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 | Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Binding: Hardcover
Released: 2008-08-02
Sales Rank: 1
ISBN: 031606792X
Edition:
Cover
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 2008-08-19 - Patti's Review of Breaking Dawn
CAUTION! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
While I thought Breaking Dawn, the fourth and last book of the Twilight saga, was good I didn't think it was great. The book seemed to lack the fire and the passion the first three have, and that made the story seem flat. Some things, like the wedding, happen too soon while some things should not have happened at all, such as Bella having a baby. I felt the whole pregnancy and giving birth threw Bella into adulthood much too quickly, especially afte she spent the first three books behaving immaturely and selfishly.
One thing that I thought would happen but didn't was a showdown with the Volturi. I expected a fight been the ancient guardians of the vampire secret and the Cullent family. Instead, we are given a mental showdown that is won by Bella, the newest and least experienced vampire. Bella being the heroine seemed to deviate from Meyer's characterization of her in the other three books. Suddenly Bella's self-consciousness and low self-esteem have vanished and are replaced with a confident, almost mature Bella. While I fully expected some things, like Bella's clumsiness to disappear, I did not expect a total personality change. After becoming a vampire, the Bella we either loved or hated in the first three books is gone, and that was a bit of a disappointment.
I also did not like how passive Edward seemed in Breaking Dawn when in the previous books he was a passionate man of action. He almost seemed like a wimp this time around. This is especially evident in his willingness to let Rosalie be in charge of Bella during the pregnancy. Edward just sat around and stared out the window a lot. Totally out of character for him.
I did like the maturity and sense of humour Meyer gave Jacob Black. I felt that was a real improvement over the his immaturity in the second and third books. However, I didn't like his seemingly increased need for Bella and his inablility to just leave. It felt like he was on a yoyo, moreso than in the other three books.
Finally I felt the overall plot was way too unrealistic based on the other three books. In the first three, Meyer did an excellent job of making it seem totally possible that vampires and werewolves could exist in our society today. But in Breaking Dawn she moves away from the sense of reality into the unbelievable fantasy, and that seems to weaken the plot. Events happen that are so far out of the realm of possibility that it border on the ridiculous. The book is also lacking subplots that help to keep the reader's interest and create twists in the main plot. This book moved straight from point a to point b with no deviation, no surprises that keep you on the edge of your seat.
Inspite of my disappointment in some elements of the book, I did enjoy reading it and ultimately having what I wanted to happen happen. I do recommend Breaking Dawn to readers 13 and older. Any younger and I think the reader would be too weirded out by some of the things that happen.
 2008-08-19 - I loved it!
This is not the genre that I normally read and I will admit I did not see all the hype with the whole series until I started to read them. I was sucked it to this world that I would love to be a part of. The interaction between all the characters is great and it gets better and better.
The worst part about Breaking Dawn is the fact that it ended! I loved this conclusion because it gave you such a feeling of happiness and hope that Bella and Edward would indeed be together forever. It is the modern day Romeo and Juliet that will become a classic with every generation that reads it. It is truly magical.
 2008-08-19 - Disappointing
I really enjoyed the first three books in this series and I was really looking forward to reading "Breaking Dawn" Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The book starts off well in the first few chapters but it just goes downhill from there.
Bella and Edward should have been enough for each other. They did not need to have a child to "complete" them. If this was truly an epic love story, then Bella and Edward would have been enough for each other.
The climax, well, there really was no climax. No excitement just a whole lot of characters standing around talking.
The ending was just not what I expected. It was too "happy" and "perfect." I would have preferred the story to be full of tragedy and darkness.
I was really looking forward to Bella FINALLY becoming a vampire but when she did, I could not enjoy it because I kept thinking how wrong it was for Bella to have that child. And who names a child such a silly name?
I recommend that you read the first three books in this series, they are much better. As for this book, read it if you must only because it's the last book in the series. But this book is not worth buying. Just borrow it from someone instead.
 2008-08-19 - Wait...what?
Half the time, I wasn't sure if I was reading about vampires or superheroes. Nearly every vampire we come in contact with in this book has some sort of "superpower," if you will. Telepathy, empathy, seeing into the future, Bella's shielding ability...then going onto pain, sensory deprivation, illusion, controlling of the elements, and...I kid you not...lightning. Are these vampires or X-men? I believe the author was quite confused on that front. Superhero vampires. Lovely.
Up until this book, we believed Jacob and co. to be werewolves. We find out now that they are only shapeshifters. What? Way to contradict everything, Meyer. For that, I award you a slow clap. Be glad, because the slow clap is the nicest you'll get from me.
This book could have easily been cut in half. The purple prose was all so sickeningly sweet, especially at the beginning and at the very end (the last page? please, kill me) that I wanted to run for my friend's diabetes medicine just to get the sugar level in my blood to drop. A romance is fine; if you want to have fantasies, then go right ahead, but there should be cops out there waiting to arrest people whose prose becomes THAT sickeningly sweet. A cottage in the woods? Are you serious? "Small but perfect piece of our forever"? I wonder how many episodes of Babylon 5 it will take to scour THAT from my brain.
I won't even get into the characters, which IMO have been a large portion of fail from the beginning. Bella and Edward still aren't interesting and still have all the depth of a sheet of paper, and the only positive thing this book has is the two of them don't spend half of it wangsting about never being together. Regrettably, we get the sickening sweetness instead. I'm not sure if that's worse than the wangsting.
Wait, vampires can impregnate women? But don't vampires, you know, not have any body fluids 'cause they're dead? Huh. A mystery never fully explained.
When Bella was being turned, I had a moment of hope. What *wouldn't* be interesting about this perfect Mary-Sue character suddenly going crazy and killing people and sucking their blood? Could this actually be...interesting?
It could be, but Meyer killed it by making Bella have SUPER DUPER SELF CONTROL as a freaking newborn vampire and refrain from going crazy AND killing humans on the *same damn day as her first hunt.* Wow, what a totally convenient and implausible plot twist! But of course, we know it is no more than a ploy to show Bella's super special awesomeness and now that she's a vampire, her special superpower. She ends up of course shielding a whole bunch of vampires in the fight against the Volturi that doesn't actually happen (because that, you see, would be interesting) and then going away to speak to Professor Xavier and become the latest member of the X-men, taking on the name of Diamond due to her impenetrable shields and sparking-in-the-sun vampire skin...wait, sorry, got my stories confused again. But so did Meyer, so I guess it's all good in the end, huh?
It really IS all good in the end. Everything is cleaned up so neatly that Martha Stewart would be proud. Bella's half-vampire child is safe (and also has a superpower) and Jacob imprinted, removing *that* difficult decision from Bella's life. Bella and Edward have a happy cottage in the woods (no, seriously, I kid you not) and Bella's super duper self control makes her the best omg vampire around. Oh, and her dad knows she's alive and everything ends hunky dory in said cottage in the woods. Ah, don't you wish real life could end like that, with all your difficult problems just...wiped away? I don't know about you, but I love stories where there's conflict and everything doesn't end happily because then you can actually RELATE to the characters. Unfortunately, the Twilight series has had major problems in that area since the beginning, and it hasn't gotten any better now.
I suppose the only vaguely redeeming feature of this book can be Jacob's section. The rest, not so much.
2008-08-19 - Read it first and then decide
I loved this last book. I still can't completely understand why it's gotten such mixed reviews. If you're prudish about sex and violence then you probably shouldn't read Breaking Dawn... BUT if you felt like the last two books were a little too slow and innocent in their depictions of vampires and werewolves then I think you will be very satisfied with this last installment.
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