Review: Breaking Dawn

Title: Breaking Dawn
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Summary: The conclusion to Bella and Edward's love story.

Review: Of all the books in The Twilight Saga, Twilight has been my favorite. But I liked this final book about as much as I did all the others. As with most of Meyer's novels, I liked it but didn't love it. Yet I still had this all-consuming desire to read it in every spare moment of the day. So even though I had to wake up at 5:30 this morning and I knew Abby would be waking up at least once to eat, I stayed up til almost midnight to finish this puppy.

This was another great read, but I did have a couple disappointments. Stop reading here if you don't want me to spoil anything.

About halfway through the book, everything's all fine and dandy with no major conflict on the horizon, which was nice and all but it got pretty boring after a short while. I didn't really feel the impending doom of the Volturi until after this blissed-out section. And this isn't really a disappointment in this book but more in the others: Bella finally, finally, FINALLY saves the day. But she had to become a vampire to do it! That just rubs me the wrong way. I so wish Bella had been given some special quality, talent, skill, SOMETHING that she could have used in a pinch in the other books. She was always being rescued by the Cullens or Jacob.

With Harry Potter, his status as a wizard is unremarkable. What's remarkable and what saves the day time and time again is his character—who he is as a person. So it's easy to identify with Harry, and it's satisfying to read about how he saves the day.

Bella is just not a strong character. Not until she becomes a vampire, that is. And even then she's constantly belittling herself! I think the reason I was able to still get really into this final book is all the description of Bella's feelings for her daughter. Every time I read a passage about Nessie, I had this overwhelming urge to go smother Abby in hugs and kisses. I guess you could argue that the fact that she protected her daughter before birth shows strength. But how did she do that? She went running to a vampire bodyguard and sat back and let other people take care of her and decide the best way for doing so.

It's such a compelling plot and world, it seems such a waste that the main character is so completely and utterly weak.