Breaking Yawn
Despite being VERY tired from a weekend trip to San Diego, I managed to push through my exhaustion to finish the fourth and final book in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn.
My review-ish ruminations are after the jump.
Man, this book has been met with some seriously negative reviews. (If you click on the thumbnail of the cover, you can read them!) Many fans are upset because the plot didn’t go the way they wanted it to and so they didn’t feel like it fit well with the series as a whole. Initially, this was my grievance, too. But upon reflection I’ve determined my three main problems with this book (SPOILERS!):
1. Maybe it WAS a logical continuation to the series, and I’m realizing that I was never that into the series as a whole. From the beginning, all I really cared about were the following two things: a) sparkly, dangerous vampire love between Bella and Edward and b) tense showdowns with other vampires. That’s all. Everything else is just…the stuff that happens while I’m waiting to read more about sparkly love and showdowns. So maybe the problem isn’t the book, it’s me. I just didn’t get into all the mythology the way I did with the Harry Potter books.
2. There were a fair number of cop-outs in this book, and I was disappointed because I thought Meyer could do better. For the record, I LOVE Stephenie Meyer. I think she is adorable and charming and funny and candid in her interviews. But! I had a few problems with the way she resolved major issues in BD. I felt cheated for having invested time into reading and considering conflicts that turned out to not really be conflicts after all. For one, I thought it was strange that there was so much BUILDUP about how upset Bella’s parents would be if she got married at eighteen, and there just…wasn’t. They didn’t really care. And then there was so much buildup about how tough it would be for Bella to be a new vampire…and it wasn’t tough for her at all. And I get that that’s a part of her specialness, but still. That felt like a violation of the rules of the Twilight universe.
3. No showdown at the end? Not even a little one? That disappointed me. Again, I GET how these turns of events can be justified, but that doesn’t make them any more palatable. #3 is really just an offshoot of problems one and two. Because I wasn’t that invested in learning more about the vampire universe and I felt disillusioned by the neat, easy resolutions of some major points of tension, I just got kind of bored. I wasn’t turning pages wildly like I was in Twilight and New Moon. I only finished quickly so I could go ahead and discuss the book with my friends. I didn’t feel very compelled by the story. Which again, says more about me than it does about Stephenie Meyer’s saga, I guess.
I think I may have mentioned that I LOVE Stephenie Meyer, and while I wasn’t a big fan of Breaking Dawn, I still love her. I feel like some of her peeps let her down a little bit in the later installments of this saga. I am very, very curious to know how much back-and-forth there was between her and her editors. I know how attached a writer can get to characters, and you really need a third party to be honest with you about what’s working and what isn’t, because you can’t always see it for yourself. Someone should have trimmed this story (and Eclipse) by about 10% to cut out the needless repetition of phrases and ideas…give the readers credit for being able to process a description or characterization the first time. It’s possible, I think, to have both a sprawling story and tight writing. Those things are not mutually exclusive. It’s a higher standard that takes more work than just spinning a good yarn, but given the incredible support and devotion of the Twilight fans, the powers-that-be should have taken the time to shine this one up a little more (all marble-hard and sparkly) before releasing it into the world.
Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Melissa
Filed under: Books that have been or will be made into movies, Twilight
I didn’t even address the most important new character who was introduced in this book. Her whole development was so, so weird, I felt totally disconnected from her.
I didn’t even read the book (because I was warned) but I did read the recaps. And, I also got a VERY good summary from Melissa. I am so glad I saved the energy. I have the most issue with #2. I think you are under-exaggerating the amount of buildup of which you speak. A HUGE part of the sparkly vampire love we all live for that was in the 2nd and 3rd books revolved around how they couldn’t get married and how he didn’t want her to become a vampire and how painful it would be for her to become one. In fact, ALL of the third book was about new vampires. That was artificial foreshadowing to the max! What the hell was that setting us up for? Couldn’t we at least get like 2 -3 days of bloodthirsty agonizing vampire growing pains? Maybe the pursuit of a human or two (she doesn’t have to kill them…just want to.). Again, I didn’t even read the book so I guess I don’t have much room to talk. But, I still feel cheated.
Melissa didn’t state that the reason she didn’t address the new character is because she doesn’t want to spell her name.
(By the way, Melissa, I think your first born daughter should be named, Lindillie Jerark)
“artificial foreshadowing to the max” is my new favorite literary term.