Review by Cassie, a.k.a. awesomely cool Twi-fan (but that’s an oxymoron, so… :P )
8.4 out of 10 stars
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT, although if you’re reading these reviews you’ve probably read the book anyway.
After the disappointment that was Eclipse, it’s nice to read something with a little more substance. Meyer’s last installment of the Twilight Saga may not have the action that the other books have, but it’s a nice ending to what is arguably the most popular teen series ever. Yes, I said ever.
Basic outline- Bella and Edward get married, Jacob doesn’t like it (especially since Bella plans on having sex with her husband who can easily snap her spine in half), Bella gets pregnant (didn’t see that one coming), names her daughter Renesmee (which is easily the worst name I’ve ever heard in my life), and Jacob imprints on this tiny half vampire creature thing. Bella is turned into a vampire. I like this so far. There’s not really a major conflict yet, but it’s enough to sink my teeth into for now.
After all this, the real conflict arrives. Renesmee is spotted by a vampire from another clan, who thinks she is a child the Cullens bit so they could play house forever (or something like that). Making child vampires is against the vampire code, so the Volturi are immediately alerted. Now the Volturi are on their way to Forks to destroy the child who has been dubbed “Nessie”, because Renesmee is a terrible name. Jasper and Alice skip out on the Cullens (or so we think), but leave clues for Bella to follow so Nessie and Jacob can run away from the Volturi and be safe. The Cullens, knowing that the Volturi have been misinformed, start to gather friends from across the world to make a stand against them. Their friends add a lot to the story, mostly because they break up the monotony of having the same characters throughout the series.
And THEN, after all that, the Volturi arrive looking for a fight, but decide to talk about their problems with the Cullens instead. Oh, and Bella can now shield anyone in the vicinity from mind attacks, which upsets Jane and Alec, whose powers affect opponents’ minds. After talking for a while, when everyone is about to fight… JASPER AND ALICE TO THE RESCUE! Along with another guy. This other guy is half vampire, half human, and convinces the Volturi to leave Nessie and her family alone, because once these half breeds reach adulthood, they’re fine. No big deal.
So after hundreds of pages of preparing for a fight, the Volturi leave, never to bother the Cullens again. Well, until they have some other reason to destroy them. And the Cullens, plus Jacob, live happily ever after.
But wait, hold on a sec! Werewolves aren’t undead, are they? Actually, if you remember correctly, one of the early chief werewolves lived three human lives before he imprinted on a woman, and only then did he give up his furry ways to grow old with his imprint-ee. Seeing as Nessie is undead, Jacob won’t ever age, either.
I’m getting exhausted just outlining the plot! But let’s look at the actual writing. It’s undeniable that Meyer has matured exponentially since writing Twilight. The story actually flows together seamlessly, without the gaping holes in plot and character development found in the first book. Meyer’s writing got progressively smoother and more grown-up as the series continued. Like almost every other author on the market, Meyer needed a few years to really get a good sense of who she was as a writer. I believe that after two books, she really blossomed as a novelist. The writing in Eclipse and Breaking Dawn is on a completely different level than Twilight and New Moon. Her adult novel, the Host, which was written somewhere between Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, only furthers my point. The Host is the best example of Meyer’s skill as an author, I believe. Maybe I’ll do a review of that one next.
Besides the obvious growth and maturity of Meyer throughout the process, The Twilight Saga has a good message. Between the fluff and sometimes annoyingly extreme characters, the whole point of the books is that Bella follows her heart and loves with everything she has. Yes, there’s conflicting feelings and yes, her love starts out as simple infatuation, but at the end of it all, nothing can come between her and the love she has not only for Edward, but for Nessie, Jacob, and the rest of her family. It’s true that the books don’t teach a whole lot about values or morality, but the overriding factor is the incredible amount of love Bella possesses for the people in her life. It’s a message worth writing about.
They’re not the greatest works of literature, nor do they stimulate the mind like other books do, but Stephenie Meyer has created a cultural phenomenon that will not soon be forgotten. As a fan of the books before the movies came out, I can easily say that I truly enjoyed reading all four books in the Twilight Saga. I look forward to whatever Meyer comes up with next, and I hope we can continue to enjoy her writing for years to come.
David’s Review
3 out of 10 stars
Well, it’s finally been done. I’ve pushed my way through all four of the Twilight books. Now, if I’m correct, you’ve just gasped at the rating I’ve given this book for one of two reasons:
1. You’ve just realized that Cassie and I have a 5.4 star rating difference in our reviews
OR
2. You’ve just realized that I’ve rated Breaking Dawn the highest of all of the four books in the series.
Cassie outlined the plot in the above review well enough, so I’ll go ahead and start my complaining as usual. The beginning of the book starts with Bella (still) worrying about getting married. Edward gave her a nice new shiny car that we never hear about ever again. The two get married at a beautiful ceremony put together all by Alice-the only vampire worth liking. Finally, the two go on vacation to an island that was purchased by Carlisle (Edward’s vampire-daddy) for Esme (Carlisle’s mate (yes, I say “mate” not wife, as vampires aren’t considered human)). Here we learn that Bella is the stereotypical male in a relationship while Edward is a stereotypical woman. Bella’s sex-crazy, while Edward just wants to please her.
Not surprisingly Bella gets pregnant.
Here, we go into a whole new section of the book, focused on our furry-friend Jacob. Truthfully, I enjoyed this section (which means a lot, coming from me, the biggest Twi-hater there is). We live through Jacob’s eyes as he learns that he can stand up for what he wants, and finally imprints on Renesmee, Bella’s half-vampire half-human daughter. Lovely. In fact, I believe this would be the perfect ending to the entire series. Everybody gets what they want, Bella’s a vampire, and Jacob found his true love. Unfortunately, we’re only halfway through Breaking Dawn.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love some good fantasy- in fact, fantasy is probably my favorite genre- and I would have accepted the vampire-human that is Renesmee. The problem is, it seems like Meyer couldn’t accept her, and decide to take the scientific approach to explaining the baby’s existence. This is her theory (expressed through Carlisle):
1. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. (This is absolutely true)
2. Werewolves have 24 pairs of chromosomes. (Explaining their difference to humans)
3. Vampires have 25 pairs of chromosomes. (Also explaining their difference)
Here’s the issue though: if you have 23 pairs of chromosomes, you can only mate with something that also has 23 pairs. Therefore, Renesmee is physically impossible. And, if we’re taking a scientific approach, the werewolves should have died out with the first generation, as they wouldn’t be able to breed with humans anyway. Also, Edward shouldn’t be able to mate with Bella, as you need blood running through your veins to perform said task.
Anyway, the Volturi, the law-keepers in the vampire world mistake Renesmee (we’ll call her Nessie, like Jacob) as an immortal child, or a child that was bitten by a vampire. It’s against vamp-law to do this, and they want to kill the Cullens. The Cullens then team together to gather a vast variety of other vampires to try to tell the Volturi otherwise. They prepare to fight the Volturi, in case they aren’t willing to listen. The werewolves promise to help too.
(At this points my thoughts were something along the lines of: Sweet! Epic vampire/werewolf battle!)
Unfortunately, Meyer once again disappoints. The battle scene begins, and the Volturi talk with the Cullens and their friends. Suddenly Alice and Jasper come back from their mysterious disappearance with another human-vampire mix, and the battle’s over, as the Volturi see that Nessie is the same. No epic battle scene. A cliché happy ending. How…Twilight-esque.
Here’s a list of many of my complaints:
1. Hair kissing/smelling is super gross, and I’ve been sick of it since book one. Seriously, Stephenie, stop it.
2. Bella, about sex says, “…I can’t imagine life gets any better than that.” Setting a great example for the millions upon millions of Twi-hards.
3. The Cullens can cook quite well for a family that eats off of raw animal flesh and blood.
4. Edward wants to use Bella, for example: “Sex was the key all along?...I could have saved myself a lot of arguments…”
5. Bella says she connects with Jacob on a level that she can’t with Edward. Wait…why exactly didn’t she marry Jacob then?
6. If I’m correct, Bella says “I love you” at least twice to Jacob before uttering it once to Edward.
7. Meyer seems to be unable to hinder her use of the word “masochist”, she must be one herself.
8. Edward wants Bella to get over Jacob. Seriously, even he realizes she still likes him. Why did she marry Edward?
9. Bella swears she doesn’t still love Jacob, yet she wants to name her baby after him, if it’s a boy.
10. Until this book, I didn’t think Meyer’s descriptions of Edward could become more annoying…they can.
11. Bella never achieves anything…seriously, the Cullens hand her everything (a car, a cell phone, a house).
12. Bella: “Our time on the island had been the epitome of my human life”-Bella lived for sex. That’s a great example, is it not?
13. Bella is upset that her 18 year-old friend fell in love with her newborn daughter by magic, but not that a 150 year-old vampire fell in love with her by chance? Ah…I see
14. Why would Meyer want to make Jacob a persisting issue? It’s too hard to make problems in plots…it’s far easier to make him imprint on Renesmee.
15. Of course, Meyer, skip the battle scene. They’ll just have a calm debate and the Volturi will leave.
16. No joke, Meyer describes the clothing of the characters. I still have no idea what many of the characters look like physically, just that they wear button downs, or sweaters.
17. Breaking Dawn is definitely a Twilight book…a build up to an anticlimactic ending. How wonderful.
18. Seriously, in four books, Meyer never writes ONE battle scene.
19. Leah's problem of being the only female werewolf is never once solved. Why is she the only one to have ever existed? Is it a genetic problem? Did the large amount of vampires spark it? Meyer could have referenced here to many problems today of sexism and sexuality, yet instead left a gaping hole.
I have to end this, or this review is going to be crazy long. So, here we go: as in the last book, I took a tally. The two tallies this time are the “Barf tally” for anything extremely gross/overly romantic, and the “Adjective tally” for the times that Meyer overly describes Edward as perfect. The total for the barf tally is 11%! Yes, that’s right, 11% of this book makes David barf! The total for the adjective tally is 5.84%, meaning that 1/20 of this book is describing Edward.
Certainly, this obsession isn’t going to leave anytime soon, but in my opinion it’s quite possible the worst obsession there is. The books are highly overrated, and really, have nothing much to be praised about. My average rating for the series is 2 stars, and nothing anybody says can make my mind change that.