Review: Breaking Dawn

Title:  Breaking Dawn

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

Published:  August 2, 2008

# of Pages:  768

ISBN:  978-0316067928

My Rating:  3/5

As with my review of Eclipse, I see zero point in giving a plot summary of this one.  If you’re interested, however, in a fantastic plot summary that just might make you pee in your pants, go check out Raych’s review of Breaking Dawn.  As for me, I’m just going to share my thoughts while trying VERY hard not to give away too many spoilers.  I may have to slip one or two in here, though, so be warned.

So, in general, I wasn’t thrilled with the conclusion to the Twilight series.  I thought it was too long – it dragged a LOT in the middle, I had a hard time getting through parts of it actually.  I found the relationships with the characters to be highly unrealistic… not that relationships between vampires, werewolves, and humans typically ARE realistic, but there was something to these relationships in the first three books that was somewhat lacking in this one.  There were too many perfect situations – the most obvious one that comes to mind is Jacob’s “relationship” to Renesmee.  No spoilers, exactly, just that I HATED this aspect of the plot.  (By the way, Renesmee?  What kind of a name is that?)  I found it pretty much insane that Charlie would just accept all of this crazy stuff and not run screaming from what Jacob told/showed him.  I also found it unbelievable that Bella’s mom would be ok with so much time passing without really contacting her daughter – in the first three books, it was made to seem like they were very close, yet in this one she’s barely mentioned at all.

So, ok, what did I like?  Well, besides the slower middle parts, the book moved along pretty fast.  I was enthralled with the story and I cared about where it would end up.  I liked Edward MUCH more in this book than I did in the previous three, and I loved reading more about the Cullens.  I liked how the relationship between the Cullens and the werewolves developed – not exactly believable, given their histories, but I think Meyer did a good job making it seem like they had no other choice but to get along and work together.  I’m glad the ending turned out the way it did, even though again – not really believable.  But I’m a sucker for endings such as this, so what can I say.  Overall, not my favorite of the Twilight books, and in my opinion, it had some major flaws, but I did enjoy Breaking Dawn to a degree and I’m glad that I finished the series.

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Review: Eclipse

Title:  Eclipse

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

Published:  August 7, 2007

# of Pages:  640

ISBN:  978-0316160209

My Rating: 4/5

Ok, so the third installment in the Twilight series… I’m not even going to bother summarizing this one because any summary that I could give would contain plot spoilers for the first two books.  What did I think of Eclipse?  Well, basically, I liked it.  I was highly entertained by the plot – there was a lot going on here, especially toward the end of the book, and I liked where the story went for the most part.  The ending definitely made me excited to pick up Breaking Dawn and finish up the series.

And the characters?  Well, I am not such a die-hard member of Team Jacob anymore… he actually annoyed me quite a bit in this book.  He was such a jerk sometimes – he treated Bella like such a possession, like a prize he could win away from Edward, and that totally bothered me.  And at the same time, Edward was becoming more caring, more conscious of Bella’s feelings, less jealous and possessive, etc.  So I’m not sure which one of the boys I am truly rooting for, but I have a feeling that in the end I’ll be moved over to Team Edward.  Oh well.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that Eclipse is their least favorite of the Twilight books, and I have to say, for me that’s not the case.  I liked the book, the story moved along very well, and I liked the characters more than I have in the past (Bella and Edward, at least).  I did hate Edward’s morally superior attitude regarding one particular issue (if you’ve read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about), but I’m willing to not let that damper my enjoyment of the story too much.  Overall, a good addition to the series and I’ll be reading Breaking Dawn very soon.

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• Heather at Age 30+… A Lifetime of Books
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Review: New Moon

Title:  New Moon

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

# of Pages:  608

Published:  August 21, 2006

ISBN:  978-0316160193

Rating:  4/5

New Moon, the second in the Twilight series, picks up about six months after Twilight left off.  Bella and Edward have been dating for a while now, and of course they are completely in love (aka teenager love, aka lust, but hey who am I to judge), until one day, out of nowhere, Edward decided that because they are together, Bella will always be in danger of her life, and because of that very obvious fact, he breaks up with her, tells her she’ll never see him again, and disappears.  Believe it or not, he actually disappears for the majority of the book.  In Bella’s grief, she befriends Jacob (who we met briefly in Twilight), spends most of her time with him, and eventually discovers that he, too, is a non-human.  A werewolf, to be exact.  So, because Bella’s heart is now torn between her vampire lover and her werewolf lover, drama ensues.  And because Edward can’t get Bella out of his mind even when he is “away” from her, the reader enjoys some vampire fights toward the end of  the book as well.

Overall, I enjoyed New Moon about as much as I enjoyed Twilight.  These books are incredibly fast-paced and they suck you into their stories from the get-go.  Bella is very whiny in New Moon, annoyingly so, but I was able to get past that because of how much I liked  other aspects of the book; and because, let’s face it, teenagers in love tend to be kind of whiny and sad a lot of the time.  Jacob, mainly, was what I liked most about this one.  He is a far superior individual than Edward – he treats Bella well, he protects her instead of dragging her into dangerous situations, and he truly cares for her as a friend even when he’s interested in her as more.  He really respects her as a person and respects the boundaries she sets for their relationship.  So, yeah, I am a huge fan of Jacob – you could even say that I root for “Team Jacob” (although, sadly, I have read enough spoilers to know how the whole thing turns out so there’s really no point in my choosing sides here).  Ultimately, I liked the way the book ended and it absolutely geared me up to want to pick up Eclipse. As I’ve been buying the series thus far, I will probably wait for Eclipse to come out in paperback before getting it.

Generally speaking, I found New Moon to be a very complete and highly entertaining sequel to Twilight – fans of the series will definitely get their fix with this second installment.

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Review: Twilight

Title:  Twilight

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

# of pages: 544

Published:  October 5, 2005

ISBN:  978-0316015844

Rating:  4/5

Ok, I finally caved.  I finally read Twilight.  I really have been meaning to for quite some time, but just hadn’t gotten around to it – I wasn’t in any kind of hurry.  For anyone living under a rock, let me explain the basic plot – Bella Swan moves from Phoenix to live with her father in a tiny town near Seattle, called Forks.  She meets and is instantly attracted to the gorgeous and mysterious Edward Cullen, who ignores her for a few days before saving her life and subsequently deciding that he likes her too.  A short while later, after Edward saves her life one more time (Bella is pretty accident-prone) he discloses to her that he’s – gasp – a vampire!  And, being the completely irrational person that Bella is, this doesn’t scare her one bit, it only makes her like him more, and become even MORE obsessed with his gorgeousness and mysteriousness.  The majority of the book is them mooning over each other, Bella constantly describing how amazing Edward really is, with some action and craziness thrown in toward the end of the book – including a vampire fight.  Oh, and she gets to meet and fall in love with Edward’s amazing family of vampires.

So I have to say that I did enjoy reading the book.  It absolutely kept me entertained, I gobbled it up in two days, and I totally get the hype surrounding it.  I mean, come on.  Vampires and teenage love – what more could a 16 year old want in a book?  And yes, Bella and Edward’s relationship borders on obsessive, but I remember what it was like to be in love for the first time – it tends to get a little obsessive.  You want to be around the person all the time, you don’t care about the dangers involved (who hasn’t dated a “bad boy” at some point in life, especially in high school?), and you definitely feel protective of that person and worry that they’ll find some sort of danger around every corner.  Combine that with the ups and downs of dating a vampire, and you’ve got Bella and Edward in Twilight.

It’s not quality literature or anything, but Twilight is enjoyable.  And yes, I already went out and purchased New Moon.  I’m curious to find out what I think about that one – I hear Edward isn’t around as much… could be better, could just be annoying, we shall see.

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