‘Breaking Dawn’ – the final instalment in the Twilight series.Eurgh. I shall try my hardest to refrain from ranting about this book too much, and say only that I hate it…..that said, I’m kind of glad I read it. Twilight is a social thing I think; as much as don’t particularly like the books, they’ve taken the world by storm and I’m pleased I can look back and say “I was there and they were shit” but Breaking Dawn is the worst of a bad lot. I actually fail to understand how these books can have been compared to Harry Potter or His Dark Materials because they are just very bad writing.
In Breaking Dawn Bella becomes a vampire. Not just any vampire but the worlds most amazing vampire. There is this whole build up throughout the whole series about how awful it is to be turned to a vampire but in the end none of it is actually applicable because Bella becomes a vampire and all of a sudden she’s this amazing, agile, perfect, beautiful woman. It’s a bit ridiculous really, but then why should that surprise me? The books are, quite simply ridiculous. It makes me quite angry actually; the messages in this book are laughable and so anti-feminist it’s shocking. Bella is an embarrassment to women everywhere.
For starters you have the whole Bella gushing over Edward thing, which is a running theme throughout the whole series and is just hard to read. Seriously? That’s not a novel, it’s a vomit fest and when you combine that with the fact that Bella never thinks she is good enough for the man that sneaks into her bedroom without her knowing and watches her sleep, well, what kind of message is that giving to the teenage girls that read these books? & Edward is a control freak, there is no getting away from that fact: he won’t let her drive her own car, he ‘forbids’ her from visiting her friends, he hangs around inside her bedroom when she’s asleep and she lets it happen. She has no life outside of Edward and she seems to be fine about it. Meyer is basically saying that the only thing you have to do to get the man of your dreams is change everything about you that makes you who you are. Bella gives up her friends, her family, her humanity for Edward. And he gives up….nothing, but hey, he’s all pretty and sparkly so it’s fine. Should teenage girls with low self esteem really be reading about how the less-than-average Bella would die without her amazing boyfriend? How it’s fine to be with a guy that is clearly a complete and utter control freak? How when your control freak boyfriend does a runner leaving you with nothing (because you gave up everything for him) and you meet a new guy the best thing to do is totally string him along? That would probably be a no.
Guess what else? Stephenie Meyer doesn’t agree with sex before marriage, kids. It is very important to wait. Wait until you’re married and then let your husband beat the life out of you in the bedroom, don’t be a prude. It doesn’t matter if you wake up covered in bruises as long as your wonderful husband is distraught about it in the morning. Bella loses any redeeming features she had, which in all honesty weren’t many, after sleeping with Edward and no matter how pretty RPattz is, he can’t make Edward into somebody appealing.
So, it’s fine to fall in love with a total control freak at the expense of your friends and your family and your sanity; it’s fine to drop out of school and marry said man and in doing so cut yourself off from your entire family; it’s fine to let him hurt you. I suppose the next logical step is that when he gets you pregnant at 18 that’s also fine. Make sure though, that you don’t get an abortion because when Bella falls pregnant with Edward’s baby (lets not even get started on the science of this) which begins to slowly kill her from the inside, breaking her ribs and her pelvis and starving her, she does ‘the right thing.’ Surely, whatever side of the fence you’re on when it comes to the great abortion debate, you can’t deny that this is a bit much.
As for the whole imprinting thing. That just made me uncomfortable.
Basically, this is not a good book.
