Breaking Dawn (Stephenie Meyer)

So here I finally am again, at the end of my comprehensive re-read of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. I will say this, dear reader, the last book of the series, 'Breaking Dawn', is a doorstopper and a half, nearly eight hundred pages in hardback. Fitting in a book of that size around work commitments is an achievement, let me tell you. At times, I rather dreaded the proposition of wading through it, and wished fervently that I had not committed to re-reading the series, especially given the amount of exciting little literary novellas I was given for Christmas sitting on my shelves unread. In the end, all I really needed was an extended period of reading time to immerse myself into Meyer's world again, and that time presented itself in a series of train journeys last week. Given that set of circumstances, 'Breaking Dawn' is an absolutely fantastic read, with a few genuinely jaw dropping passages. This book is escapism personified, and to the detractors of this series, I will say this: there's nothing wrong with escapism.

'Breaking Dawn' begins as Bella Swan prepares for her wedding to Edward Cullen, and for the immortality that will follow. Mercifully, Meyer doesn't go into too much detail about these preparations, and the wedding is done and dusted fairly quickly, with a brief altercation with Jacob the only event to impinge on the harmony. Edward and Bella's honeymoon off the coast of Brazil is a bit more painful to read, particularly the rather cringy sex the still mortal Bella has with the very much immortal Edward, but the queasiness I felt while reading this subsided as soon as Bella's mysterious pregnancy manifested. We then switch perspectives to Jacob Black, which in itself is very interesting, as it starts weakly- Jacob initially turning out to be even more irritatingly angsty than Bella- but suddenly becomes the most compelling and best written part of the book, as we watch Jacob's hostility to the Cullens turn into protectiveness, respect and friendship as he helps them nurse the sickening Bella, who is being murdered by her own quickening child. At the moment the child is born, half-vampire and half-human, we switch back to Bella's narrative, and her new life as a vampire, which swiftly comes under threat from the dreaded Volturi, who desire the death of her miracle child and the acquisition of the "talented" individuals of the Cullen coven...but as you can probably guess, there is, unlike in 'Wuthering Heights', which Meyer has cribbed so consistently through the series, a happy ending...

Things I liked about this book: the genuine growth of the primary characters, who finally evolve out of the teenage archetypes Meyer had imprisoned them in for the duration of the first three books; the introduction of many more vampires and their various special abilities; Jacob's narrative voice which is surprisingly well executed after its initial chapters; the 'OMG' moments I experienced when I realised that Bella was pregnant and when I realised that Jacob had imprinted on Bella's daughter (that section is the best bit of writing in the entire series). Things I disliked about this book: the fact that there was not an apocalyptic battle between the Volturi and the Cullens/Quileutes; the fact that even four books in, Meyer can't resist dancing with cliché at least four times a page; dodgy descriptions of vamp sex; the fact Edward and Bella name their daughter Renesmée, surely the single dumbest name of all time.

Overall, you have to say that Meyer achieved something memorable here, one of the most successful teenage fiction franchise in history, a franchise that rewrote the myths on vampires and werewolves, captured the imaginations of millions and provided some damn fine page turning thrills. Yes there's some issues with her prose style, yes there's some issues with character development, but nobody can argue with her ability to spin a yarn. Hats off to you Steph. 100 million teenagers can't be wrong, can they?