Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent delivery!
Comment: Very good book! A little different than Meyer's other three books for the series, but a definite must read! :) You will not be left wanting! Lol!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Politics have nothing on this book!
Comment: I became "enraptured" by the Twilight saga earlier this summer, reading all four books within a month's time and also locating and reading the first chapter of "Midnight Sun" on Stephenie Meyer's website. I am a true fan of this series, yet I wouldn't call myself fanatical (yet). I love romance novels, having read countless stories over the years, because I'm all about the "happy ending." I want to feel GREAT when I finish a book. I want to fall in love with the characters myself and experience vicariously their ups and downs on their way to love, peace, and happiness. And I don't think there is ANYTHING wrong with a character getting everything she's dreamed about by the end of the tale. After all, fiction is one of our greatest forms of escapism from the boring realities of everyday life. So reading about somebody I've grown to care about--somebody I can identify with through his or her insecurities and imperfections--win life's lottery so to speak, is a fabulous emotional experience for ME as well as the character. This experience is what Stephenie Meyer gave to me when she created Bella, Edward, et. al., and I thank her profusely for it.

What has me flabbergasted about this series is how completely polarizing it is. I have never see such a rabid "love it/hate it" reaction from such a broad base of readers. Politics is close, but still comes in second in terms of people FEROCIOUSLY taking sides on an issue. (Believe me, I have already been verbally attacked for another thing I posted!) My question is WHY? I will offer that Breaking Dawn was not my favorite of the series, but it was certainly a worthy ending. I would give Twilight and Eclipse 5 stars each, and New Moon and Breaking Dawn 4 stars each. For me. For the amount of enjoyment I got out of reading each and satisfaction with each book's overall story arc/ending.

What I ask here is: For those of you who absolutely did not care for Breaking Dawn because THE STORY did not go in the DIRECTION YOU WANTED--not because you think SM doesn't know how to construct a proper narrative--WHAT exactly were you expecting to see happen to these characters?! Because all the posts from the naysayers that I've read here and on other boards are generous in their vitriol for the ending of this series, the lack of characterization, the implausibility, etc., yet NOBODY that I've come across has actually taken the time to tell me what exactly THEY expected to HAPPEN in this final book! WHY is Meyer's ending for characters she arguably holds more near and dear to her heart than ANY of us so "not right?" I really want to know where you critics would have taken these characters instead. Because I think what Stephenie Meyer did was quite in keeping with the spirit and progression of each book. Instead of just ripping apart a story you didn't feel was worthy of your time, please give me a constructive summary of how YOU would have ended the saga, so that I may better understand why you all hate Stephenie's ending so much. Because I don't understand why "happiness" has all of a sudden become a BAD THING.

Thank you.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Occasionally excellent
Comment: My big problem with Stephenie Meyer's writing is how weird it is - I don't mean the subject matter, with which she has done some very interesting and even innovative things, so much as how febrile imaginings take the place of actual plot, and suspense, and plot tension to move the story forward, and endings in which there are shocks and surprises, and actual twists and turns, rather than mere simplistic resolution (they were there at the right time! or, everyone agreed!)

I loved the imagining of the vampire condition. The big surprise of the pregnancy - the surprise to the reader, that is - the birth sequence (terrific) and the transformation from human to vampire (terrific) -- all of that was gripping. But there are great longeurs in this novel, as there were in the first (I skipped the middle ones), and it seems to me Ms Meyer has had terrific success before she was required to develop as a writer.

Or maybe it is so, that she has developed as a writer to a fine degree in some areas, and to a poor degree in others. It's quite intriguing.

Maybe the point is that ultimately it's a romance novel, and the heroine is there to be adored, and the reader is to be supplied with an escapist fantasy of being adored and fought over. I really enjoyed this in places, though I sped-read most of it. I admire the work as an achievement. But ultimately I'm just kind of puzzled.

Customer Rating:
Summary: If you want to become aggravated then give this book a read!
Comment: Meyer was never a great writer but her books always had a great story so I overlooked the horrible writing, but this was just horrible. She droned on for so many pages when every thing could have been said in less than 300 hundred pages. I reached page 200 and had to take Advil because she is so long winded and won't get to the damn point. Then her characters became so flat and had no personality to them. They seem to personify only one aspect of their personality to a very large extreme. The plot was also very ridiculous and stagnant. Like previously said I was already so far in the book and felt like the badly written plot was going no where. Then all the loose ends she left in the previous three books were resolved with the most irritating and just plain stupid solutions. When I reached the end I felt cheated, and that she only wrote this unnecessarily long fourth book to get another paycheck and she succeeded. So now she isn't just a bad writer, but now we can add bad story teller to her list.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Breaking Dawn
Comment: My daughter just could not put this book down and now she is reading it again!