Customer Reviews: Read 166 more reviews...
  Disappointing, badly written and completey illogical. December 4, 2008
This series, although with some obvious faults, had kept me interested until I reached "Breaking Dawn". As a sixteen year old girl, I was expecting again the "does he love me? does he not?" dilemma Bella finds herself in constantly as well as the guilt for her love for Jacob - a common theme in the majority of "teen cult" novels. Instead, I put the book down after an hours attempted reading, in hysterical laughter mingled with scorn.
Bella, was once a character one found interesting - if not infuriating at times - she morphed into every teenage girls nightmare : the "perfect" girl. Whilst in the previous books Bella's negativity was sarcastic it turns into a confused and twisted hybrid of teenage pregnancy with intermingled, random outbursts of "love" before realising how beautiful and wonderful she is when she hunts with Edward. Bella's originality dies the moment she sleeps with Edward - she becomes an incredibly passive and boring character.
Edward, whilst once having an army of girls with "Mrs Edward Cullen" adorned on their msn names now faces the backlash of becoming a stereotypical nagging and withholding wife - he will not sleep with Bella because its just not right etcetcetc. The constant "ohmygod what have I done?" grates on the reader as well as the repulsion of him offering Bella sexually to Jacob. Edward never builds back into the Prince he was and the character changes, leaving the majority of my friends disgruntled and unhappy.
Jacob remains the only character true to form, the only character one can empathise with due to his very real situation of being caught between a girl he loves, her partner he detests and a race against time. But then Meyer had to go and "stir it up" by, after two books of "Jacob is a werewolf- ARGH!" to "Oh he's only a shape-shifter?" Cue a "What the ??" from numerous readers all over the world. This situation heightens when he imprints on their child - Renessmee (or however you spell it) and completely contradicts his adoration of Bella and frankly sickened me. Okay its "cute" but come on, after years of fantasizing of Bella ...
IN conclusion, don't read this book. Let the saga be remembered as being fun, a little daft in times but being generally a crowd pleaser with every teenage girl's dream being realised. Do not insult yourself by buying this book, the characters are warped beyond recognition and the storyline caves in on its on stupidity.
Rubbish November 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book makes a mockery of the whole Twilight series. The first book in the series was brilliant, the second okay, the third better than okay, but this is plain rubbish. The diologue is rubbish, the story is boring and dull and what I hate most *Warning spoiler* is how the character of Jacob imprints on Bella's daughter. It makes his love for Bella a waste of time and this was part of the reason the Twilight saga was so good. The story would have gone a bit better if he had imprinted on someone like Leah. I also found Bella annoying in this book, and sometimes found myself wanting to tell her to shut up.
Overall, a horrible read and I was so happy when I finished it. If you have only read the first three books, leave it at that as if you read this book, it will change how you feel about Bella and Edward. They aren't the same as in the other books and not in a good way.
 Thank God that's over. November 30, 2008
I loved 'Twilight', but I wish it had just stopped there (or at any rate that I had), because following book 1 this series rapidly succumbs to Series Disease - editor apparently checks out, author rapidly loses the even more rapidly evaporating plot, and everything that made the first book unique and fresh gets repeated until it's formulaic with a vengeance.
Before I started reading this, I chuckled over an amazon reviewer who called it 'emetic', thinking it couldn't be that bad. After 700+ pages, though, I'll not only give him emetic, I'll riff of it too because, given the subject matter, I couldn't help comparing the reading experience with morning sickness: increasingly nauseating, all-consuming, and inevitable. In fact, once I figured out the premise of this book (and really, I never thought she'd stoop so low!), I was tempted to hurl it across the room. Stayed my hand because that would probably have resulted in a broken window (this is a tome of Potter-like proportions - RSI sufferers be warned!)
I hung in there solely because it seemed there would finally be an all-out, blood-and-guts vampire showdown at the end. Rue the misplaced hope! Because instead of the fight the second half of the book seems to promise, we get thirty-odd pages of vampirical squabbling, which culminates in the bad guys - and the Volturi had SUCH potential as bad guys! - stomping off in a snit because...well actually, I'm not really sure why. It had something to do with their inability to do anything else because then everyone might figure out they're not the righteous vampire police they pretend to be. Um, but didn't we already know that?
Oh, never mind. I'm sure my misanthropic reviews can't sway anyone who wants to like these books. And in the end I'm not so much out to trash them as to protest the waste: I mean, aren't vampires bloodthirsty predators first and foremost? Civilised as the Cullens might be in their stately home, it would have added a dimension to, say, Esme, to see her rip Aro's head off. I guess I'll just go back to Buffy and Anne Rice and stay away from teen horror series. For the moment, anyway...
So Disappointed...... November 29, 2008
I was really looking forward to reading this book. I have loved the series. Loved Twilight, really enjoyed New Moon and loved Eclipse and then we got Breaking Dawn, which in my opinion was very disappointing. So much so I rushed through the last 200 pages. I just could not be bothered to give it anymore of my time.
I thought the book started off well, and I was really enjoying it. But when a certain unexpected thing happens to Bella, for me it went down hill. I found myself slogging through the book instead of enjoying it.
It felt like I was reading an entirely different book from the series, all the personalities of the characters seem to disappear, and the book just seemed empty and bland. I felt it was far too long and the story was just dragged on and on....
The book should of just ended when they got married, as the rest of it is complete rubbish. Having to slog through so much boring stuff, just to get that perfect ending.
But, although I disliked this book, I'm not going to put Stephenie Meyer down, as I really did enjoy the first three. She gave us Edward, Bella and Jacob. They are three of my most favourite characters. It's such a shame this book didn't live up to the other three (imo).
'Perfect' Bella returns for another crappy book November 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the most disappointing things about this book was that there was not fight at the end. What was the whole point of building up the climax to the fight with the Volturi if Meyer was just going to let perfect (and extremely annoying) Bella save the day with her brick wall of a brain? The only part of the book that was actually good was Jacob's part considering that he's the only person in the book that has character. Bella somehow manages to end up more perfect that she started off (but her dress sense doesn't improve). Overall, I think the book could have had a better ending and the series, in general, could have been less soppy and plotless.
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