Last Read . . .

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

In light of the Eclipse movie just a short time from release, I decided to read the whole Twilight Saga for the second time. I wanted to make sure I would remember the "book version" of the story so I could compare. I don't want to spoil this book for those who have not read it yet so I will not go into too much detail about specific events in the story, but I was again disappointed with several events in the book and the lack of cohesiveness with the first the. The writing style is totally different than the first three; and although it did bring many parts of the story to a logical end, it only gave me more unanswered questions about the future of the Cullen family (immediate and extended). I did not feel either time reading the book that it really belonged in the Saga. In part because the writing style just does not make sense with the first books. Also, in part because Eclipse really brought the story to a peak and I felt that another book should have only added to climbing that peak, not starting back down the mountain, so to speak. As is often the case in these situations, I felt strongly that Meyer riding on her 15 minutes of fame wrote Breaking Dawn without the passion she had for books 1 - 3 because the money had already started rolling in and she knew it would sell regardless of the actual story presented. (I'm still hoping they'll end the movies with Eclipse, since much of Breaking Dawn was totally unsettling to read, and I can't imagine having to see it play out on the big screen.)

Recommendation: Although you cannot read the Twilight Saga without reading this book, or you will be missing some critical parts of the story, unless you're a Twilight buff I would leave this one on the shelf.