Breaking Dawn Broke My Heart

[SPOILERS Ahead!] It is extremely obvious from my Multiply site that I am a huge Twilight Saga fan. I would have to say, though, that the final installment in Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga disappointed me very very much. I feel that she wasted a great opportunity to crystallize the recurring themes of her series. I know some fans may disagree with me but I also know that many agree as evidenced by the Return Breaking Dawn movement and other bad reviews of Breaking Dawn. Let me list down my points of contention with Breaking Dawn in this Breaking Dawn review.

What is Meyer telling me?

In the first three books of the Twilight Saga, Twilight, New Moonand Eclipse, Meyer’s recurring themes were love, sacrifice and choice along with their consequences. I was expecting that these themes will be crystallized in the last book. Breaking Dawn felt like a betrayal of her established themes. Bella’s choice to become a vampire did not have the natural consequence of her estrangement from her father and her mother just disappeared from the scene. I am a parent and I do not think a father will react the way Charlie did. Her choice to marry Edward and hurt Jacob was simply resolved when Jacob imprinted on her child (a half-human, half-vampire). What is Meyer telling me? Let me see…

(1) Marry even if you are young and immature
(2) Becoming pregnant automatically makes a woman mature
(3) No need to go to College. You just need to marry a rich man
(4) You can have your cake (Edward) and eat it too (Jacob)
(5) There are no consequences for a proven evil intent (Volturi walking away unscathed after Garrett’s speech)
(6) When you admit a unintended mistake, you die and there's no justice for your death (Irina)

Sorry for the comparison but I can't help it. J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter installment successfully established her themes of love and good versus evil. I learned something from Harry but I will not recommend Breaking Dawn to my daughter (She’s 1 so she can’t read yet…).

What Happened To The Characters?

Many of the characters in Breaking Dawn did not behave the way they were expected to behave given the character development from the first 3 books. Edward was half the man he was. Come on, he didn't even contribute to naming his daughter! That’s not the Edward I know. Jacob, a strong alpha male, suddenly turned wimpy after he imprinted. Bella rapidly developed maternal instincts when she was so hostile to the idea of marriage and these are just the 3 major characters! I wanted to cry for these beautiful characters…

Why Introduce So Many New Characters with Breaking Dawn almost concluded?

Is it in order to sell copies of the Twilight companion book in December? I won’t be surprised if the companion book contains back stories of these new vampire characters. I felt like Breaking Dawn was trying to become Harry Potter in its last book. Harry Potter had a slew of incredible wizard characters but they were slowly established by Rowling throughout the series. 

What is Up With The Different Points of View?

Majority of the first 3 books were written in Bella’s perspective. It was only in Eclipse where Jacob’s POV was used. I have nothing against different POVs but for an author to deliberately break her own writing structure is a bit off. If Meyer were to break her own structure, why not write Breaking Dawn’s Book 3 in Edward’s perspective? It would have been more entertaining to read about Bella’s first days as a vampire from Edward’s POV. Also, wouldn’t it be better to read about Bella’s preparation for Jacob to take care of Renesmee (Ough! The name!) in case of her and Edward’s death from Edward’s unsuspecting eyes? At least, I would have had a good twist. 

A lot of the things that made me love the Twilight Saga were destroyed by my experience of readingBreaking Dawn. I am now on a quest to cleanse my brain so I can forget about Breaking Dawn. This may take some time but I will try. To me, the Twilight Saga ended with Eclipse.