Breaking Dawn

Somebody asked me why I didn’t like Breaking Dawn and I replied that it was just too perfect of an ending. As I’ve thought about it I realize that it goes much deeper than that. I think what bothered me is that Bella made all these choices that I don’t approve of and never had to face any of the consequences of those decisions. She ended up with her perfect ending despite how stupidly she acted. So, at the risk of getting tomatoes thrown at me (but this is a blog, so they’ll just end up on your own monitor screen), I’m going to review this book. This probably will contain spoilers, so if you don’t want anything given away, don’t read any further.

I started reading these novels because most of the young women in my ward were reading them and I wanted to be able to participate discussions about the books. I enjoyed the creativity of the first book so I kept going in the series. I was naïve, I guess, but I also trusted her as far as content since she schooled at BYU and makes a point of that in her marketing. When I got to this 4^th installment, I felt like Stephanie Meyer pulled the rug out from under me. This book was full of adult themes despite its target audience. I felt uncomfortable reading the story at times, especially in the honeymoon section. Maybe I’m a prude, but I even feel like I need to be cautious about how much I discuss in this review because I hope my young friends will read it and I don’t want to be too explicit. But I have three daughters that will likely want to read these books in a few years, and so I am going write down my thoughts about why I’ll tell them it’s not worth their time.

The character of Bella annoyed and frustrated me. She was the kind of girl that I don’t want my daughters to be like. She seems to me to be inherently selfish. Throughout the entire series, she made choices that only pandered to her needs and desires. She initially moved to Washington as a favor to her mom so she could develop her relationship with her new husband. But I think that her move was because Bella probably just didn’t want to put forth the effort required to establish a relationship with her new stepfather. It was easier to leave and avoid that discomfort. She preferred instead to live with her estranged father who placed few, if any, boundaries on her life. She constantly thought only of herself. She lied to her father repeatedly and consistently broke the rules in his household in the name of love. Whatever she did, she justified that it was okay because of her love for Edward. I realize this is a fantasy book, but life isn’t really like that and Bella was a human, so some reality should have applied to her. She felt like a misfit, but really seemed like a snob. In Breaking Dawn, she strung Jacob along even though she knew she was hurting him emotionally, she deceived every human she knew as far as her intentions for her life after the marriage, and had a very short sided view of what a long-term relationship entails. Bella was so focused on the sexual aspects of her relationship with Edward that it consumed the plot for the first quarter of the book. At times I felt like I was reading a trashy grocery store romance with a nicer cover. Their intimate relationship seemed to be such a driving desire in her life that she was willing to sacrifice anything to achieve it. Even when she talked about the other vampires’ relationships, their intimacy was a dominant focus, i.e. needing multiple homes early on because of the destruction that happened during their liaisons.

Beyond the sexual references, Bella and Edward’s relationship was seriously flawed. Edward was controlling and jealous to the extreme. I found it a little creepy that he spent every night watching her sleep before they were married. Both characters were nearly suicidal in the earlier novels when they thought their relationship was threatened. I certainly don’t want my girls to believe that a relationship like that is normal or healthy and their happiness so completely depends on their being loved by someone else.

I felt that the character of Charlie did a complete about face in Breaking Dawn. What father would ever say that he doesn’t want to know the truth about what his daughter is involved in, especially when he’s a hardened law enforcement officer? Fathers typically want to be involved in their daughter’s lives, whether the news is good or bad. I want my girls to feel like their dad is someone they can trust to help them make decisions, not hide the facts from so they can do whatever they want. Charlie caved to keep the plot progressing to happily-ever-after rather than being true to his character.

I will be brief in my next few observations since this is getting a little bit long. This next issue may be a bit of a stretch, but it bugged me, so I’m including it. The character of Jacob and the other werewolves added to the racial profiling of Native Americans—at the end of the story we’re left with the impression that they’re perfectly happy to run around naked and vicious on the reservation. I also was dismayed to encounter the adult issues of rape, abortion, and partner-swapping in the plot. And Jacob’s imprinting on the baby? Stephanie Meyer must have been watching news footage on the FLDS saga when she added that twist. And one final thought, what kind of a stupid name is Renesmee?