Breaking Dawn: My Grade: D is for DISAPPOINTMENT (WARNING: SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT!!)
Ok, Twilight fans, I FINALLY finished Breaking Dawn last night. The fact that I haven't been glued to the book since midnight on Friday already says something about the content of the book. The only reason I finished the book was because I started it, not because I liked it, or loved it. It was really more of a loathing, eye-rolling, muttering-in-disgust-to-Stephanie-Meyer experience.
Critique #1: Jacob-Bella-Edward love triangle
Seriously, Stephanie? SERIOUSLY? You REALLY tried to resolve the whole Bella-Jacob story line by having Jacob "IMPRINT" WITH HER DAUGHTER? Not only was that the easy way out, but it's just plain CREEPY. WAY CREEPY. And way to make it easy on Bella. She SHOULD have had to choose between Jacob and Edward and it should have been hard. Because that's what made the other books so likable... they were BELIEVABLE. But you just made it into this mushy-happy-La La Land fairytale where everything works out. I would have rather Jacob died saving Bella.
Critique #2: Renesmee
Having Bella become pregnant with Edward's child was a good story line. That, I could live with. And then, she HAD to become a vampire, otherwise she would die. And that was okay, too. But the Renesmee character was so underdeveloped that by the time she was talking, what, 2 days after her birth, I was over it. And then, suddenly, out of nowhere, she was this poised and articulate little child, who I had no emotional connections to, because Ms. Meyer didn't develop the character at all. Every time that child spoke, I was thoroughly irked. Really. The baby talked. In perfect sentences. (Why I kept reading at that point, I don't know.)
Critique #3: Jacob's character took a sharp nose-dive south.
Jacob is supposed to be this tall, brooding werewolf who loves Bella and will never be able to get her and your heart is supposed to break for him. But then, somewhere in the whole "imprinting with a baby" thing, Jacob lost his anger towards Bella because Renesmee was the one he's "destined" to be with, and then he was getting along with vampires . And at that point, I wanted to throw my book across the room. Or into the ocean. And start gagging. No offense, but Jacob should have died. Someone always has to die if you want the book to be good. Come on, Stephanie, take a hint from J.K. Rowling.
Critique #4: Have Alice be gone for most of the book, only to come save the day at the end, with no fight with the Volturi. Seriously. There was no action scene.
Alice was taken out for most of the book because she supposedly didn't want to die from the Volturi, and thus ran away from death. And then she shows up right before there would have been a good fight scene, and manages to make peace between the good and bad vampires. Now, that's just bad writing. And her reasoning behind leaving the family is so "perfect" and everyone is happy they don't have to fight and no one dies and Bella and Edward live happily ever after. The end.
The point is, everything worked out so sickeningly well at the end of the book, that I just wanted to throw up. I was very disappointed with the plot AND characters.
GRADE: D
Feel free to tell me what you thought in the comments section.
