The One with My Breaking Dawn Review


Saturday, August 2, 2008

Wow! The last 48 hours of my life have been packed with anxiety!

Friday night dragged on and on and on. I finished reading Eclipse (for the second time) around 10pm and by that time I was wasting away. I am not a night person. We started watching an episode of Gilmore Girls but I conked out (which is funny because this was the THIRD time I've tried watching this particular episode - it must not be a very intriguing episode!) At 11:30 Chris suggested we head up to the BYU Bookstore. Anything to keep me up! It was a mad house. Girls girls everywhere and some groups of guys hitting on all the girls girls girls. Compared to my Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince book release party in London summer '05, this was pretty anticlimactic. No countdown or anything! When I saw some dumb boys opening to the last page of the book and threatening to read stuff, I plugged my ears and weaved my way through the lines. I got my copy of Breaking Dawn at 12:20am and quickly turned to read the last page. I know I know, I'm a horrible person. But I HAD to know. DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE BOOK BECAUSE I AM GOING INTO DETAIL ABOUT HOW I FELT ABOUT IT!!!!
























I was immediately filled with relief after reading the last page. Back home I quickly changed into scrubs and settled down to read. I had every intention of reading until I was done, I got my second wind of energy. I skipped the first chapter because I already read it in the back of my special edition of Eclipse earlier that day.

I have to say, I'm quite surprised how raunchy chapters like 3-6 were. I will never let me kids read this book unless they skip immediately to after their honeymoon......Also, I did some pretty stupid things on Friday - I looked for spoilers online which I quickly regretted because a lot of them turned out to be true. Around 2am my eyes couldn't stay open any longer. I quickly scanned through some of the pages of the book and saw some things that made me cringe and seriously question some of Stephenie Meyer's choices. I woke Chris up and whined to him about how disappointed I was and told him the things I read and what I'd stumbled upon. I don't think he was conscious :) I didn't sleep very well, I was in "Twilight" mode.

I woke up at 8am and continued where I left off. It turns out the things I had randomly read throughout the book turned out to be nothings, I totally misconstrued their meanings, and I definitely feel happy and satisfied with how the series turned out. The Twilight chapter of my life feels closed and complete. At least until the movie comes out!

My personal feelings about the book? Well, for me the books rank in the order they came out: Twilight #1, New Moon #2 (which used to be my least favorite then when I read it the second time I really liked it, but I definitely didn't convert to Team Jacob - ew :), Eclipse #3 and finally Breaking Dawn is my least favorite of the four. Why? Keep in mind these are my initial reactions. I read the book in under 24 hours and haven't had time to really ponder it or discuss it with anybody (so hurry up people so we can talk about it!) First of all, like I said before, I think some parts were pretty inappropriate for the age-group these books were supposedly written for. They didn't do anything wrong from my religious point of view, but some parts were very personal and too intimate and I felt uncomfortable. Second, I can't believe she got pregnant with Edward and had a baby. I didn't see that one coming. Actually, I did think about it briefly a couple days ago, and I even woke Chris up at 4:30 in the morning to talk to him about it, but I quickly brushed the theory aside because vampires can't reproduce. But apparently they can with mortal women... Also, I thought her change into a vampire was very anticlimactic, but at least it happened - it's everything I ever wanted from the series! After she changed into a vampire I thought the book was really dull. And did Jacob really imprint on Reneesme Carlie Cullen? Does he realize she's only going to have a 7-year-old body? Then the whole Volutri thing dragged on for over 200 pages and there were so many characters going on at the same time it was hard to keep track of (even with the helpful chart in the back)...But, it ended perfectly (although a little too quickly for me) so that lifted my spirits and left me very happy.

I know the series wouldn't be what it is if this happened, but I almost wish Bella had just been turned into a vampire in the first book and then they could have lived happily ever after. Done and done. I loved the first book so much because of the whole Bella and Edward love story. It was so compelling and I loved reading every interaction they had together. In Breaking Dawn, it's not really about just Bella and Edward anymore. After they got married they were only alone about three times and even then there was their baby. I loved how Edward always had to be so careful around her, treating her so delicately. Once she became a vampire there was none of that anymore. There were always so many other people/vampires/werewolves around.

I'm still hypothesizing about the cover art. I think Bella is the white Queen chess piece - her ability is so powerful it caused even the Volturi to back down. And I think maybe the red pawn is her past mortal life? I dunno. Hopefully Stephenie will clue us in.

Again, those are all just my initial feelings. I need to sleep on it. I read the book so fast I probably won't remember anything in a week. But, I'm as satisfied with the end of the series as I am with the Harry Potter series. To quote J.K. Rowling: All was well.

3 comments

  1. Hey Page! Thanks for the review! I dont know how soon I will get the book so thanks for telling us! I agree so far Twlight has been my favorite!! I am almost done with Ecplise tho. Anyway glad you had a good weekend and your got your Twilight need fulfilled!! We need to hang out sometime! Take care!

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  2. I just finished the book yesterday and I knew you would have already written a review about it. I'm still debating what my review is going to entail but you had the same exact feelings I had. I will never let my little girls read this last book and I'm glad all ended well. This message could get long dangerously fast so I'll have to write what I thought about it all soon! At least the dreaded anticipation is over...on with life.

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  3. Paige,

    I am sorry but I have to disagree with you on a couple of things. But first, let me clarify that Renesmee will not have a 7 year old body, rather she will physically mature after 7 years (last 10 pages, somewhere in there...the South American dude says it) and then live forever like a 20 something looking person...perfect for Jacob. OK, that being said, I don't think the aforementioned chapters 3-6 were inappropriate, because I no physical details were given about the actual sex. they kiss each other and that is all that is physically described. Yes, sex is alluded to, but they are married. Well we would have assumed that anyways, even if it wasn't in black and white. I think it's healthy to talk openly about the things that SHOULD be going on in a marriage in a clean context. The exact opposite would be not talking about them or pretending that they aren't going to happen (not healthy). Worse yet would be going into truly "raunchy" detail about them (no better than the media). I just think having been raised by parents who always taught me that sex was a beautiful and natural thing within the bonds of marriage, I think what was written is fine for teenage girls (15+) because it compliments the mentality that I was raised with.
    Also, it was key to the storyline with knowing about Renesmee.

    Honestly, I would be more worried about my teenage daughters thinking it's ok to have boys in their bedrooms every night, versus reading allusions to married couples having "relations".
    We can agree to disagree though.

    The other thing is I feel like if the Volturi scene hadn't last as long as it did, the thought processes of Bella discovering the full measure of her talent and the reader understanding Alice's full plan and all that couldn't have developed in a believable way.

    Was it the best written of the series, no, but I love the story of it and am glad with the ending and that I have some peace knowing that Edward, Bella and the rest of the gang are happy together. Can't wait for the movie!!!

    PS-we're still friends, right? :)

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