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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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(Spoilers) Finished BD last night- why don't some of you like it?
Just curious...I liked it but I'm easily entertained too. I liked how it all worked out nicely in the end with Jacob. The "battle" was a bit of a let down but I was glad no one I was attached to died.
Kinda sad the series is over now. I already read MS so I'll have to wait patiently for her to finish it.
Going to see Twilight again this weekend with a friend in honor of finishing the series!
Re: (Spoilers) Finished BD last night- why don't some of you like it?
A lot of it just felt so out of place. Because half the story comes from Jacob's POV, we miss (ok, well I missed) out on seeing the Edward we came to fall in love with in the first three. Then there's the whole Nessie storyline that creeped me out....
What bugged me most was the big huge build up to the fight and them bam...the Volturi walk away. I felt like it was story blue balls or something.
There were parts I hated and parts that I loved, and I STILL can't figure out how strongly one way or the other I feel about it.
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So, after all the fun and excitement of the release party, and all of the build up over the past few weeks...I didn't really like the last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn.
Do you have any idea how much it kills me to say that? How much I wanted to love the *** out of this book? How jealous I am of people who are loving it right now?
Disappointment doesn't even begin to cover what I am feeling, as invested as I have been in this series. Lame as it sounds, I feel personally slighted. I've been in a funk for the past couple of days that can only be described as mourning. An extreme reaction, yes, but I have had extreme feelings about these books since I read the very first word, so that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
Now, obviously, there will be spoilers in this post...I can't explain my feelings without pointing to the evidence from the book. Also, as I mentioned, I have extreme feelings about this, so it's very long. That being said, if you are planning on reading the book and don't want to get spoiled, don't read this. If you don't feel like reading me blab on and on, don't read this. If you don't care about either, go right ahead! I have a lot to say!
Okay, where to begin?
Well, let's begin here. I have loved these books because they took something that was total fantasy, the world of vampires and werewolves, and made it seem so realistic. She combined this mythical world with the real world so seamlessly that I wouldn't have been surprised to see a vampire walk past me on the street, or hear a werewolf howl outside my window. I never thought I would have liked a vampire book, but this was never a vampire book to me, it was a book about Bella and Edward, and I loved reading about them, no matter what world they were in.
This book, though, didn't continue it. Just like Bella, this book totally lost its humanity, and lost all touch with the "real world," which left it feeling much more sci-fi and fantasy than I am comfortable with. There was nothing real left in this book. No Forks. Just fantasy Cullen land, taking place mostly in the woods, and right off the bat, that was difficult to relate to.
Then there is this issue. Canon. When a fictional world is established by an author, that author also comes up with "rules" for this world, establishes a history, sets up a way of life. Within the canon of the Twilight universe, it had been established that vampires can't have babies. When a human is turned to a vampire, venom overtakes his or her body, that body is frozen in its current state, and that person has no more tears, no more blood (besides what is ingested as food), and no more sweat. APPARENTLY, though, somehow SEMEN is immune to this, and, although it had never been mentioned before, ever, anywhere in the past three books, it is possible for a vampire man to get a female woman pregnant. And, yes, we find this out on Bella and Edward's honeymoon, when she gets knocked up with his baby.
W. T. F.
I felt like I had been lied to by Stephenie Meyer (SM). She has been saying that vampires can't have babies in both her books and personal interviews for years now, and all of a sudden she pulls the rug out from under us and says, "Oh! Just the females can't get pregnant! Didn't I mention that?!?"
To me, this just screams plot device. This is where I first got pissed, and, sadly, this happens on page 127 of a 750 page book.
This leads a little bit into my next irritation. The focus of this book. I have loved all of the other three books because the main focus has always been on the relationship between Edward and Bella. Even in New Moon, when he was gone for half of the book, the focus was still there, on their love and their connection. When I heard that this book was going to begin with a wedding between these two, I was almost giddy! A whole book of Bella and Edward! Together! I love it!
Well, shortly after they get married, they get pregnant, and the focus shifts from Bella and Edward to Bella and her baby. Yes, there are still Bella and Edward moments, but they are few and far between, and lack the passion and the fire that the other books had when describing their interactions.
So, yes, I finally got my vampire sex, but it left me feeling a little cold. (Pun completely intended.) I can't help but feel that the sex totally overshadowed the intimacy and love in their relationship. Think about the intimate moments in the series. The first meadow scene, when Edward's head is resting on Bella's chest and he is listening to her heartbeat. The insane physical chemistry between them in biology class. Flying back from Italy, when Bella wills herself to stay awake so she can look at him, not wanting to lose even one minute, and he is carefully stroking her face. Their alone time in the Cullen house in Eclipse. There are so many times when they aren't even doing anything, but you can feel the sparks flying off of the page. You can feel the intimacy and the passion between these two characters. This could have been taken to a new level when they were married and became even more intimate, even without describing the actual sex for her teenage audience. However, I feel like the passion was totally missing, and that made me sad.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the headboard breaking, nightgown ripping, tantric vampire sex (well, the allusion to it, anyway, since it was all fade to black and then waking up the next day), but with so much focus on sex, we lost the passion of the other books.
Another thing we lost, with Bella's priorities shifting to sex and baby, is Edward. Where was my beloved Edward in this book? I feel like he was relegated to secondary character status, where his only job was to freak out or bone Bella. Where was the brooding, dazzling vampire I fell in love with? I knew that, once Bella was changed, he would no longer be so conflicted, since he can now truly be himself with her. I was very excited to possibly see Edward let loose a little bit, to just enjoy being with his hot vampire wife. It was there a little bit, we saw hints of it, but it was all secondary to the baby.
In addition, I think SM lost sight of her target audience. These books are written for a young adult crowd. How many 15-year-olds can relate to the unconditional love a mother has for her child? Maybe some girls I went to high school with, but I would say very, very few who are reading this series. They can relate to falling in love for the first time, they can relate to losing your first love, they can relate to choosing between two guys. They can't really relate to wanting to keep a baby that is killing you, and then loving it unconditionally. Hell, I'm almost 30 and I can't even relate, but I am a helluva lot closer than the girls reading and trying to understand Bella's actions in this book. It loses a lot of its relatablity with this pregnancy / motherhood aspect thrown in so close to the end of the series.
And O.M.G. the baby. It's name is Renesemee. Do I need to say anything else? (I honestly don't know how to pronounce it, I honestly don't know if I am spelling that correctly, and I honestly don't care. When you give a character the stupidest name on the *** planet, you should be prepared for it to be mispronounced and misspelled.) Oh, yah, I do need to say something else. Jacob imprints on Bella and Edward's half-human and half-vampire baby.
I've never been a huge Jacob fan, but I was hoping he would get some kind of happy ending here and imprint on someone, at the very least to get out of the way of Bella and Edward, so they can live happily ever after. I was halfway through the chapters written in his POV when I decided to get some sleep on Saturday morning, however, my sleep was interrupted after an hour and a half when I shot up out of bed, thinking "She wouldn't have Jacob imprint on Bella's baby, would she?!?" After that, I had to get up and read to find out. Sure enough, I was right. She went there.
Some people are irritated by the implied pedophilia. I'm fine with that, and it was introduced in Eclipse with Quil and Claire, so it's easier to accept. It's more that it's Bella's baby, and, even more than that, it's the fact that, just like the baby in general, the whole thing screams plot device. Hmmm...how can we keep Jacob in the story once Bella and Edward get married? I know, he can imprint on their kid! Then he can still provide lighthearted comedy and witty banter! Yay!
Oh, and going back to canon, it seems like just pages before his imprint, Jacob was explaining that the wolves imprint to build a stronger race of wolves for the future. Since the only purpose of the wolves is to protect the tribe from vampires, their only enemy, how does imprinting on and eventually breeding with a half-vampire help the future wolves kill vampires? Not to mention the fact that, until now, every imprintee has been either Quilyute (sp? don't feel like looking it up) or from a neighboring tribe. It just doesn't make sense with what we have presented so far in the story.
Speaking of things that don't make sense...the characters. My beloved Cullens. Where were you? Who were you? I feel like one of the strengths of the first three books was the development of the characters, specifically the Cullens. It seems like SM has always put the character development first, and then used those characters to drive the plot. This book, it seems, was so plot heavy (Wedding! Scary pregnancy! Near death! Change to vampire! Newborn! Adorable baby! Volturi! Epic battle! Happy ending!) that the characters suffered as a result. Hardly any of them seemed true to what we have learned about them thus far. Even Alice, one of the most charming and entertaining characters in the series was reduced to a completely one-dimensional background element...Alice likes to shop. Wooo. The only character who was true to himself was Emmett, and without his one-liners about Bella and Edward's sex life I might have been crying over the total demise of the Cullens I have grown to love.
The whole thing, honestly, felt like someone else wrote it. I've seen lots of reviews on amazon and message boards that compare this book to fan fiction. I don't read fan fiction, because I think it's lame, but I can totally understand this comparison. It's as if someone read the first three books and tried to imitate SM's writing style to create an ending for these characters, but, since this person was not the original author, there is a major disconnect. There is plot disconnect, there is character disconnect, nothing seems to line up 100%. If you look at the first three books, there is fluidity, but then this one, I don't know where the heck it comes from. Something is just off.
This issue of continuity brings me to one of my major problems. I have always liked how SM has dealt with the theme of choice in her novels. Bella has had to face many important choices through each of the books, and she has realized that with each of these choices comes some sort of sacrifice. If she wants Edward, she has to give up Jacob. If she wants the Cullens, she has to give up Charlie and Renee. If she wants immortality, she has to give up her humanity, and everything that goes with it. This has been a solid theme that has been addressed in each of the books, and it really came to a head in Eclipse. In fact, SM addresses this in her FAQ for Eclipse:
Q. What is the most pivotal plot development that happens in Eclipse?
A. In both Twilight and New Moon, Bella commits to becoming a vampire without once really examining what price she'll pay. In Eclipse, Bella fully comprehends that price. And then she chooses to pay it. Every aspect of the novel revolves around this point, every back story, every relationship, every moment of action
So, we would assume that, because she has finally made her choice at the end of Eclipse, Breaking Dawn would deal with the consequences behind her choices. You know, those sacrifices that have been looming since book one?
Right?
Wrong. Bella gets IT ALL. She gets everything she ever wanted, and never has to make a single sacrifice, never has to pay a single price. She gets Edward. She gets Jacob. (Since he has imprinted on her daughter, he gets to stay in her life forever). She gets immortality. She gets a baby. She gets the Cullens. She gets Charlie. (Who conveniently accepts their don't ask, don't tell policy...) She gets to be a kick-ass vampire. She gets to pass the newborn stage totally. She gets to be beautiful and graceful. She gets to save the day. SHE LOSES NOTHING.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am all about a happy ending. I wanted nothing more than for Bella and Edward to love happily ever after. What I am upset about is the fact that this theme of choice and sacrifice has been dominant since the beginning of the series and it just gets abandoned in this last book. It rings so false with everything else that has happened until this point, and I had such a hard time swallowing it. We end up with this deus ex machina ending that leave us all blindsided; everything is wrapped up in a perfect bow, but it was all so forced, so contrived.
I know that SM loves her characters, and I think that is the problem. I think this book/ending was TOTALLY self-indulgent. I'm not the only fan who is upset with the way it ended and the way things went, even though it was a happy ending, which pretty much everyone was rooting for!
In the end, she gave ALL of the characters EVERYTHING they wanted, because she loved them so much. No one lost anything. It's not just Bella who didn't have to make any sacrifices...no one did. Not one character. Even Rosalie kinda got a baby to take care of. She loved them so much that she wasn't willing to take any risks with them.
So, by giving them everything, she is the one who had to sacrifice. That sacrifice was the fluidity from the other books and the realism of the story/canon she had set up in the other three stories.
Not to be a total hater, there are some things I liked. I liked the wedding, and the honeymoon up until the pregnancy. I actually found myself liking Jacob's "voice," and his chapter titles were hilarious. Of course, the Edward/Bella sexy time. (I already went back and read all the sexy parts again.) I loved Bella's change, and her first experiences as a newborn vampire. I loved seeing Bella and Edward on equal ground. (I just wish there would have been more of it!) I loved that Bella was finally able to be the one to save everyone else, and keep everyone else safe in the final battle. And I totally lost my *** on the last few pages, when she was finally able to show him her mind. These things were all just so overshadowed to me by the stuff I mentioned above, and, specifically, the one thing I can't seem to get over: Bella's pregnancy/kid.
I didn't HATE it, it just didn't feel like the 4th in a series, ya know?
But the things I did hate?
Renesmee? Really?
No fight.
Jacob.. really, phasing in front of Charlie...with no warning? Okay then.
J Jenks
What, my daughter is weird, like in a sci fi way? Okay, I'll just accept it and ask no questions... hey nice 3 yr old you have ther... heeeey.
Fade to black... you can suck it SM.
<><
Tizzle 10/07 ~ Boppy 7/09 ~ Chicken 1/12
2014 Reading Goal: 85
::standing ovation for Y_L::
wow - well put, Y_L, i haven't seen that before
just to add in - the ending of the book really bothered me. it felt very "brady bunch reunion" - hey, let's gather all the vampires we've discussed the whole series for a grand finale
as far as the imprinting goes, i definitely agree with Y_L. It would have made a lot more sense for him to imprint on Leah (which is what i SO wanted to happen) and leave Bella forever.
Ditto!!
Wow. That was so awesome. You seriously covered everything I felt about that book! And I like that you included what you did like about it - it was all of the same things as me. I thought all along you didn't like it at all, but now that I have read that review I can say I feel exactly the same way as you.
::bows to Y_L::
::lines up to kiss Y_L's ass:: Aside from the spawn hate, I'm pretty much with you on the rest. However, the good stuff outweighed the not-so-good for me. Like the OP, I'm easily entertained.
Bravo for your review!
*Joins in clapping loudly*
I've never actually read your review but you put EVERY detail I hated about it into beautiful words.
Ditto this as well haha.. But I agree on every point she made. I am still able to say I liked the book, that's all.
Someone mentioned this already, but my biggest beef with BD was that I missed my Edward. Sure, he was all emo and moody as hell in the first three but it seemed the Edward I loved from Twilight, NM and Eclipse was overshadowed by this whiny, pitiful, woe is me character. Even after Bella was a vamp and she was fine and the baby was fine, Edward seemed more like a secondary character to me than one of the main characters.
Overall, I thought BD was good, not great, but good. When reading it, I was at a point in my life where I needed to be taken away from reality (hurricanes, evacuations from home, and bar results) and it did the job well. I re-read some of my favorite parts again recently and gained a new perspective on the book. It is not LOVE like the first three, but a definite like.
Very valid points and I agree with Y_L on a lot...I guess I liked that she got it all because I wanted them to be happy. But I agree it goes against the grain of the others.
I too wanted Jacob to imprint on Leah- wonder who she finally did imprint on.
Like I said, I'm easily entertained so I still enjoyed it. Was it my favorite in teh series? No- but it I was glad to have a happily ever after for them. And honestly, glad I didn't have to read about their constant suffering anymore (I was glad I didn't have to read about her newborn stage)
Thanks for answering why- I can definitely see why the book was disappointing to so many. Perhaps that's why they may not make this one into a film?
Yay!! ?I hadn't read your review before either, thanks for re-posting. ?I agree with you & Renesme drove me nuts! ?I did enjoy the book same as most of you guys but it definitely had it faults.?
I just finished BD last night, and I felt like I was punch in the gut...and it is a bit just jealousy (crazy to be jealous over paper and ink I know)
She got every little thing she wanted....Edward, a Baby, Immortality, The Cullens as her family and her mortal family to boot.
But while it tied itself in nice neat little package...I don't know.
The most disturbing part is, SM said she never imprinted on anyone. At least someone here posted that - someone correct me if I'm wrong there!
I never realized how gullible I am. After reading Y-L's review, I loved all of the explanations and finally see why others didn't like the book. It was my favorite in the series though. I guess I'm a sucker for a happy ending and none of it disappointed me. Open mouth, insert hook. SM just reeled me in all the way.
One of the things I did think about was how Bella's transformation seems so perfect that it was more like destiny that she become a vampire than stay human. All of the seeming imperfections are gone- she's no longer goofy and awkward- she's graceful. She doesn't put everyone in danger- she helps protect them. I can see why the cover has the pawn and the queen on it. She gets her cake and eats it too. Canon be damned!
Even though Alice is gone, it is explained later because her loyalty is even fiercer and pulls them all through.
Edward does take a back seat, but this really is Bella's book anyway. That's just kind of how it is when you're pregnant. Dad gets to worry about Mommy constantly, and Mommy worries about baby.
I also thought something quite similar.