It’s been a while since I have been quite so excited about the release of a book – I think Ellen Emerson White’s Long May She Reign
(the continuation of a series that I read when I was actually a teenager) was the last book I couldn’t wait to get my hands on. So I let my inner 16-year-old girl out for the release of Breaking Dawn, the final book in the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer, and spent an entire day (my birthday, in fact, and an enjoyable birthday it was) just reading.Was I right to get so worked up for this book? Yes… and no. The first three books (well, really just books one and three) totally captivated me. Just the fact that they were able to make me think like a 16-year-old again was a testament to Meyer’s writing. But with all the Twilight talk (both about this new book and the horrible miscasting of the upcoming movie), the book just couldn’t meet the hype.
The biggest problem that struck me was that the story read like fanfiction – stories written by fans who can’t give up on their favorite characters. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some excellent fanfic out there, but I expect a little more from someone so in charge of the story and from something I’m paying money for. Breaking Dawn even adheres to the fanfic tenant that the characters you love the most suffer the most – I mean, Bella has always been a little too clumsy, a little too breakable, but come on… really?
Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed the middle section of the book, told from Jacob’s POV. I was highly pissed off at the end of Eclipse, when the narration slipped to Jacob without warning, but in this case, I was relieved not to be in Bella’s head for a little while. And through Jacob, there was much to learn about the way the La Push pack operates.
Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about the finale. There was so much build up for very little conclusion. But I guess that just means that I’ll have to turn to the real fanfic now to find some more good Twilight stories…
4 comments:
I was extremely disappointed with this book. I never thought that Stephenie was that great a writer, but I loved the stories. Here, she was just a lazy writer.
*spoilers*
I knew that nobody would die and that everyone would get paired off, so there was no suspense reading it. Not that I wanted anybody to die or for her to never see Charlie again, but it was all so easy. Look kids, Bella can have it all. Also, it doesn't really work as well when Bella is a vampire. I did enjoy Jacob's chapters, but I'm going to think of these books as a trilogy.
I haven't yet this yet, but I have to say I was really disappointed with Eclipise.... I just hated what she did with Jacob's character.... so I don't have high hopes for this.
At least in the first two books, she was using allusions to things like Shakespeare! I guess in this book, her only allusions were to hackneyed romance novels.
Kathleen, that's how I felt about Jacob, but I was a little happier with him in this book... for a while. He got really sappy, though, ruining any chance I had at really enjoying his character here.
Halfway through I thought it was going to be brilliant- then, the ending, which was incredibly disappointing. I HATE bad endings.
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