WARNING: Some honesty about the book ahead, readers beware.
Okay okay, I'm finally finished with Breaking Dawn.
It's... okay. There just isn't enough there to warrant 750 pages of content. I enjoy the story, but it's so exhausting to read through it loses me. I feel like my hand is being held while I walk around the house, and the author stops to help me tie my shoes every twenty steps to make sure I don't misinterpret something or miss an inflection of anyone's voice. It doesn't make the book bad, it just makes it annoying, and giving it a big fat thumbs up after reading other books (not Twilight) where the author trusts me enough to think freely doesn't make it a good book in my opinion. It makes it...okay.
It turns out to be almost the exact same formula as the previous books. I was intrigued about where it was going half way through, but she just did a better job of giving me hope for something more of a surprise ending (which doesn't happen). Pretty uneventful, and anticlimactic in my opinion. It felt like she was just trying to wrap up loose ends so it could finally just be happily ever after for everyone after page 400.
But I am sure this book is very near and dear to you mothers out there. So, I completely understand how much you can love and feel peace with the book, and I don't begrudge you that. It's a very nice story with a lot of true feelings. I am torn between the sincerity the author has to share with us the gifts of motherhood, the love between a family, and the heavy handed writing.
So, what's my final verdict? It's difficult to say, there are such good elements in the story that it's difficult to hold the mediocre story telling against her. If she wrote it shorter, or with less repetitive thoughts of Bella, could those who love the book love it as much? I'm sure they wouldn't. The story is a nice long back massage from a long lost friend who is a lingerer and you have nothing to do all day. Some people will want to stop eventually and do something else, while others have needed a back massage and will blissfully ignore everything else. It just feels too good to stop.
-A
