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mackenzeereads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
daphx00's review against another edition
2.0
Again, this is my guilty pleasure. I could relate to the characters, but there wasn't much to them. I thought it was getting exciting near the end - what an anticlimax that was!
(longer review will follow, doing this via phone)
After re-read: Put it down two stars because I think the writing style is horrible, the characters are flat and Bella has no personality at all. To say that this book is an anticlimax is an understatement. This book was even less exciting than New Moon, and that's saying something.
(longer review will follow, doing this via phone)
After re-read: Put it down two stars because I think the writing style is horrible, the characters are flat and Bella has no personality at all. To say that this book is an anticlimax is an understatement. This book was even less exciting than New Moon, and that's saying something.
noesbookishthings's review against another edition
5.0
Loved, loved, loved this book! And I adore this story. I was really sad as I was reading it, knowing it was the last one. There were a few things that annoyed me though. The book was riddled with typos and grammatical errors and the entire second section was missing its Table of Contents. I know she was hauling ass to get this out, but what the hell? Edit much? I'm tempted to send a corrected version to the author demanding a revised version. Bella is MUCH more likeable in this book, if only she had been as much of a badass before...The other thing that kind of irks me are the undertones of Fundamentalist Mormon theology. Did anyone else notice how in nearly every relationship the men were considerably older than all of the women (I think Rosalie and Emmett were the one exception)? And the whole imprinting on children thing was just plain creepy.
katyelizabethb's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
20tstrauser's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
i_like_to_reed's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
tygarcia021's review against another edition
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
crystalstarrlight's review against another edition
1.0
"Somehow, unlikely as it was, it seemed I was about to get everything I'd been fighting for."
The big day has come: Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are going to get married. But what about Jacob Black? And the Volturi? And will Edward ever feel comfortable being all vampire-y around Bella?
WARNING: I'm sure this review is going to have LOADS of spoilers. So here's your warning. I'll summarize (if that's even possible to do in a paragraph) for those who have skipped.
Let me first put this out there: while these books have never been the pinnacle of brilliant story, beautiful writing, and admirable (or even likeable) characters, I've chomped them down like the Halloween candy left in my bowl. I connected with Bella back in "Twilight", sympathized with Bella's emptiness in "New Moon" (though certainly NOT her reason why), and hung in there in "Eclipse".
Breaking Dawn has got to be one of the biggest slaps in the faces to fans. All the buildup, all the events, all the circumstances of the last three books is pretty much nullified in this glorified fan fiction.
And when I say fan fiction, I mean it. I wouldn't be surprised if Meyer surfed Fan-ficition.net for the inspiration of this novel. It has all the wonderfully annoying tropes we've come to know and hate from fanfic:
1. Mary Sue Protagonist that is able to use her super-power flawlessly at just the appropriate moment, saving the day and earning respect from all the good guys (and even some of the baddies).
2. Sloppy resolution of conflict requiring absolutely NO sacrifice on the part of the Mary Sue and her beloved family and requiring all the characters to act 100% different.
3. Chastising anyone who dares to defy the supremacy of the Mary Sue.
4. Miracle babies who age overnight, who are loved by any and all (and if they aren't loved, the people who hate them are execrable), and who are superbly Mary Sueish themselves (hybrids in a franchise that hasn't established it and in fact has denied it, super-duper powers).
5. Repetitive writing that refuses to skip over any period of time, making sure each and every day of the two weeks of the Mary Sue's pregnancy is related in all its fountains of blood glory.
6. Really horribly rendered sex and awkward fight scenes.
7. Strange usage of words and overusage of others ("chagrin", anyone?).
8. Women who are unable to do anything without the dominance of their husbands.
9. Characters that the author tries to portray as being one thing (selfless, humble, not looks obsessed), but that come out being the complete opposite.
10. A lack of understanding of love between two characters.
As I've said before, none of Meyer's books have been completely devoid of the following. Bella has always been a weak-willed, selfish, emo teenager. Edward has always been a domineering stalker. The writing has always been purply, and the plot usually appears in the last 200 pages.
But at least Meyer had a little bit of consistency--not much, but a little. She always kept things tamed down at least a bit, made her characters work just a smidgeon.
Not here. And that is where my two big complaints boil down to:
1. Bella doesn't have to sacrifice ANYTHING to get her "Happily Ever After". She gets her perfect husband, Edward. She gets a beautiful baby. She is gorgeous and powerful and admired and loved and envied and fast and useful and intimidating to vampires thousands of years her senior without having to do much work at all. She has Jacob always by her side; she doesn't have to leave Charlie; she has no problems getting her parents to let her marry (her mother, supposedly the one to raise her to avoid marrying young, is 100% gung ho, saying that Bella "has always had an old soul"). Bella doesn't miss her friends, who disappear after the wedding (apparently to do the bad woman thing and go to college to get lives away from their boyfriends). Bella doesn't have regrets about missing out on humanity. Bella's life as a vampire is paradise for her, only she didn't have to do anything to get it.
2. Renesmee. I don't care about Meyer's sloppy patch to include her, there is no reason she should have been born. Nothing about her existence makes sense--even if I do believe a vampire male and a human female can have a child, why would the child EVER be born in a couple of weeks and be full grown by the age of 7? Who would WANT that? And Jacob's imprinting on her...there are so many levels of anger I feel. As Jacob himself says at one point, "What's wrong with going out and falling in love like a normal person, Leah? Imprinting is just another way of getting your choices taken away from you" Why then TOTALLY NEGATE the message and have Jacob imprint on Renesmee? Why couldn't Jacob have a romance with the far more interesting, Leah (and yeah, I totally hate how she is made to look like the bad guy for telling Bella off for Bella's selfish behavior)? What if Renesmee wants to have a relationship with someone else (somewhat hinted at in the end)? Oh, right, a woman is incomplete without a man (note how all the major women are paired off at the end--except for big, bad, evil Leah).
Even though I had been full warned about the WTFery in this book, I didn't go in expecting to hate it. In fact, I actually didn't mind the first 150 pages. Sure, Bella was a complete doormat, but she always had been. Sure, Edward was domineering (and yes, if my husband withheld sex from me, I would be creating way more fuss than Bella does!), but he's always been that way. But once the baby plot came in, and Bella's character suddenly changed to Perfect Mother (something that is ludicrous given she can't even pick out her own clothes without Edward telling her to), I just couldn't take it. I couldn't take the weird turn of events. Even through Jacob's POV (wonderful and insightful by itself), I was in shock. I actually was glad to return to Bella's POV because I was so tired of Jacob doing nothing (everyone mentioned the "vomiting fountains of blood" and Edward nomming Bella's belly, but no one mentioned the tedium of Jacob running patrols around the Cullen house for 200 pages!!), and I thought, with Bella experiencing the pain of transformation, that it would get better.
And then Renesmee appeared. And then we spent 30000 pages of Bella describing each and every movement, her complete transformation to Mary Sueism--I mean, vampirism--and finally, to the Volturi, which actually wasn't bad. Sure, a final battle would have been better, but in this mediocre series, the ending actually was fitting.
On one hand, I chastise myself for wasting all this time reading this waste of paper. I would have done better to read some teenager's fanfic of the conclusion to Twilight--at least it wouldn't have cost me anything. But then, I knew that I would always wonder if this book was truly as bad as everyone says. I have endured the horror of "Breaking Dawn" to tell you this: do not be as stupid as I am. Go to a fanfiction site and read something there. Save your money, your time...and most importantly, your belief in humanity.
The big day has come: Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are going to get married. But what about Jacob Black? And the Volturi? And will Edward ever feel comfortable being all vampire-y around Bella?
WARNING: I'm sure this review is going to have LOADS of spoilers. So here's your warning. I'll summarize (if that's even possible to do in a paragraph) for those who have skipped.
Let me first put this out there: while these books have never been the pinnacle of brilliant story, beautiful writing, and admirable (or even likeable) characters, I've chomped them down like the Halloween candy left in my bowl. I connected with Bella back in "Twilight", sympathized with Bella's emptiness in "New Moon" (though certainly NOT her reason why), and hung in there in "Eclipse".
Breaking Dawn has got to be one of the biggest slaps in the faces to fans. All the buildup, all the events, all the circumstances of the last three books is pretty much nullified in this glorified fan fiction.
And when I say fan fiction, I mean it. I wouldn't be surprised if Meyer surfed Fan-ficition.net for the inspiration of this novel. It has all the wonderfully annoying tropes we've come to know and hate from fanfic:
1. Mary Sue Protagonist that is able to use her super-power flawlessly at just the appropriate moment, saving the day and earning respect from all the good guys (and even some of the baddies).
2. Sloppy resolution of conflict requiring absolutely NO sacrifice on the part of the Mary Sue and her beloved family and requiring all the characters to act 100% different.
3. Chastising anyone who dares to defy the supremacy of the Mary Sue.
4. Miracle babies who age overnight, who are loved by any and all (and if they aren't loved, the people who hate them are execrable), and who are superbly Mary Sueish themselves (hybrids in a franchise that hasn't established it and in fact has denied it, super-duper powers).
5. Repetitive writing that refuses to skip over any period of time, making sure each and every day of the two weeks of the Mary Sue's pregnancy is related in all its fountains of blood glory.
6. Really horribly rendered sex and awkward fight scenes.
7. Strange usage of words and overusage of others ("chagrin", anyone?).
8. Women who are unable to do anything without the dominance of their husbands.
9. Characters that the author tries to portray as being one thing (selfless, humble, not looks obsessed), but that come out being the complete opposite.
10. A lack of understanding of love between two characters.
As I've said before, none of Meyer's books have been completely devoid of the following. Bella has always been a weak-willed, selfish, emo teenager. Edward has always been a domineering stalker. The writing has always been purply, and the plot usually appears in the last 200 pages.
But at least Meyer had a little bit of consistency--not much, but a little. She always kept things tamed down at least a bit, made her characters work just a smidgeon.
Not here. And that is where my two big complaints boil down to:
1. Bella doesn't have to sacrifice ANYTHING to get her "Happily Ever After". She gets her perfect husband, Edward. She gets a beautiful baby. She is gorgeous and powerful and admired and loved and envied and fast and useful and intimidating to vampires thousands of years her senior without having to do much work at all. She has Jacob always by her side; she doesn't have to leave Charlie; she has no problems getting her parents to let her marry (her mother, supposedly the one to raise her to avoid marrying young, is 100% gung ho, saying that Bella "has always had an old soul"). Bella doesn't miss her friends, who disappear after the wedding (apparently to do the bad woman thing and go to college to get lives away from their boyfriends). Bella doesn't have regrets about missing out on humanity. Bella's life as a vampire is paradise for her, only she didn't have to do anything to get it.
2. Renesmee. I don't care about Meyer's sloppy patch to include her, there is no reason she should have been born. Nothing about her existence makes sense--even if I do believe a vampire male and a human female can have a child, why would the child EVER be born in a couple of weeks and be full grown by the age of 7? Who would WANT that? And Jacob's imprinting on her...there are so many levels of anger I feel. As Jacob himself says at one point, "What's wrong with going out and falling in love like a normal person, Leah? Imprinting is just another way of getting your choices taken away from you" Why then TOTALLY NEGATE the message and have Jacob imprint on Renesmee? Why couldn't Jacob have a romance with the far more interesting, Leah (and yeah, I totally hate how she is made to look like the bad guy for telling Bella off for Bella's selfish behavior)? What if Renesmee wants to have a relationship with someone else (somewhat hinted at in the end)? Oh, right, a woman is incomplete without a man (note how all the major women are paired off at the end--except for big, bad, evil Leah).
Even though I had been full warned about the WTFery in this book, I didn't go in expecting to hate it. In fact, I actually didn't mind the first 150 pages. Sure, Bella was a complete doormat, but she always had been. Sure, Edward was domineering (and yes, if my husband withheld sex from me, I would be creating way more fuss than Bella does!), but he's always been that way. But once the baby plot came in, and Bella's character suddenly changed to Perfect Mother (something that is ludicrous given she can't even pick out her own clothes without Edward telling her to), I just couldn't take it. I couldn't take the weird turn of events. Even through Jacob's POV (wonderful and insightful by itself), I was in shock. I actually was glad to return to Bella's POV because I was so tired of Jacob doing nothing (everyone mentioned the "vomiting fountains of blood" and Edward nomming Bella's belly, but no one mentioned the tedium of Jacob running patrols around the Cullen house for 200 pages!!), and I thought, with Bella experiencing the pain of transformation, that it would get better.
And then Renesmee appeared. And then we spent 30000 pages of Bella describing each and every movement, her complete transformation to Mary Sueism--I mean, vampirism--and finally, to the Volturi, which actually wasn't bad. Sure, a final battle would have been better, but in this mediocre series, the ending actually was fitting.
On one hand, I chastise myself for wasting all this time reading this waste of paper. I would have done better to read some teenager's fanfic of the conclusion to Twilight--at least it wouldn't have cost me anything. But then, I knew that I would always wonder if this book was truly as bad as everyone says. I have endured the horror of "Breaking Dawn" to tell you this: do not be as stupid as I am. Go to a fanfiction site and read something there. Save your money, your time...and most importantly, your belief in humanity.
raleighem's review
challenging
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5