August 2nd, 2008. Midnight. Yes, like all of you, I was eagerly awaiting my copy of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. I paid for my book, ran to my car, hurried home and proceeded to spend the next day reading.

Today, it is officially the one month anniversary of the books release and I've decided to finally put my thoughts down since I've now had time to really reflect on how I feel about the end of my beloved series.

My initial reactions (August 3rd, 2008): At first, all I could think about, through all 754 pages, was how fan fiction-y the book was. Once I saw that Book II was in Jacob's perspective things began looking bleak in my own little Edward-is-God world.

I was desperate for Book II to be over and be back in Bella's perspective with swoon worthy Edward moments (which I was positive there would be more of in Book III in comparison to Book I.) In general, I was not a fan and I swore it off for a while before deciding to give it another chance.

Those were my initial thoughts. It is only fair that I inform you of them so that you may see where my purgative has changed and were it has remained ever fixed.

I have now taken the liberty of breaking down, Breaking Dawn after a month of reflection. Here are my loves and hates. Enjoy!

BOOK I: Bella

Things I love:

- "I looked into Edward's shining, triumphant eyes and knew that I was winning, too. Because nothing else mattered but that I could stay with him. I didn't realize I was crying until it was time to say the binding words. "I do," I managed to choke out in a nearly unintelligible whisper, blinking my eyes clear so I could see his face. When it was his turn to speak, the words rang clear and victorious. "I do," he vowed. Mr. Weber declared us husband and wife, and then Edward's hands reached up to cradle my face, carefully. as if it were as delicate as the white petals swaying above our heads.... He kissed me tenderly, adoringly; I forgot the crowd, the place, the time, the reason... only remembering that he loved me, that he wanted me, that I was his."


.... Perfection. That's all I can really say about that. I felt like my heart was about to burst of happiness when I read that whole section. Truly.



Also really loved how satisfied Edward sounded when he was introducing Bella as his wife to Tanya. I will admit that I wish that Tanya would have played a bigger role in this book because, you know, she's been building it up since Twilight, but oh well. C'est la vie. At least, we had this truly perfect wedding, which brings me to my other favorite moment:

"Dancing isn't so bad - with you. But I was thinking more of this" - and I pressed myself to him even tighter - "of never having to let you go." "Never," he promised, and he leaned down to kiss me. It was a serious kind of kiss - intense, slow but building...I heard Alice call, "Bella! It's time!"... Edward ignored her; his lips were hard against mine, more urgent than before. My heart broke into a sprint and my palms were slick against his marble neck.... Edward turned his face slightly to murmur, "Go away, Alice," and then pressed his lips to mine again....Alice growled quietly, "I'll tell her where you're taking her, Edward. So help me, I will."... "You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating."

::swoon::



- Bella waking up crying and Edward finally giving into her after being so distant! Praise the mighty and holy E! He finally came to his senses. Thankfully the morning after that was better than the first ( see: bullet point 5 in Things I hate.)



Things I hate:

-I felt that Renee being so cool with Bella's engagement was a cop out. Renee, who throughout the whole series, is worried about how serious Bella is about Edward is now suddenly cool with the idea of her only child getting married at 18? No freak out? Only excitement and joy? I think not. This was only the first of many many instances of characters acting "out of character."

- When, in Meyer's dizziest daydream, would Alice not have made Bella look at herself in the mirror before her wedding? Alice Cullen, who is obsessed with shopping, who primmed Bella for hours and hours before prom and thrives off of people being astonished by her handy work (i.e. Bella's astonishment at her make-over at Prom). In what surreal universe would Alice have ever made the faux pas of not making Bella look at herself before her own wedding? Never ever would Alice have made that mistake.

- Jacob being angry and meddlesome at the wedding. Self explanatory.

- "Isle Esme"... can we say fan fiction?



- Alice packing for Bella. Tampons: check. Lingerie: check. Condoms: uh-oh. Birth control: double uh-oh.

- The lack of even the smallest bit of Bella-Edward love session. Let's all face it... that's really all we've wanted for the last few years. Edward sexy time. What do we get? Non-sex. (to quote Touj0ursPur.)

- Speaking of non-sex, what do we get in turn? A horrible, horrible, horrible morning after. Oh dear, can I tell you how absolutely terrible I felt for Bella? I hated that Edward was ruining the moment. I mean, I get that he was worried and frustrated, but c'mon this is supposed to be the most romantic morning of your life and here you are arguing? UH! Not good.



- Edward has two medical degrees. Not one, but two. Yet he suggests going to the mainland to have Bella checked out by a doctor? What? What's that? That's right, illogical-ness.

- Edward being upset and angry that Bella is pregnant. I understand it, but again I wish he would have reacted much more swoon worthy.

- Speaking of Bella's pregnancy.... why, oh why, is she pregnant?! One of the things that made this series so beautiful was the fact that Bella was giving up her mortality in order to achieve this higher love with Edward. Her willingness to give up her family, her friends, her future to be with him was one of the resounding elements of the series. It almost felt, to use another reviewer's words, as if Meyer was trying to package this series up with a nice big bow. A lot of the elements that made this series as interesting and inspiring were lost in this novel such as questions of mortality, the afterlife, life and death, love and sacrifice and right from wrong. It's a true shame since those were so prevalent in Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.


Pt. 2 will be posted tomorrow. Thanks for reading.


Play list for Book I:



P.S. Enjoy! Click to enlarge:

2 COMMENTS
  1. I concur with your examples of out of character behavior. I most ardently support your final dislike of the book--the pregnancy. The beauty of Bella becoming a vampire was her sacrifice of humanity (what was the reason for the two-book set up of that sacrifice if it was moot and she still got to have her family?). To make the situation worse (in my opinion), Stephenie Meyer's FAQs on her website talk about how Bella's right to make choices is what makes her a role model/character in the feminist movement--but that rationale is meaningless if there was no real choice made (she got to keep in touch with her dad, Jacob, have a baby).

    Posted on September 3, 2008 at 12:27 PM

     
  2. Absolutely. I'll be touching on Charlie tomorrow. Check back! :)

    Thanks for reading!

    Posted on September 3, 2008 at 5:48 PM

     

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