which is a true shame. But alas, no use crying over spilled milk! We all love a happy ending and we got one.



The Cullen's are alive, Jacob imprinted, Charlie is happy, Bella and Edward are going to be together forever...And they all lived happily ever after.


Rating for Breaking Dawn: B-

Next book to be reviewed: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Play list will be up later on. EDIT: Here it is!




Also: Drunk girl harasses Robert Pattinson

WHO DOES THAT? I feel so bad for him. It's almost painful to watch. Fan girls: Control yourselves! Seriously.

4 COMMENTS
  1. "Edward please stop being a pussy and teach your wife how to fight!"

    THANK YOU! Excellent point... if he could hear others' thoughts, he'd know there was no malintention; rather, they were trying to prepare her. Stop being a douche and help your wife out... you're not going to hurt her any more, she's a newborn vampire for goodness sakes.

    "The anti-climatic ending in general. Such a disappointment!"

    I hated that Stephenie Meyer said in her FAQ that she didn't want a Macbeth ending with everyone dead at the end. (Side Note: Shakespeare's works, which do not all have red-bow endings, have endured for roughly 400 years.) Although I like Meyer's books as easy reading, they're not likely to be thriving still some 400 years from now, maybe she should take a note from the Bard's book and write a tough ending every once in awhile... life doesn't always end happily.

    Posted on September 8, 2008 at 9:18 AM

     
  2. I don't think Stephenie is on the same caliber as Shakespeare. She's more like fun, light reading, but yes, I would have liked some sacrifices other than Irina (which no one cares about). Though I will admit, if one of the Cullen's would have died, I think I might have as well! lol

    Like I said, it all felt too easy and I think having a build up that really leads to nothing at all is a poor build up of plot. The lack of conflict was a bit of a disappointment. I know a lot of people think that E+B deserve an easy resolution, but here's a lesson in Creative Writing 101: conflict is everything! When writing the final novel in a series, you should write it so that the characters are actually actively working towards having a happy ending...one they actually have to fight for...fight harder than they ever have before! Meyer builds up a perfectly good battle, one were Bella and Edward have to fight for their lives and the life of their daughter, and then she let's them off the hook. Can you imagine if the battle would have actually taken place? If characters (hell, she introduced a ton of random ones why not kill some of those)had died and E + B had somehow survived... Can you imagine how happy we would have all been? I know I would have been completely elated and we all would have said "wow, that was a good ending." Like I said... in a series, where the characters are constantly battling obstacles, it is disappointing that, in the final novel, the obstacle is virtually null, but oh well. It is what it is! Thanks again for the comment.

    Posted on September 8, 2008 at 10:00 AM

     
  3. GL_Vicki Said,

    I, like you read the entire saga in a week (well 4 days to be exact) and have since then re-read the books. Maybe I missed it in the three times I have read Breaking Dawn but didn't Edward chew open the Placenta? I thought she had already been cut open with a scalpel. Never-the-less, that part was gory. Alas, I am still obsessed with Edward too.

    Posted on September 8, 2008 at 2:44 PM

     
  4. roro19 Said,

    I wholeheartedly agree with all of your points/comments for Breaking Dawn.

    I loved Twilight & the little that I saw of Midnight Sun. I was divided on New Moon & Eclipse, but I really cannot stress how much I disliked Breaking Dawn. I'm all for happy endings but this one takes it to a whole new level. Some of the things that really gave me a bad taste:

    Volturi: I was really hoping for more of a showdown with the Volturi too. It was such a copout in the end. I mean with all the fight descriptions with James & Victoria, I had high hopes that Stephanie would take it to the next level with the Volturi.

    Wedding/Honeymoon: I loved certain parts of it, I was mad that Jacob had to go up & ruin shizz but I too was confused by Renee's all too easy approach about it all. Most of all, I disliked that we didn't get a lot of description of sexy time with Edward. We have all been waiting for that moment. I envisioned romantic descriptions & sappy lines that all serious romantics dream of. What do I get? Bella having the worst morning after ever. Edward finally gets her to marry him, but refusing to give into what he wants & definitely what Bella wants. Where is the compromise people?

    Pregnancy: I hated that Bella got pregnant. I thought it was such a terrible way to take the story for so many reasons. Why even bother talking about the contents of her luggage i.e. lingerie, tampons but no safe sex precautions? I mean they are both virgins, he is a vampire, but still safety first!
    Also, I HATED with such a passion Edward's reaction to the pregnancy. This is not dreamboat Edward. This is ugly Edward. I don't like reading about Edward's ugly side beacuse guess what? He doesn't have one! The childbirth description was so gory it was beyond disgusting.

    Jacob imprinting on Reneesmee. Enough said.

    Reneesmee being Nessie, the thought processes & weird accelerated growth. Not right at all.

    I was disappointed with this book. It had a lot of potential but I really felt that there were too many wrong turns & Stephanie just couldn't get it all back together.

    I hope they don't make this into a movie, but I think Twilight is going to be successful with the Thanksgiving box office & the huge fan following it already has, so I am definitely worried. I have had some visual problems with the choices that they made with casting, but I think Rob Pattinson, is going to be a good Edward from the little I have seen with the interviews & trailers.

    Posted on September 15, 2008 at 3:53 PM

     

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