...and so the lion fell in love with the lamb... Breaking Dawn

How are fans supposed to feel when a fourth book is released in a beloved trilogy? Happy for the chance to revisit favorite characters? Annoyed that the author is clearly cashing in on the fans’ eagerness to revisit favorite characters? So it was with mixed feelings that I waited for a used copy of Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn to become available for a decent price on half.com. I finished the 750+ page tome and find my mixed feelings… still mixed.

Previously… in Forks

In Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse, Bella Swan met and fell in love with beautiful Edward Cullen, a vampire who never sleeps and glitters in the sun. Bella’s best friend Jacob Black is part of a werewolf pack dedicated to protecting human life. Though Bella wants desperately to be turned into a vampire, Edward is afraid of endangering her soul and Jacob carries a torch the size of Texas. By the end of the third book (and what we the fans had thought was the last book), Bella and Edward had agreed that they would get married and make love before turning Bella.

The Unexpected Return to Forks

This fourth book, Breaking Dawn picks up days before the wedding that Bella dreads so much (what reason does an eighteen year old have to wed other than pregnancy, she argued to Edward). She wants nothing more than to move past it, say her human farewells and join the Cullen family for all eternity. Because it makes her sad to think of the fact that Jacob will disown her upon her undeath, she locks the thoughts snugly away in what she calls her Jacob-drawer.

Breaking Dawn deviates from the first three books in writing style, in that one of the three divisions is told from Jacob’s point of view. The other two, the first and final, are, like the rest of the books, told in Bella’s first-person narrative. As I’ve been a fan of Jake from the very first (who needs a boyfriend that glitters like a diamond? Give me the hot-blooded, six-and-a-half foot hunk of wolf man any day), I found his narrative to be refreshing and much more enjoyable than Bella’s, with who I became increasingly annoyed with throughout the series.

Much like The Deathly Hollows, this book could have been cut in half and still included all the major plot points. However, also like The Deathly Hollows, as this is likely the last book, I’m glad the authors felt the need to add superfluous details, bloating the books in the process.

Without droning on and on, much like Meyer did at times during the book, all of the answers fans wanted are found in Breaking Dawn, including the big ones. Does Bella choose Edward or Jacob? Does the wedding proceed? Does Jacob disown Bella? Does he imprint? What would happen if a vampire and a human made love? The big questions are put to rest early in the book, and the rest of it is full of the consequences of those decisions. The Volturi, a large coven of vampires, most with special talents, dedicated to keeping the existence of all vampires a secret, make a return to threaten our beloved characters and add a bit of suspense and intrigue. It doesn’t work overly well, but it doesn’t fall flat either.

The biggest change in this book from the previous ones is that Bella is all about sex now. Some might argue that most late-teen girls are, so this is just true to life, but earlier books portrayed her as pristine, innocent and naïve. The few sex scenes that do occur do so “off camera,” but there is a lot of broken furniture and bruised flesh in the wake of such encounters.

I did like Breaking Dawn. Much more than Eclipse but less than Twilight or New Moon. More importantly, I liked it on its own merit, and not just because it was an unexpected return to Forks, Washington. The whole series most definitely appeals to women more than men, but most females fourteen and older would most likely enjoy the saga (says the girl who’s currently wearing her new “La Push Cliff Diving Team” tee shirt).

Recommended reading for those who’ve read the first three:

Twilight ~ New Moon ~ Eclipse