Oh, it might do it for some people, it might be exactly what they were looking for. If I could go back in time, knowing everything I know right now, and write the whole series again, I would write exactly the same story.
The writing would be better, though—practice makes perfect. This is the story I wanted to write, and I love Breaking Dawn. Also, that it might be impossible to film. What does that mean? The book is just so long! But maybe a screenwriter can see a way to do it and still cover the crucial plot points.
You can do almost anything with CGI these days—realistic dragons and dinosaurs and endless amounts of nonexistent creatures that blend right in with the real elements.
When I hear or read theories about Bella being an anti-feminist character, those theories are usually predicated on her choices. In the beginning, she chooses romantic love over everything else. Eventually, she chooses to marry at an early age and then chooses to keep an unexpected and dangerous baby. She is a character in a story, nothing more or less. Bella chooses things differently than how I would do it if I were in her shoes, because she is a very different type of person than I am.
But do her choices make her a negative example of empowerment? In my own opinion key word , the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose. That feels backward to me. How is that empowering? Are there rules about if, when, and how we love or marry and if, when, and how we have kids?
To me, those limitations seem anti-feminist in basic principle. Do I think eighteen is a good age at which to get married? Personally—as in, for the person I was at eighteen—no. However, Bella is constrained by fantastic circumstances that I never had to deal with. Is eighteen too young to give up your mortality? For me, any age is too young for that. What are you going to do next? Will you continue with the Twilight universe?
I think I need a break from vampires. What does the cover mean? What does the title mean? What does the Book I prologue refer to? Why the name Renesmee? What happened to Leah? Is Billy actually Ephraim? Why did you decide to end the saga? How do you feel about the Breaking Dawn controversy? Is Bella an anti-feminist heroine? As noted above, it was The Merchant of Venice. The things that are different: Jacob and Bella are not nearly so close.
Due in part to Jacob being a smaller character, the werewolf pack is only sketchily developed. Most of the wolves do not have names. Because of this, there is a lot more emphasis on the pregnancy phase. Laurent stays happily with Irina and sides with the Cullens in the confrontation with the Volturi. It is Victoria rather than Irina who informs on the Cullens to the Volturi.
She creates a new friend, Riley, to make the actual accusation. The wolves kill Victoria. The book an expand their imagination or Okay, I love twilight.
Read the book, watched the film. A must read for any Twilight fan! This is a huge book, I'm surprised how much more detail this book has compared to the orginal Twight book. We ge This website uses cookies. By using this website you agree with our cookie policy which you can review or amend at any time.
Accept Cookies. Home Series Twilight Saga Twilight. Twilight Saga Series by Stephenie Meyer 19 reviews. Main Series Other Titles. Book 1. So many changes so fast. Renesmee not fond of the name That name irritated me even more. I have to admit though it kinda freaked me out at first. I don't blame Bella for wanting to tear him apart.
Like me I don't think she could have ever imagined this happening. This event was so significant. It released all the pain Jacob had to endure by being in love with Bella but knowing she would never be his. At the same time it tied him to her permanently.
He still loved her but in the way it should have always been. He loved her as a friend and nothing more. She loved him as a brother like she always wanted. Everything was as it should be. So in the end the challenge was the Volturi. Changed a child into a vampire when really Renesmee was the biological child of Edward and Bella.
I cried the ugly kind, I was hysterical at a point when Edward and Bella said their quiet goodbyes to their daughter and Jacob when they thought they were about to die. It was heart wrenching. It was so touching when Edward said to Jacob, "Goodbye Jacob, my brother Luckily in the end they were able to conquer because of Bella and her amazing gift to shield everyone she loved from the "special" gifts of the Volturi.
I thought it was wonderful to see Bella so powerful and strong. That for once she was able to be the protector instead of the one being protected. She got to be the savior. This too made the unbreakable bond between her and Edward stronger. Because of her they were able to beat the Volturi and save their daughter that they loved more than anything. Their family was intact. One of my absolute favorite parts there are so many I have to say was at the end when Bella removes her "shield" so Edward can read her thoughts.
Edward was NOT expecting this. Not being able to all this time has driven him mad at times. Especially when it came to Jacob. He always wondered if Bella made the right decision. Now he knows without a doubt that she always loved him and that nothing can or ever will change that. Edward got to experience all the feelings she had for him as far back as she could remember. He can know now without a doubt that they truly belong together.
What a wonderful gift to give Edward. That Bella is one lucky vampire. I was so glad this book had the Happily Ever After ending. Especially after all the horrible things that have occured in the past.
Everything came together beautifully. I loved it. I liked Jacob a lot more in this book in fact I laughed out loud several times at him. I also liked Bella a lot more when she became a vampire. She wasn't as selfish and winey. I wanted to strangle her at times in the other books because of the way she treated Edward and even Jacob. The pain she caused both of them in the past because of her own selfish desires.
Everything for the characters is balanced or in line how it should be in their relationships. I feel closer with the story now which I needed badly. These books totally consumed me to say the least. This was my favorite of the series by far. It was filled with love, suspense, true friendship, loyalty, sorrow, happiness and so much more. I look forward to reading it again!
I don't think I will ever be able to find a series again that has affected me like this. These books are my favorites above all others!
View all 69 comments. Aug 13, James rated it really liked it Shelves: modern-fantasy. Reviewer update Aug I have demoted the book from 5 to 4 stars. This is partly because I was so pleased by it compared to the last two books in the series that I overreacted. But I also approve of her approach to the book and have rated it so highly in order to counteract those reviewers out there who hated it because they felt Bella was a bad example to young girls.
Read some of the reviews on Amazon or GoodReads and you will find a certain type of person who feels that Bella's character fails as a role model for young women today. Because she, gasp, got married and had a child at a young age. Oh, my, what is the world coming to when young people choose eternal love and devotion! Oh that more young women could be more like the implausibly articulate yet utterly selfish lead in the movie Juno! In my favorite example, one reviewer on Amazon claimed it wasn't credible that a girl as young as Bella would feel joy at sensing a baby growing inside her.
Women and men from every culture in every era of history have found a tremendous and peculiar satisfaction in their children. It doesn't matter where you believe this instinct came from, it's real and it manifests millions of times over. Should we be so surprised that Stephenie Meyer would be one of the billions who believe this love to be real?
Read the author's bio and it becomes clear: She was married at 21 before she finished college and had three children while still in her 20s. But one can hardly call her a "failure" for choosing family first. By all standards she's fabulously successful and wealthy. Plus, she has a college degree one of the big beefs some people had with Bella's choice to postpone college.
Are we really surprised that Stephenie would see the world through rose-colored, happiness-prone glasses when her own life is exactly that, deliriously happy? Social polemics aside for a moment. The one thing this book lacked was a satisfying climactic, apocalyptic battle royale between the forces of vampire good and vampire evil. I know this book was intended to cap off a romance series, not The Lord of the Rings but there's a reason books of high fantasy all end in cataclysmic bloodshed.
It takes a conflict of such dramatic proportions to drive the point of a story deep into our minds. And the point of this story, if you weren't too focused on your own family planning to notice it, was worthy of such dramatic punctuation. The real point of this book is that we can and should choose love. That despite our personal weaknesses and faults -- our immature attempts at love and our petty jealousies -- we can make important, permanent decisions that will tie us to other people, making their lives and our lives better in the process.
The battle I propose -- one I hope sees the light of day in a future novel -- would seal Bella's decisions and the decisions of her family and loved ones in a way that would render their commitments real. Their marital love, their parental love, their familial love, and the love of fellowship with others who share their principles.
Some would have to die to preserve the love they have made immortal. Others would have to kill to do the same. Nothing is more final, especially for immortals. But they would do so to symbolize the triumph of their love over the petty dynasty of the Volturi and thus establish a global movement of vampires that respect human life and restrain their selfish hungers in deference to the greater good.
Something that wise humans do every day. Such a symbolic battle would take this series to the next level. But even without it, this book is the best evidence that Meyer wasn't really writing a sloppy romance saga for misty-eyed girls, but was instead telling a story about the eternal power of love and self-denial. I have been properly chided by many of these reviews for overreacting to the "Bella is a bad role model" flack and failing to acknowledge the principal flaw of this book.
Amy said it best below: Meyer shortchanged us by not forcing Bella to face any hard choices. Bella got everything she wanted, including a strange relationship with Jacob. Nobody she loved got hurt -- which was the problem I did mention above -- and she never had to disappoint anyone.
Given that a year has passed, I have some distance on all the whining that went on about Bella not being a protofeminist. As a result, I should own up to the fact that this fourth book fails to deliver not only the climax I hoped for, but the real character crisis and development that a saga of this length should strive for.
Or that we all should strive for in our own lives, to go all metaphysical on you for a moment. So I have demoted the book from 5 stars to 4 and begun to ruminate on the topic of why Meyer -- a woman possessed of such clear imagination -- was unwilling or unable to make Bella's life hard.
Here's what I have come up with, for what it's worth: 1 - Meyer's own life is pretty darn pleasant. Let's be honest, she has everything most people think they want. All of us who struggle to write books that nobody reads desperately wish for her success a fact that generates more than few snippy comments on Goodreads, I might suggest. She has a whole community of women around her who adore her and come to all-night parties when she debuts a book or movie, just to be near her.
In the end, she might make Bella after her own image because she doesn't know that life ultimately requires pain. For those not acquainted with the faith, Mormonism is a faith that believes everything will ultimately be okay.
If not in this life, then in the next. In fact, the whole vampire immortality gig is just a metaphor for the Mormon idea of the afterlife: You get to be with the ones you love forever, without pain. In that way, Bella is a perfect reflection of the ideal Mormon eternity: God forgives us for our idiocy, acknowledges our flawed attempts at love by magnifying them and making them eternal. Though this is only one side of Mormonism -- it's also a faith with sorrowful history of persecution.
Mormons certainly suffer plenty in this life just like everyone else, so this explanation is only true to the extent that Meyer has willingly isolated Mormonism's view of the end state of humanity. This is not only the most obvious but probably the strongest of my three explanations. We're so accustomed to watching James Bond run through the street with machine guns trained on him that never hit their mark that we no longer point out that Bond is completely implausible and ultimately unsatisfying as a character.
But we're not used to reading fiction in which women get everything they want. At least, I'm not. So we get tied up in knots about the lack of deeper meaning and pathos when in reality, Meyer never promised us a garden of sorrow and personal growth.
So even though I have to demote the book, I still feel like the saga was worth reading; both because of the fun I had teasing about its flaws but also because it gives me fodder for worthwhile introspection. Oh, and it connected me to some great commenters who I now follow on Goodreads.
View all 39 comments. Jun 03, SR rated it did not like it Shelves: brain-candy , fantasy-were-shifters , spite-reading , interpersonal , ya , fantasy-vampires. Page - Had her body changed because she was a werewolf? Or had she become a werewolf because her body was wrong? The only female werewolf in the history of forever.
Was that because she wasn't as female as she should be? Okay, it's always been obvious that the only things Smeyer finds important in life are marriage and babies, the younger the better, but what the fuck, y'all.
I am beyond disgusted at this. I'm disgusted at the statement that women who cannot have children are less than female, with the implication that the only point of being a woman is reproduction.
Which is bullshit. Families are great and all, but they are not the be-all-end-all of my double X's, and sterility does not change one's femininity. Yeah, finished - well, meh. You mean to tell me you collect sixty vampires and nearly twenty werewolves-that-aren't in one place, and there isn't so much as a schoolyard rumble?
Come on. Things I liked - uh, Leah. Leah and Seth. Rock on, Clearwaters. These books are crack and have always been crack, but this was the bad crack. That whole mess with chromosomes, and how vampires have 25 and humans have 23 which is why Alice can see their futures but she can't see werewolves' futures because they have 24, and the reason she can't see the bb is because it has the average of Bella and Edward - what the hell is that?
Other than complete and utter pseudo-intellectual laziness? It'd be better if she'd just handwaved it - honestly, it is a novel about vampires and werewolves ; it's FINE if you just throw up your hands and blithely say "Magic! Don't judge. Predictions, for the lulz: -Jacob dies for max angst or imprints on non-Bella because I don't think Meyer has the guts to kill anyone off, honestly -Angela, as joked about in previous books, is revealed to be a witch -Alice is even more awesome and bribes Edward into giving her a Ferrari -Bella doesn't go vamp due to angst -Edward magically turns human and he and Bella get maaaaaarried and live as happy mundanes for the rest of their days -lots of angst and hopefully LOTS of sparkling, because, seriously.
Why are we reading these books again? View all 36 comments. Dec 06, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: united-states , fantasy , young-adult , vampire , paranormal , 21th-century , romance. Divided into three parts, the first and third sections are written from Bella Swan's perspective and the second is written from the perspective of Jacob Black. The novel directly follows the events of the previous novel, Eclipse, as Bella and Edward Cullen get married, leaving behind a heartbroken Jacob.
When Bella faces unexpected and life-threatening situations, she willingly risks her human life and possible vampire immortality. View all 4 comments. Feb 13, Lissa added it. This is a direct quote from Seth, Stephenie Meyer's brother and the person who runs her website. You're not supposed to think about things. Especially not sex. Don't think about sex. Or you will be thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking about. Don't think about boys. Thinking about boys lead This is a direct quote from Seth, Stephenie Meyer's brother and the person who runs her website.
Thinking about boys leads to thinking about holding hands and kissing, which leads to thinking about sex, which is bad. Don't wonder about how babies are made and don't ever wonder where you came from. Clearly you popped out of your mother's vajayjay the instant your parents thought about having a child, like in The Sims 1. No sex involved. Don't wonder if your parents still have sex.
Newsflash: most parents keep having sex after their kids are born. And girls, especially don't think about other girls in the way you should be thinking about boys. I mean If you must think about the thing you're not supposed to think about, it should be about boys. But still, don't think about it. In fact, don't even read these books, because they include boys, and a girl who tries to seduce a boy who - like all good boys - won't do that thing you're not allowed to think about with her.
Because he's the perfect boy. But don't think about him. Because you don't need to think about sex. You don't need to be prepared.
You don't need to know about protection. You don't need to know that some boys only want you for the feelings the magic baby-maker between your legs gives him. This whole 'sex' thing? It just happens. And it doesn't hurt and you'll never regret it and you'll be happy and content forever.
But, uh You don't need to know about it. And when that baby pops out nine months later not like a week, which we have been led to believe and you don't turn into a vampire, don't be disappointed. And for god's sake, don't read these books and then fantasise about having sex with the boy, because even though Meyer wrote him to be the 'perfect' boy, and he's based on one of her own wet dreams, and she has been quoted as saying if Edward or Jacob showed up on her doorstep she would leave her loving husband and three children for either one of them View all 20 comments.
Aug 06, Abby rated it did not like it. Breaking Dawn just might be one of the worst books I have ever read. Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse can stand together as a fairly pleasing, lovable trio. Breaking Dawn seems almost unrelated to the series, like some crazed, over-the-top fan fiction. In the first three books, Stephenie Meyer creates this world of seemingly realistic magic — realistic because it is bound by explainable rules, and the characters within the world have retainable qualities from book to book.
Though New Moon shows how utterly weak and pathetic Bella is sans Edward, it seems a natural progression of her needy personality that was introduced during the development of their relationship in Twilight. It seems as if in Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer ran out of ideas for her characters or else decided to completely remake them and ignore the logistics she created for these magical creatures. It might as well have been named Breaking Rules. Though her aversion to the wedding ceremony is over-done and her self-deprecating attitude by this point is impossibly trite, it seems like the classic Bella.
Oh, and she has also become somewhat reminiscent of a crazed sex-addict. She is annoyed that Edward wants to go out and explore the island with her, snorkeling and hiking and doing fun activities. She would rather just stay in the house and have sex all day, every day, for weeks at a time.
Also defying any sort of logic is the fact that once she realizes she might be pregnant, it is confirmed by the fact that her stomach has a little bulge and she feels the baby kick.
The five-day-old embryo. By the time I finished reading the honeymoon scene, I was having to shut the book to collect myself. I felt my mind had been violated, like Stephenie Meyer had just mind-raped me through nearly pages. I had to force myself to continue reading.
It only got worse. What sort of structure is that? Once Bella becomes pregnant, she ceases to be Bella. Since when did Bella want to be a mom?
Plus, the thing grows at an alarming rate. This image disgusted me. First of all, I would rather not imagine a pregnant 18 year old, married or not. Second of all, the logistics of it bother me. Like oh, of course she gets through 9 months of pregnancy in roughly four weeks. Then the birth — grotesque, disgusting.
Um, sick? I can only hope the movie version of this saga ends with Twilight. I can't imagine them trying to dilute the honeymoon scene, let alone the birthing scene.
I can just picture the awkward energy radiating in the theatre during a movie like this. I wouldn't be surprised if there were nothing but crickets at the end, moviegoers awkwardly shuffling out of the theatre, avoiding eye contact with those they came with. But moving on, how about the lovely celebrity-coupleish name they burden her with? Gag me. I wonder what Stephenie Meyer was even thinking. And to further her perverted, illogical tirade, Stephenie has Jacob imprint on the infant Renesmee.
Of course, how perfect for Bella. She can have Jacob in her life AND have him be happy. Great solution. I would rather he imprinted on Leah. That would have made much more sense. Once Bella becomes a vampire, she continues to remain the exception to every rule while being utterly oblivious to the fact.
You are unusually graceful! Was that jump good? Your mind can block everything out, you have super powers! And oh, you can conveniently use them to protect the ones you love! Is that good? Am I being modest enough? How convenient to the plot that Bella can skip over all the newborn vampire nonsense and just be herself. How convenient that her passions for Edward only intensify.
Who needs human experiences? How convenient that Charlie gets to know the Cullens are not human. How convenient that he happily accepts that two months after giving his daughter away, he already has a grandchild the size of a 3 year old. The whole plot line reminded me of a child who got bored playing the same old story with her Barbies and suddenly decided that Barbie and Ken were going to have a baby, and that baby was born and became a functioning member of the family within two minutes of play time.
I was a little hopeful when the Volturi arrived for what seemed to be an inevitable war. I recalled back to when Bella mentioned something about not being able to imagine the Cullens without their head, Carlisle. I thought for sure Carlisle would make some ultimate sacrifice to save Edward and Bella. In true predictable fashion, Alice returns and saves the day. Pathetic Bella, the damsel in distress, the one who always had to be protected and saved, now the one protecting and saving everyone else.
How convenient. No fighting occurs, Renesmee is assured a life of immortality and will conveniently grow up extra fast for Jacob. Bella and Edward live to have more sex.
Everyone lives happily ever after. View all 28 comments. Jul 24, Teresa rated it did not like it Recommends it for: People that would jump off a bridge just to meet Edward.
It's okay to abandon your parents after graduation literally 2. When a vampire wants to kill you, hide out on a mountain and run for your life while your boyfriend's family fight to protect you. It is the most romantic and beautiful thing in the world when a guy you barely know oils your bedroom window to watch you sleep when you don't even know it.
Beg your boyfriend to screw you over after he asks you to marry him 5. If your boyfriend leaves you forever, it is perfectly understandable to give up on life and stop living.
There is no hope of you moving on, so what's the point of existing in the world? When you have two guys fight over you, choose the more perfect, beautiful, flawless one For me, he's a possessive, controlling asshole. Do not, under any cost, choose the less beautiful, flawed guy. It's okay not to have any aspirations, dreams, and goals for the future. When you have a hot sexy vampire boyfriend, it's okay to give up a promising future to be with him instead.
Make friends at school and then literally ignore them and pretend they don't exist. After all, your life centers around only your smokin' boyfriend.
When you fall in love with someone for their physical attributes or because they smell good, it is considered beautiful, undying, irreversible love. If your precious gem of a boyfriend leaves you, it is alright to become an adrenaline junky, manipulate your friend into helping you conjure up hallucinations, and jump off a cliff months later.
Kiss your best friend in front of your fiance after repeatedly saying you don't have feelings for him. Saved the best for last You still love Meyer? Update: There was this crazy Twilight fangirl the other day who was like," I want to jump off a bridge to meet Edward. Your venom spreaded pretty far. You Edward lovers still think the Twilight series is amazing? View all 27 comments. Aug 04, Ann rated it did not like it.
Dear lord. I cannot believe I wasted my time with this book. The deeper and deeper I got into the absurdness of it all, I realized what it reminded me of: a bad fan fiction.
What the hell was she thinking? Now that I read Meyer's statements more carefully, I realize that she never actually said it was impossible Dear lord. Now that I read Meyer's statements more carefully, I realize that she never actually said it was impossible for a male vampire to impregnate a human girl, just that a female vampire couldn't bear children.
I guess we the readers just jumped to conclusions with that. But regardless, I have never thought of Bella as particularly maternal. So imagine my surprise when the fried chicken she makes one day nauseates her! My reaction: " It can't be! She can't be! It's impossible, damn it! And then shortly after it goes into "Book Two," which is Jacob's point of view. Now, I hated Jacob. I guess it was more dislike, since I don't usually hate things.
But anyways, I was expecting his view to be boring and disappointing. But as we got further into it, I started to have a better understanding of him. It was refreshing to get a glimpse into his mind, to see his feelings. I have always been one of Team Edward before now, so imagine my surprise when I realize that Jacob is now one of my favorite characters!
Seth and Leah are great characters too. Leah really developed--all she needed was to be able to push away from Sam. I have always liked Leah, truthfully. But even though I liked her, I could never truthfully say she had a great personality.
Breaking Dawn changed that. And in Jacob's point of view, we see how badly the pregnancy is affecting Bella--this is also a good part of the book. Too often in fan fiction I see pregnant! Bella having a blissful time. But the pain and misery of it in Breaking Dawn is absolutely wonderful.
A new take on it, I thought, and my opinion of the book increased as I got to that part. But then the book just HAS to go to Bella's point of view again. And shortly after she gives birth also plenty of pain there , she is dying, and Edward has to change her into a vampire quickly. I can't say I like the circumstances for the change, but alright. But the disappointment comes during the change. She mentions the pain, the monstrous fire that keeps licking at her skin and causing her pain at every moment.
But she fails to describe it well--after a while, she's grown used to it. How exactly do you get used to being in a fire? I just don't get that. And one other fact--she stays still throughout the whole transformation. She should be screaming, thrashing about. How did she suddenly become this "strong, silent type? She wakes up, and all her senses have been magnified: the entire world looks different. That's not the disappointment, though. The big disappointment is that there is barely any mention of thirst.
Know why? Because she has this super-self-control that allows her to completely skip the typical YEARS of savageness, the newborn stage! Yes, everyone. She is that awesome. She has become a Mary-Sue. If you don't know what that is, go look it up on Wikipedia now. Is that not enough to convince you of her Sue-ness? Well, as if that's not enough, a little later she discovers that she can protect people with her mind! But that's for later.
Right now, let's rewind a little bit. Remember Bella's kid? Turns out it's a girl. What's her name? You heard right. Try pronouncing that. Correct pronunciation: ruh-NEZ-may. Combo of Renee and Esme. And as if that were not enough, she's nicknamed after the loch ness monster. I mean, most of us want him to eventually get over Bella, right? But the way Meyer does it? It's like, POOF!
The moment he sees Renesmee, Bella vanishes! She was never there! It's laughable. Using such an easy way of getting rid of Jacob. Meyer could've at least spent time on the solution.
Meanwhile, a series of events which I don't feel like explaining happen which lead the Volturi to come to try to kill Nessie.
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