Directed by Chris Weitz
Written by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Anna Kendrick
Running time: 130 minutes
Rated: PG-13 (violence and action)

Well, folks, it’s finally here. The movie that ravenous Twilight fans, Robert Pattinson-aholics, teenage girls and apparently suburban moms alike have been awaiting with bated breath.

It’s time for New Moon.

The Twilight Saga has become a full-fledged, international phenomenon. Kind of like the Backstreet Boys or the Macarena. Twilight is massively popular and raked in the most money in terms of dvd sales this year, but it’s also one of those phenomena that lack the universal appeal of, say, Harry Potter. Despite the limited demographic and even though substantial mockage has been made of the Twilight Phenom (check out the awesome SNL Parody starring a brunette Taylor Swift in “Firelight“), it’s an international blockbuster – and the legions of fans busting down doors at midnight tonight and all day tomorrow care not what the cynical critics say! It’s New Moon! Shirtless underage boys on steroids! Chalky emo vampires with bad contact lenses, sparklies, and pixie hair! Cheesetastic lines about endearing, all consuming love!

Now while I’m obviously not a huge fan (Breaking Dawn was amazingly terrible), I’ll grant that Twilight has its own appeal. It’s one of those guilty pleasure, silly, I-probably-shouldn’t-be-watching-this-but-I-can’t-look-away films. So far as adolescent vampire love story films go, Twilight is an entertaining as they come. When I was lucky enough to get invited to watch an early screening of New Moon, I experienced a strange mixture of emotions. My hopes weren’t high by any stretch of the imagination – but I was expecting to be entertained, even if it was on a guilty pleasure level.

Sadly, New Moon just isn’t a very good movie. On any level.

At just over a draggy two hours, New Moon has some moments of intentional humor and genuine sweetness, but these are far and few between – not to mention, they are overshadowed by poor pacing, shoddy direction, and an abundance of unintentionally hilarity.

After a comically bugeyed Jasper (audiences burst into laughter at his “serious face” – no joke):

attacks Bella when she cuts herself opening a birthday present at the Cullens’, Edward decides that woah woah woah, this relationship is waaaaay too dangerous, so he tells Bella that this will be the last time she ever sees him. He lies and says that he’s bored with her and that he’s moving on without her (psh). Bella goes catatonic after the love of her life (at all of eighteen years old!) leaves her, and she has weird bouts of screaming in her sleep, gasping, sighing, morosely staring out her french windows as Chris Weitz decides to use awkwardly dizzying 360 camera techniques to illustrate the passage of time.

Doormat Bella never really gets over Edward leaving – though she does come to rely on best friend Jacob (a ridiculously ripped Taylor Lautner). After he helps Bella to feel human again, promising that he’ll never hurt her the way Edward did, OMG he turns into a werewolf (the curse of his clan, charged with protecting the innocent humans of Forks from the vampires that prey upon them). Jacob’s refusal to talk to Bella leads her to relapse into her funk – and she soon discovers that by taking idiotic, suicidal risks, she’s “gifted” with misty apparitions of her beloved Edward (giving her the very helpful advice “BE SAFE,” and other insipid cautionary remarks before dissolving into inky swirls of poorly CGI’d smoke). Bella eventually takes it too far, jumping off a cliff (for the ultimate rush, ya know), and via Alice’s visions, Edward thinks Bella has died, and decides to go off on a half cocked plan to reveal himself to humans in Italy, provoking the Volturi (a big bad association of vampire granddaddies) to kill him too. Only, Bella didn’t die when she jumped off the cliff, so she and Alice rush to Italy to stop Edward before it is TOO LATE.

Where do I begin with the problems New Moon had? Should I start with the hollow performances, even from the lovely Kristen Stewart (who is a fine actress, but feels sadly drab in this film)? The laugh-inducing choices for certain special effects (did you know that when Misty!Edward appears, his sweet Volvo does too)? The sloppy transitions and hilarious slomo scenes of characters running through the forest (yes, this really happens. Multiple times.)? There’s not a lot that’s very good with this film.

So far as writing goes, the script for New Moon is intensely loyal to the book, and in all fairness does a good job, weaving Bella’s depression with her growing friendship/romance with Jacob, ending in a dramatic encounter at Volturi headquarters. Though, one can’t help but think that one of the film’s greatest weaknesses – especially so far as the Edward fandom is concerned – is how absent Edward is from the film. A welcome surprise, however, is Taylor Lautner’s undeniably brawny Jacob Black, lending a warmth and humanity, an endearing, dogged (hardy har!) love interest for a decidedly wooden Bella.

The interactions between Jacob and Bella are alternately funny and touching, and comprise the best of the films few high notes – a scene where Jacob, Bella and Mike watch a movie on an awkward triple date, a ride home in Bella’s truck with Jacob driving, an almost kiss in the Swan kitchen. Too, the members of the Quileute tribe (or rather, pride) are decently entertaining in their shirtless uniform.

In contrast to the warmth of the werewolves of the Pacific Northwest, the vampires feel trite and, frankly, lame. Something happens with redhead vampire Victoria (who has it out for Bella because…Edward killed her mate and so she must kill Edward’s mate to MAKE HIM PAY!) and dreadhead Laurent because he’s helping Victoria…but that fizzles out into so much boring background noise. Though, I will say Rachelle Lefevre’s red hair looks pretty as it whips around in the forest. Robert Pattinson’s mopey Edward with his stupid hair and scrawny, (sporadically hairy) pale torso emerges late in the movie, giving the impression that he’s hollowly disinterested in the role.

The Volturi (for all five minutes they are in the film – all of which have basically been revealed already in the previews), with their blood red contacts and ornate hair and styling, feel ridiculously silly. In the age old vampires versus werewolves showdown, reimagined in New Moon, werewolves clearly win.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about New Moon and the Twilight Saga in general is how insipid a message it projects – especially to teenage girls. It is not cool for you to go catatonic, severing all ties to your friends and family when a boy decides to break up with you. It is not cool to try to kill yourself repeatedly just so you can experience hallucinations of said boy, warning you to “be safe.” I understand that first love is intense, scary, and passionate. And experiencing those highs and lows are all part of growing up. But it is kind of ridiculous that the prevalent female role model right now is a doormat – a bland, no-personality girl whose idea of a good time is to jump into life-threatening situations in order to feel closer to the boyfriend that left her behind.

Leaving New Moon, I felt as though a literal lunar month had passed since the start of the film. If you’re a Twilight fan, you’re probably going to watch this anyway, regardless of what some reviewer has to say. If you’re on the fence, I’d recommend waiting for this one on rental.

Rating: 4 – Pretty Bad (Although I’m pretty damn sure the box office sales and Twilight fandom will disagree with this assessment)

Happy Sunday, folks! Hope you all had a lovely weekend and are enjoying the fall weather.

Now let’s get down to business, shall we?

Giveaway Winners:

We’ve got three separate giveaway winners to announce! First up is Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett.

The TWO lucky winners of an autographed copy of Elegy Beach, as well as bookmarks, book fliers, and a signed copy of author Steven Boyett’s live DJ set from WorldCon are:

Next up, our Nalini Singh giveaway of Blaze of Memory:

The lucky winner of a copy of Blaze of Memory is:

And finally, our Alert Nerd giveaway of One Con Glory!

The lucky winner of a copy of One Con Glory and the awesome Phoenix tee is:

Congratulations to all the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your goodies out to you as soon as possible. Thanks again to everyone that entered, and if you didn’t win this time, don’t worry – we have plenty more where these giveaways came from!

Assorted News:

You may or may not have heard that we had the lucky opportunity to check out an early screening of New Moon last week! What’s the verdict? What do we think? Well….you’ll have to wait to find out. But we promise you, dear Twilight fans, we’ll have a review up in the coming weeks for the release. In the meantime, why don’t you check out WHAT EDWARD DRIVES?

Does anyone else find this hilarious? Who are they trying to selling volvos to? Are little girls really gonna throw their weight around to get their parents to buy a family volvo SUV because that’s what Edward wants? Are there any moms and dads out there looking at this commercial and thinking, ‘Eureka, that’s what I need to be cool! I mean, EDWARD drives one! I must have one too!’

In other news, you may have seen that Publisher’s Weekly and Amazon have released their best books of 2009 lists. Though I’m stoked that a graphic novel cracked PW’s top ten list, it’s slightly disturbing that not a single female author made the list. Also disturbing is the fact that we have not read (nor have even really heard of) any of the titles on the top 10 list! But in the Fiction, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, Mass Market Best of Lists, there are some familiar faces including:

Drood by Dan Simmons – in the running for a spot on Thea’s Top 10 list. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory (all books that Thea has on the TBR, and ones she will be reviewing soon). Also appearing on the best SF list is China Mieville’s The City and the City, which we apparently need to read ASAP. Also, Soulless by Gail Carriger makes it on the Mass Market list (though clearly we didn’t think so highly of it).

The Amazon editors’ top 10 list, we are very pleased to announce, not only contains a speculative fiction title, but a young adult one as well! Yeaaaaah, boyyyyyy! Both China Mieville’s The City and the City and the upcoming Beautiful Creatures from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl are on the list.

Also, both PW and Amazon have graphic novel Stitches by David Small in their Top 10s – another title to check out.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

It’s another jam-packed week! You may have seen last Thursday our blog tour post with Richelle Mead, in which she answered a few of our burning questions. On Monday, we celebrate Richelle Mead’s writing with a review of Blood Promise, the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series. And, we’re offering a giveaway too!

On Tuesday, Ana reviews Meljean Brook’s novella “Blind Spot” in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology. Later in the day, we’ll have a special Smugglers’ Ponderings post about the issue of homogeneity in the book market – particularly concerning romance, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy books.

Wednesday, debut historical romance author Lori Brighton stops by with a post on her Inspirations and Influences…

And on Thursday, Ana reviews young adult novel The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King. Later in the day, Thea reviews young adult speculative fiction/horror/dystopian title The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

We close out the week with a joint review of the final book in the Mistborn trilogy, The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson.

Phew. We told you it would be busy! That’s it for now folks, until tomorrow!

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.

As I said in my review of Breaking Dawn – Part I ,I’m doing something a little different here–due to the nature of Breaking Dawn and the issues I had with it, I’m putting up a two part review. Part I is SPOILER FREE, whereas Part II (this post) will be more of an in depth discussion with SPOILERS. Holly of The Book Binge also has a twofer spoiler free review and spoiler filled review for you to check out!

If you have read Breaking Dawn and wish to discuss it (I certainly do!), please leave any comments after this post.

Review and Discussion:

So, from my earlier spoiler-free post, I mentioned the main reasons why I was not happy with Breaking Dawn:

1. Melodramatic plot
2. Poor characterizations (and no real character growth)
3. The “Message” to younger readers

In that spirit, here we go…

1. The Characters

“Who cares about Derek Zoolander anyway? The man has only one look, for Christ’s sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They’re the same face! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” ~ Mugatu, Zoolander

About 1/4 into this book, I was already starting to have some serious doubts. I think the beginning was solid–Bella’s anxiousness over the wedding, her self-doubts, her concern for Jacob all felt very in-tune with the earlier books. Even through the wedding itself, I was nodding along, excited to see where the newlyweds would be heading, both for their honeymoon, and in terms of plot direction.

When they got to Esmee’s romantic island and Bella turned into seductress extraordinaire, however, things started to look iffy. Bella, the girl so shy she blushed at the sight of lacy underwear all of a sudden is so carried away by her hormones that she nonchalantly entices Edward by begging for more sex in return for her staying human for a year or two longer and maybe going to a semester of university? What?! I’ll admit here that the whole “bargaining” idea (from Eclipse and carried through to fruition here) to become a vampire–trading marriage so she can have human sex and then become immortal–has never sat well with me, but Bella’s actions in this book and her cavalier attitude towards her life–her education, her family, her humanity (AT 18 NO LESS!)–leaves even more of a bitter aftertaste.

But that’s merely the beginning.

Bella the Seductress is incredibly effective. So effective, that two weeks into their little honeymoon, Bella misses a period, and feels a kick in her womb. Yep–Bella’s knocked up, with a super vampire baby that is growing at an exponential rate. So far as any of them know, there is no precedent. Vampires aren’t supposed to be able to have babies. So, Edward is freaking out, yanking them both on the next plane home.
- – - – - – - – - -
**NOTE: Did I mention that earlier in the book–out of nowhere–there is a mention of “Immortal Children” and the incredible threat they posed to humanity? Bella is reminiscing, and recalls when Edward told her about these beautiful little children turned into vampires, but were so incredibly dangerous because they had no way to control their hunger. I suppose I should have seen “BABY STORYLINE!” in flashing lights from that first mention.**
- – - – - – - – - -
How does Bella react to being pregnant? Why–by completely embracing her shotgun pregnancy, calling Rosalie and telling her to protect her baby at all costs, of course!

Wait a minute. What?

This from Bella who was scared to get married because of the finality of the whole thing? At 18 years old, no less!?!?!?!

Something stinks in the state of Forks.

If that’s not all, Bella continues with her determination to have her beloved 1/2 vampire 1/2 human baby, even when it starts to kill her. When she finally does give birth, she dies in the process and is transformed into a vampire. But not just any vampire–Bella becomes a beautiful, perfect, self-confident, non-clumsy vampire. But that’s not all! She’s also a vampire that has the power of SELF-CONTROL (i.e. she is not possessed with uncontrollable bloodlust). The difference is that Bella transforms from shy, uncertain 18 year old girl to Immortal, Infallible Mature Goddess Vampire Mother and Wife instantaneously. This is what really ticks me off–any growth or maturity Bella could have come to through her own reasoning, any of the inner dialogue Ms. Meyer could have written beautifully is sidestepped. It’s all so very…cookie cutter. No hard feelings, no need for Bella to realize that she has made some pretty shoddy immature decisions–just instantaneous metamorphosis from meekling to lioness.

But how about the other characters? Edward is pretty much the same unwaveringly devoted figure. This dynamic has kinda creeped me out since the beginning–Edward doesn’t have much of a purpose or personality outside of his mindless devotion/obsession with Bella. Jacob I think is characterized beautifully, but it’s the plot that kills it for me (more on that later). Alice shops a lot. Emmett makes jokes about Bella and Edward’s sex life. Rosalie is blonde and wants a baybay of her own. Jasper scowls. Esmee wrings her hands and Carlisle sighs a lot.

On the flip side, I did enjoy seeing more of Seth and Leigh as they defect with Jacob to his separate pack. We get much more of a feel for both of these characters–especially the prickly Leigh and her plight as the only female werewolf. In comparison, the Cullens are pretty drab.

II. The Plot

Here’s where the ‘freaky-deaky’ comes in. First off, I hated the pregnancy storyline. I kinda felt like I was watching LOST again, where the writer’s idea of a compelling female plotline showing character growth without doing any of the work is to give a character a baby. I hated that Bella’s CHOICE to sacrifice her life to become a vampire was forfeit and all the moral issues it would have conjured up were tidily sidestepped by making her transformation to a vampire a matter of necessity for her survival. When I first read Bella was preggers, I could actually feel my eyes popping out of their sockets, desperately rereading the last passage to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. No such luck.

While Bella is pregnant and her health continues to deteriorate (since the baby is a vampire and sucking her dry from the inside), the narrative switches over to Jacob’s POV. He comes in and sees the desperate situation, and a distraught Edward pulls him aside. Edward asks Jacob to talk to Bella since she won’t listen to him or even consider giving up her baby. Edward wants Jacob to tell Bella that if she really wants a baby, she can have one from him–and by “him” I mean Jacob. That’s right! Edward tells Jacob that he’s cool with him impregnating Bella at a later date, if having a baby is that important to her. Just so long as she aborts this one.

!?!?!?! This is wrong and weird on so many levels. Jacob considers, tells Bella, Bella refuses. Her condition continues to deteriorate.

Finally, they realize that–ZOMG! The Baby is a VAMPIRE! Bella needs BLOOD, not solid food to feed the baby!! Way to go geniuses. Call me crazy, but I think getting Bella some extra blood would be one of the first methods vampires would explore to help save the vampire baby’s life. Just sayin’.

And then, to add insult to injury, Bella finally gives birth…and she decides to name her baby RENESMEE!!!!! Affectionately nicknamed “NESSIE”!!!! How the hell did this name make it past the editors?! Renesmee, for those who maybe be a little baffled, is for “Renee” (Bella’s mother) plus “Esmee” (Edward’s surrogate mother). Y’know, it’s like TomKat or Brangelina or what have you. Oh and her midle name is Carlie–for “Charlie” (Bella’s father) plus “Carlisle” (Edward’s surrogate father). And “Nessie” is the Loch Ness Monster. Oh HELL yes.

Stupid name aside, even more drama ensues–when Jacob sees Renesmee…he IMPRINTS ON HER!!!! Woot! I can imagine that conversation in a few years, “Well, I WAS desperately in love with your mother, I fantasized about us being together, heck I even agreed to put a human baby in her at your daddy’s request, but YOU are the one I want to listen to beautiful music with Nessie. Just you.”

So…Jacob’s heartbreak is erased because he imprints on Bella’s infant daughter! Goodbye angst and all the events from New Moon and Eclipse–that tangle of emotion, all those feelings Bella and Jacob had for each other are completely bypassed with this resolution. No fuss, no mess, just Bella loving Jacob as her Brother/Son and best friend, and Jacob loving Bella as his Mother-In-Law and best friend. At one point in the story, Edward actually calls Jacob “son”. I cannot begin to express my disappointment and frustration with this squeaky-clean end to everything that had been simmering so effectively and heart-wrenchingly in the prior books. Heck–this was my favorite aspect of the earlier books and the one thing I really admired the author for taking on, daring to make emotions on the page just as complicated and messy as they are in real life. And, with a single plot point, all that was negated.

For the next 100 or so pages, everyone’s happy. Then, one final conflict rears its ugly head, in the form of the Volturi (who we met in New Moon). They hear from a misinformed informant that the Cullen coven has an Immortal Child, and they come full force to destroy them all. In preparation, the Cullens call everyone they know to their side, and vampires filter in from around the world to Forks, ready for a last stand against the dread Volturi. Probably around 100-200 pages is focused on leading up to the conflict–meeting new vampire characters, discovering their talents and figuring out what to tell the Volturi. It is here that Bella learns in addition to possessing unheard of self control, she ALSO is a “sheild” (this is the reason Edward cannot hear her thoughts, and why the Volturi could not harm her with their powers earlier in the series). Of course, Bella masters her power in time for the final conflict and is able to sheild everyone on the side of the Cullens against any impending attack.

And then…with this epic final battle all ready to go…it NEVER HAPPENS. Again, I’m disappointed, and more than a little pissed off. All that buildup for nothing–it’s kinda the story of this series.

III. The “Message”

This is what bothers me the most with this book. Not that I think all books need to have a “message”, but when you’re writing for young impressionable tweens and teens, this is something that has to cross a reader’s mind. I’m more than a little uncomfortable with the ultimate ending of this series, and the message it sends out to those younger female readers.

Bella makes a lot of bad decisions. Her entire sense of self-worth and her entire future is based on other characters–she willingly, without exploring the consequences of her actions, trades in her mortality to be with the hot, deadly guy from school. Which would have been fine had Ms. Meyer shown that every decision and action comes with a necessary consequence or sacrifice. For Bella to become a vampire and choose her true love over everything else, she would have to sacrifice her future, family and friends. I would have been fine with reading this–but as it stands, Bella makes these decisions and magically has to sacrifice NOTHING.

So, in the end, Bella can be the immature character she has been for the entire book and make calamitous decisions with absolutely NO negative consequences. In the end Bella gets to: become an ethereally beautiful immortal vampire, powerful beyond measure for the first time in her life, she gets to have Edward, Nessie, AND her human family (thanks to her unprecedented self control), Jacob (by his imprinting on her daughter), no one is hurt (there is no epic battle due to Bella’s shielding superpowers), everything is settled with the La Push werewolf pack (because Jacob imprinted on Bella’s daughter), and she gets to live happily ever after in her magic fairy tale cottage in the woods. Oh yeah, and she’s rich balls too.

I’m all for happy endings–but this is plain ridiculous. What exactly are young girls supposed to take away from this sprawling saga? That it is ok to make all those bad choices, without any hallmark for the future, because everything will magically be ok in the end? There are no consequences to stupid decisions because there will always be someone there to save you? The 18 year old wedding, pregnancy and happy ever after will find you no matter what mess you make of things, so long as you are ready to die for your true love?

I doubt this is what Ms. Meyer had in mind when she wrote this fairy tale…but it’s the impression I get after finishing the book, and it does not sit well with me at all.

So that’s my say–I’m curious to see what anyone else thinks? Agreements or disagreements? I open the floor to discussion–I’m anxious to see how others interpreted the book, I’m especially keen to see how those who enjoyed the book see things.

Title: Breaking Dawn

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Stand alone or series: Fourth book in the Twilight Saga

Why did I read this book: I am a fan of the series, having read and been increasingly impressed with each of Ms. Meyer’s subsequent books.

Summary: (from StephenieMeyer.com)
Twilight tempted the imagination. New Moon made readers thirsty for more. Eclipse turned the saga into a worldwide phenomenon. And now, the book that everyone has been waiting for….

Breaking Dawn, the final book in the #1 bestselling Twilight Saga, will take your breath away.

A Note:

After some discussion with Holly of The Book Binge (check out her review HERE), I’m doing something a little different here–due to the nature of Breaking Dawn and the issues I had with it, I’m putting up a two part review. Part I(this post) will be SPOILER FREE, whereas Part II will contain a more in-depth discussion with SPOILERS. If you have read Breaking Dawn and wish to discuss it (I certainly do!), please leave any comments in the next post, to save people from being spoiled.

Please note that while this post is spoiler-free for Breaking Dawn, it DOES contain necessary spoilers from the first three books. If you have not yet read through Eclipse, and you want to stay unspoiled, avert your virgin eyes!

REVIEW:

Breaking Dawn is the fourth and final book in the Twilight Saga–eagerly anticipated from the legion of loyal fans, and kept pretty tightly under wraps for the past year. I myself was a big fan of the series–not so much because of the happy romance of Twilight, but more so because of the tough, gritty moral issues in New Moon and Eclipse, and the surprisingly complex examination of love, obsession and sacrifice in these later books. I found Twilight to be a good book but was far more interested in the complications presented in New Moon and Eclipse, with Edward and Jacob. So, naturally, I was excited to see how it would all end–Ms. Meyer had not shied away from taking the hard road in her prior books, and I was confident that she would do something to shock us all in Breaking Dawn.

Unfortunately, I was both right and wrong–I was shocked all right. But not in a good way.

Breaking Dawn begins shortly after the ending point of Eclipse–Bella is wrestling with her brand new fancy Mercedes and embarrassed by all the attention it is bringing to her (as of course was Edward’s intent by giving her the flashy, pricey engagement present). Despite her embarrassment and trepidation for the upcoming wedding, Bella is happy. And why shouldn’t she be–she’s about to forfeit her human life to become a vampire and spend the rest of eternity with her true love. Jacob is still missing, having run off in heartbreak after receiving his wedding invitation, but despite this cloud hanging over the festivities, Bella and the Cullens continue with their wedding arrangements. The date finally arrives, and Bella and Edward have a beautiful, lavish ceremony–attended by kin and friends from both the Swans and Cullens. Jacob musters up enough toughness to drop in and wish his love and best friend a final goodbye, even though he is torn apart by the fact that soon she will be a “leech” and not his Bella anymore. And then, Jacob learns about the bargain Bella and Edward have struck–Bella will marry Edward before her transformation and promise to go to university with him, so long as he promises to have sex with her before she becomes a vampire. Jacob loses it completely, knowing the life-threatening danger such an act would put Bella in (not to mention this bargain is ridiculous in the first place, but that’s something for the next post). I digress. Anyways, Jacob gets mad, has to be dragged away from the party and goes wolf in the woods again, howling his pain. Bella and Edward leave for their honeymoon to a secluded and unknown location to Bella. Many hours and plane rides later, they arrive at their destination: Isle Esmee, a small private island off the coast of Brazil. And here’s where the freaky-deaky shizz goes down and the Twilight saga gets turned on its head.

I finished this book in a sort of weird daze. The one word that I think encompasses Breaking Dawn: “bizarre”. The characters made strange decisions and behaved oddly, the storyline so completely over-the-top-where-the-hell-is-the-shark-because-I’ve-jumped-so-far-I’m-in-another-ocean. The sad thing is, the book is still written beautifully in Stephenie Meyer’s trademark style. I finished it feeling like Ms. Meyer picked the worst, most ludicrous fanfic out there and then fashioned her book around it. So many plot points had me shaking my head in disbelief. Just…no.

First, the good. Breaking Dawn is divided into three ‘books’. Books 1 & 3 are narrated by Bella, whereas book 2 (a significant portion of the story) is narrated by Jacob–as you may recall, we got a brief taste of Jacob’s narrative at the end of Eclipse. The choice of character narrations seemed a bit strange to me–why have Jacob’s side of the story if not Edward’s?–but I appreciated more insight into Jacob’s plight, the thoughts of the La Push werewolves, and the different shades of emotion his narrative added to the story. As the plot is divided into three separate parts, each book marks a significant turning point for Bella. The format of the book, if nothing else, worked for me. This is something Ms. Meyer has done in each of her books effectively–using formatting and partitions to convey a highly appropriate atmosphere for her novels (i.e. In New Moon, when Edward leaves Bella, the blank pages signifying the passing of months and the emptiness of her life without him is incredibly effective, conveying Bella’s heartbreak better than any words could).

Similarly, Ms. Meyer’s prose is beautiful and flowing, as usual. Certainly I felt that the book could have used some trimming down of the excess verbiage–Ms. Meyer doesn’t really ‘do’ action scenes, and 800 pages of emotions and atmosphere gets a little tiring to read, especially for a young adult novel (there is a significant difference between reading 1000 pages of constant magic and action in the Harry Potter books versus 800 pages of “sparkling” beautiful vampire description and wavering emotions, no matter how prettily worded).

That’s about where the goodness ends for me. No matter how solidly written a book Breaking Dawn is, that doesn’t change the fact that the characters felt out of whack, and that the story was contrived and ridiculous. All the angst, the tension, the hard moral choices set up in the first three books were abandoned here in order for a Happily Ever After (for every character). The thing I loved the most about these books was the honest and brutal examination of love–be it the obsessive, doomed sort of love between Edward and Bella, or the more balanced, human emotions between Bella and Jacob. I loved that Edward made a decision to leave Bella in New Moon and that the consequences of that decision figured prominently in this love triangle in subsequent books. I loved that Bella realizes that it is possible to love more than one person at the same time, and that love is about real sacrifice–and that it can hurt more than just the people directly involved. I was eagerly looking forward to see where Stephenie Meyer would take us next–would Bella realize that perhaps throwing her entire mortal life away at 18 years old (literally throwing her life away, as she will no longer be able to see Jacob, her friends, her father and mother) for the man of her dreams might have some serious implications she hasn’t really thought through? Would there be any in-depth discussion of these issues, some real soul searching and maturity in Bella’s character?

The answer, unfortunately, is a big fat no. Instead of characters coming to the tough decisions themselves, plot mechanisms rule the day. All the events that happen are outside of each character’s control–which is infuriating for me, since I know that Ms. Meyer is capable of tackling the nitty gritty and not relying on contrivances and deus ex machinas to write her books. Similarly, I felt like I was cheated out of Bella coming to any mature decisions and growth of her own. Something that really, really bothers me is that this is a young adult series, and one voraciously read by a younger female audience. As such, I cannot agree with the ‘message’ that this sends out to tweens and teens–Bella makes bad choices. Which is fine, but she does not grow from these choices. In fact, she is REWARDED for them. Her dangerous, life-threatening obsession with Edward, the fact that Bella’s entire sense of self worth is derived from other characters and her complete dependence on them…it doesn’t sit well with me at all.

I won’t even go into the plot points here (but please check back for the Spoiler Post for a more in-depth discussion). Suffice to say that I was not pleased in the slightest. I felt like I was watching an especially bad episode of Beverly Hills 90210.

Overall, Breaking Dawn was a huge disappointment in this reviewer’s opinion. I’m actually kinda bummed out for the Twilight movie later this year. Perhaps if the bar wasn’t set so high with Ms. Meyer’s previous books I would not feel as strongly as I do now, but alas. One can only hope that the author’s next endeavor is more successful and up to par with her earlier works.

Rating: 4 Bad, but not without some merit.

For the Twilight fans in the house–at midnight on Friday, the cover for Stephanie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn was released.

I love the cover art for all of Stephanie Meyer’s work–although I’m a bit surprised by this cover. It’s certainly not what I expected. The white Queen and the red Pawn…interesting. Any thoughts?

Breaking Dawn is the fourth and final book in the Twilight saga. It hits stores August 2, 2008–make sure to preorder your copy. I smell Harry Potter like lines come August 1…

And while we’re on the subject of new covers, Lois McMaster Bujold posted the upcoming cover for The Sharing Knife: Horizon (Book 4) (Since I have just finished The Vor Game and am even MORE in love with Miles–and Gregor too–I had to give her website a thorough once-over).

There’s a cool collection of all the cover art (by the same artist, Julie Bell) here. In her blog, Ms. Bujold says she wanted to use George Caleb Bingham’s depiction of Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap as a jumping off point for the Horizon cover. I kinda like the action shot feel of the Horizon cover, with the people in the background, and the western sort of feel. While the latter two covers don’t feel as ‘magical’ as the covers for Beguilement and Legacy, I do love the western fronteir, sort of exodus feel to Passage and Horizon.

The Sharing Knife: Horizon is slated to hit stores in February 2009. Book 3, Passage is available now at a bookstore near you!