First part -- Spoiler Free : Last Saturday was a big day for those of us following the story of Bella the human, her vampire boyfriend Edward, and her werewolf best friend / perhaps potential love interest Jacob. Breaking Dawn was finally here!! If you've got a request on Breaking Dawn here at LGPL, you might want to give a "thank you" to super-library-employee and Stephenie Meyer Fan Carol, who got up early last Saturday, on her day off, went to Costco, and brought us two more copies of the book. She's a hero. For those who haven't read any of the Twilight series, you'll want to do that before reading Breaking Dawn. For those who plan to read Breaking Dawn, but haven't yet, I'll say that it does a good job of wrapping up the story Meyer has been telling us for a few years now. That's all I'm going to say. You should stop reading this review and put yourself on the list for either the book or the audio CD.
Second Part -- Full of Spoilers. Really. Don't read this if you're not done with the book.
I don't know about you, but I was extremely pleased with the way this book turned out. I've heard some folks are unhappy with the tidy happy ending, or that they're upset that Edward and Bella had a kid so soon, and, sure, I get that. But I still liked this book a lot. I read it faster than I read Harry Potter last summer. Then I started it over again right away.
So, Bella and Edward get married, in a lovely Alice-planned wedding. Jacob shows up, that was nice of him wasn't it? We knew he'd be there. I like Seth in this book, he's a good guy. Bella lets slip that she and Edward are going to have sex before she become a vampire, and Jacob becomes furious. We have to question Bella's judgment in sharing this info, but it's good for one last classic Jacob-Edward standoff, isn't it. Bella and Edward leave for their honeymoon on a secluded island owned (of course) by the Cullen family. The new Mr. and Mrs. Cullen have their honeymoon, and low and behold, Bella ends up pregnant. Not just pregnant, but pregnant with something that's growing at an alarming rate. Here come the first two big surprises of the book. 1) Bella turns to Rosemarie for help. Nice. and 2) The middle section of the book is told from Jacob's point of view. Really good call, Stephenie.
Bella's not doing so well, and Jacob can't stay away. There's friction in the pack, when Sam feels he should protect his people by destroying the child Bella's carrying, and most likely Bella in the process. Vampire babies = extremely bad, we learn. It makes sense, they don't have the ability to control themselves, or hide fact that they're vampires, so chaos ensues. Jacob leaves the pack to defend Bella, the baby, and the Cullens. He disobeys a direct order from Sam by finally stepping up to the Alpha plate, and he becomes a pack of one. Briefly. Until both Seth and Leah join him. Sam decides to hold off on destroying the truce, the baby, Bella, and the Cullens, but things are still pretty tense. Bella's all set to die for the baby if she has to, but figures as long as she can keep her heart beating until the baby is delivered, Edward can make her a vampire at the last minute and all will be well. And, essentially, this is what happens. In a gory birth scene, Edward delivers the half-and-half baby, while Jacob performs CPR to keep Bella's heart beating. It's a close call, but Edward injects vampire venom straight into her heart right after the baby is born. Jacob leaves the room thinking Bella has died, and briefly contemplates killing the baby who killed Bells. But, in another great moment in the book, instead, as soon as he sees the babies eyes, he imprints, and is committed to the new little Renesmee for life.
We all saw this coming, right? I've never understood what Team Jacob folks thought would happen when Jacob inevitably imprinted on someone other than Bella. If she'd chosen him, she would have been crushed. Sure, I thought at some points in Eclipse that Stephenie might take us down that road, but I never in my wildest dreams thought that Jacob wouldn't imprint on someone at some point. That it was Bella and Edward's daughter just made things tidy. Some would say "too tidy," but I liked it. This also straightened out the mess with the packs, because it's totally forbidden to harm the object of another wolf's imprinting, you know, for obvious reasons.
Then came my absolute favorite part of the book. Bella as a vampire. Haven't you been wanting to know what it's like to be a vampire? I have been, for three and a half books now! I was going to feel really cheated if somehow Bella ended this book as a human. Luckily Stephenie delivered again, and we got to see all the creek jumping, Emmett arm-wrestling, mountain-lion eating we've been craving. Awesome. I also really enjoyed Bella finding out that Jacob had imprinted on Renesmee, and that he'd done something about that horrible name. It's clever, but really? Not that great a name. And in another unexpected pleasant turn of events, Jacob clued Charlie in, just the right amount, so he can still visit Bella and his new granddaughter. Yes, some people think this was just a little too easy, but again, I liked it!! I refuse to be swayed.
Those were my favorite parts of the story, but for the sake of thoroughness, let's just cover what else happens. Now that werewolves aren't a threat to Renesmee, of course, we've got to bring the Volturi back. Turns out they want an excuse, any excuse, to bring the Cullens down, and they think they've got a good one in the shape of a cute new baby vampire. Since real baby vampires are so destructive, they've been banned, and word gets to the Volturi that the Cullens have created one, thus violating vampire law. Of course we all know that Renesmee isn't a full vampire, she's a Cullen! So she's a nice vampire, but the message gets muddled and the Volturi are set to attack. The Cullens muster the troops, gathering every vampire they can from around the globe to "witness" the showdown with the Volturi. They figure if they can just explain that Renesmee is good, all will be well. But, we all know how the Volturi fight. If Jane and Alec have their way, there will be no time for explanations. Alice and Jasper take off, and most people think it's because Alice has foreseen the Cullen's downfall, and so the mood is generally dour. I think most of us readers never doubted Alice for a second, right? We knew she was coming back. Bella plans for the worst, and gets ready to send Renesmee off into the world with Jacob, while she and Edward stay behind to fight and die. Fortunately, though, it turns out that Bella does have an amazing talent. The same knack that keeps Edward, Aro, Jane and Alec out of her brain can be turned into a shield. So when the Volturi try to attack, it's Bella who keeps everyone safe. Ta-da! Happy ending. Not bad, huh? More than 750 pages in just under six paragraphs.
What did you think? Too easy? Are you devastated that it's over? Do you think Stephenie will write more of the story from Renesmee and Jacob's point of view? Or are you just holding on for the Twilight-from-Edward's perspective? Were you a little disappointed that Bella's talent is "shielding?" Are you as perplexed as I am that suddenly "Jasper" has become "Jazz?" Really? Are we going to start calling Edward "Eddie" next? Did anyone go to the midnight release parties?
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