I slunk out this morning to a Borders bookstore in another town to pick up my latest guilty, self-loathing-inducing pleasure: a copy of the last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn.
Of course I have to synopsize the series for you people because none of you are girls under the age of 14, and therefore none of you have read any of the books. So: girl with no apparent personality or unique qualities at all beyond an apparent fondness for cooking meets and falls in love with a vampire, who conveniently falls in love with her, perhaps because she is the only one -- human or vampire -- whose mind he can't read, so maybe she doesn't bore him to tears. She spends the first three books whimpering, sniffling, apologizing, getting hurt, getting almost killed, etc., etc., etc. while either the vampire or the werewolf (also in love with her) take turns rescuing her and assuring her that nothing is her fault.
Feminism what?
So why do I read these books? Why have I purchased four of them, two in hardcover? Why was I actually worried as I rode the train to Evanston this morning about the possibility that the book would be sold out?
Still working on the answers to that. However, since the protagonist of the series is certainly unable to defend herself, I'll step in.
Some criticism I've read:
"A powerful message was sent. A very wrong one."
Am I the only one sick to death of hearing about "messages" and what's being sent in them? I for one was not reading these books to enrich my mind or broaden my horizons; I was looking for empty fluff, a happy ending, and some sex. And that's what I got. Except it needed way more sex. I don't need to be inspired by everything I read, for fuck's sake. Not everything has to be good for you. Geez.
"This book tells you that it's okay. Having children that young is Okay."
Well, the characters were young, but they had graduated high school, they were married, they were very fiscally sound, and they had their own house near the prestigious college in which they were enrolled for the next year. I see nothing bad about having kids with those things in mind -- particularly the fiscally sound part. If my tax dollars aren't paying for your kid's education, food, health care, etc., then why do I care what you have when? I really don't. And while 18 may have been a teen pregnancy, she was also an adult. You can say18-year-olds are irresponsible teenagers, incapable of making adult decisions, or you can say it's okay for them to go off and fight and die in wars, but to my mind, you can't have it both ways. Finally, since our protagonist actually does die giving birth, experiences two days of excruciating pain to become a vampire, has to plan for sending her child to live in another country to protect its life, and then deal with a near all-vampire war over having had the kid, it's hard to construe that as delivering the message "okay."
"How could this book be written by the same author we all came to know and love in the first 3 books?"
It amazes me how so many of the reviewers missed how the first three books sucked in so many of the same ways that this one does. Superficial characters. Lack of motivation for their actions. Threats resolved swiftly and easily. Are those in Breaking Dawn? Check, check, and check. Yeah, it's the same author.
Now I think I need to go reread it, since the 14-year-old in me isn't done sighing over the dashing hero.
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