Book Review: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer has probably been one of the most anticipated novels of this year. By young adults at the very least. From the first novel, The Twilight series captivated it’s teenage audience. But this fourth installment in the saga has turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. I must say that Breaking Dawn is an interesting read. If you’ve read the other 3 novels it is definitely worth reading, so you can see all the loose ends tied up, but when compared to the others, this novel is unable to stand alone. The plot is slightly ridiculous, the novel dragged out, and the ending far too perfect to be believable. But as the fourth novel in the saga Breaking Dawn fulfills it’s role. It answers the questions we all had about the Jacob-Bella-Edward love triangle, and also answers the questions you probably don’t realize you have.

Spoilers beyond this point

To begin, Breaking Dawn is by far the bloodiest and most dark novel of the series. At the beginning everything seems to be perfect. Bella gets married and her and Edward are able to honeymoon on a romantic and private island that Esme just happened to have. But when Bella finds out she’s pregnant the book takes a turn for the worse. Bella, who never wanted a child, is suddenly ecstatic to be pregnant. She basically kills herself in order to protect a baby she never really wanted before. This is the point where the book gets gross. It was almost too much for me to handle. When Bella had to drink human blood in order to nourish her unborn child, I felt nauseous. When Edward had to bite through Bella’s stomach in order to save the baby, I basically wanted to throw up. But I forced myself through it. I just wonder what goes on in Stephenie Meyer’s life that gives her this kind of imagination. Her nightmares must be terrifying.

When Bella was turned into a vampire, I felt that the book could come to a pretty good conclusion. Bella had the perfect life. She had a beautiful daughter, and the perfect husband. But, alas, I realized I was not even in the second half of the book. The last half of the book seemed completely pointless to me. Meyers spends the next 350 pages building up to a huge battle between the Volturi and the Cullens. Yet this battle is easily prevented and the excitement that had built was for nothing. Alice of course drops in and saves  the day. Of course nobody dies. It seems the second half was written for word count, as there are no extremely important devolpments to the story.

The worst part of this book, for me, was the perfection of Bella’s life in the end. Somehow here life ends up just the way she wants. Jacob is able to stay in her life because he imprinted on her daughter, (hopefully I’m not the only one totally creeped out by this) Renesmee will be able to live forever, (somehow the aging process will leave her about Bella’s exact age) nobody dies in the epic battle that actually never takes place, Bella is somehow the most powerful vampire with the most important powers, plus Bella is able to stay in Forks and be close to her dad. I know some people will be saying the book is supposed to end well, but how much perfection can you take until it gets sickening.

I know this book review may seem very critical, and probably has put off some readers, but that was not my intention. I read this book, like many of you, because I had to know what happened to Bella and Edward. Obviously it didn’t quite turn out how I imagined, but then again it was not my story to tell. While I do believe Stephenie Meyer could have done much better, I actually did enjoy reading this novel. I read it because I had to know what happened, and I’m very glad I did. To anyone who has read any of the others in this series, I highly suggest finishing. It may not have ended exactly as we all hoped, but the story was interesting. I must give it to Stephenie Meyer that she knows how to write a book that captivates an audience, and keeps them turning the pages.

Book Review by Danielle Kolbra