Wednesday, December 10, 2008

2nd Quarter Reading Book Review

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer. Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Genres: Fantasy; Romance

Breaking Dawn is the fourth and final book in the twilight series. The protagonists are still Isabella Swan (Bella) , Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black (Jake). Bella and Edward get married in the first few chapters of the book then they go on their honey moon. Bella becomes pregnant and they fly back home to Forks, Washington. Now the book switches from Bella's point of view to her best friend Jacob's to best describe what's happening to Bella. Jake is a werewolf with the rest of the boys in his home town and one girl. He and one of the other wolves leave their pack because the Wolves decide to kill Bella to get rid of the fetus. Edward and his family are vampires which is why the wolves find the fetus to be dangerous its never been heard of, a half human and half vampire baby. Jake and Ben, the other wolf, warn the Cullen's and help to keep the peace. When the baby is born she is named Renesme and Bella almost dies if it weren't for Edward turning her by injecting venom right into her heart. The book switches back to Bella's point of view here to show her first experiences as a vampire. When the oldest vampire community in the world belongs to the Vulturi vampires bent on protecting their kind and keeping their species secret. When the Vulturi hear of an ;immortal child' or a child being turned into a vampire. They come to kill the whole Cullen family. Even though Renesme is very much alive. This leads to a stand off which ends in peace. Everyone safe and sound in their beds. Edward and Bella together forever.

"[Meyer is] the world's most popular vampire novelist since Anne Rice."-Entertainment weekly reads the inside back cover. ""Seethes with archetypal tumult of star-crossed passions, in which the supernatural element serves as a heady spice."-New York Times

Breaking Dawn has many elements that are very much the same as the other four books in the Twilight series. They have the same style and characters, more because it's a series. This is the worst book in the series in my opinion, the best is the second New Moon. Some fans would have liked to see it end a little different and there was far less action than some of the previous books.

One unique quality to this book is that you do get to see life from one of the other characters point of view where as the rest are all from Bella's point of view. Jacob's point of view is much more focused on detail of the surroundings where as Bella is more focused on people and emotions. This gave the book a little bit of a twist over the rest.

"Jacob pulled back a little bit and straightened up. He left one hand on the small of my back and grabbed my right hand with the other. He cradled our hands to his chest; I could feel his heart beat under my palm, and I guessed that he hadn't placed my hand there accidentally. 'I don't know if I get more then this one dance,'he said and began pulling me around in a slow circle that didn't match the tempo of the music coming behind us. 'I'd better make the best of it.'" (59)

Stephanie Meyer has a different perspective on vampires than most. Things you thought you knew about vampires might be totally flipped around in these novels. I own all four books in this series and I've read the first one four times, the second five, and the third and fourth twice, they are that good. These books sparked my imagination and it's reflected in my creative writing almost all of them now include vampires.


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