| | |  | Magazines | Home » » Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) | | | | | | | Description: | | When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved? To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hangs. Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life--first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse--seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed... forever? The astonishing, breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780316067928
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Stephenie Meyer | | Hardcover:
| 756 pages | | Publisher:
| Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | | Publication Date:
| August 02, 2008 | | ISBN:
| 031606792X | | Package Length:
| 8.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.5 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 4794 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 finallyNov 21, 2009
finally, a book in this series that does not reader like they are brain dead. i'm not sure it was worth it to read this series, and i definitely still do not understand what generated all they hype, but if they had all been written more like this one, its success would have been a little more justified.
there are certainly other series that give you a simple, uncomplicated, fun read with the preternatural angle without pretending you are not capable of making a mental leap greater than that of a four year old.
You Slay Me (Aisling Grey, Guardian, Book 1)
Undead and Unwed (Queen Betsy, Book 1)
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1 (v. 1)
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Breaking DawnNov 20, 2009
This is a great product, shipped quickly and in the shape it was described. Great buy!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 I enjoyed it in spite of itself.Nov 19, 2009
Breaking Dawn picks up not long after Eclipse left off: erstwhile heroine Bella Swan has chosen Edward Cullen as her suitor, and rival Jacob Black has taken off to parts unknown in his grief.
The first third of the book is in Bella's voice, and details the events leading up to her nuptials and honeymoon with Edward. For folks who are reading these for the vampire/human star-crossed romance, this is likely to be the highlight of the book. You all might want to stop at the honeymoon night and pretend the rest of the book doesn't exist. For this reader, the creepy ending to Part One was an unexpectedly spooky delight.
Part Two is in Jacob's voice, and follows his growing suspicion that something weird is afoot at the Cullen mansion, and that it's centered around his beloved Bella. Jacob is absolutely correct, though his initial guesses are pretty far off the mark. He grows determined to save her, no matter what it takes. At first, skipping to Jacob's point of view was a bit frustrating because the story left off from quite a suspenseful moment, but I came to enjoy his perspective so much that I was disappointed when it ended. I came to enjoy this series primarily because of this character -- I'd read Twilight and could take it or leave it, but friends told me to stick with the books for the growing role of Jacob Black, and they were right. As other readers have noted, Edward comes across as a grown man with control issues, but Jacob seems more like a real teenage boy. He loves Bella, he really does, but that's not going to stop him from doing whatever he has to do to get into her sleeping bag. The juxtaposition between these characters kept me enthralled through New Moon and Eclipse. Part Two of Breaking Dawn sees Jacob forming new relationships to the people in his life and ends with a wrinkle that is, frankly, less delightfully creepy than it is just plain creepy.
Part Three is back to Bella's perspective, and it is a very new perspective for her. It took me a while to enjoy it. I found her outrageous flavor amusing in the previous books, but in this part, (spoilers ahoy!) she has become powerful enough to cause physical damage to others, and she proceeds to do just that. I wanted to thrash her for a goodly portion of this part, much more so than usual. Eventually, though, she is forced to face a challenge that taxes her inner resources, which has always been when her character is most interesting to me. The monster at the end of this book is vampire politics, and between them, and Kate and Garrett, it made for a pretty decent final part. Seriously, if Meyer wants to write the romance of Kate and Garrett, I'm in.
All in all, this book touched on the tensions and relationships that made the middle two books in this series entertaining to me, just enough to keep me reading through to the end. I won't be making permanent space for it on my bookcase, but I'm not sorry I read it, either. Amazon's handling of the order was as competent as it usually is, so no complaints there. Still, if you're on the fence about reading this one, you might want to pick it up in the library first.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 My version of a happy ending....Nov 18, 2009
I don't have many new thoughts to describe how dissapointing Breaking Dawn was... the other reviewers did just fine. I wish the person who recommended these books to me would have suggested to stop reading after the third enstallment (Eclipse) and imagine my own ending. The author seems to go out of her way to involve the mythology of Jacobs tribe, including the ancestors who's souls would leave thier bodies... I thought that tidbit of a story line was leading to something monumental. Wouldn't it have been incredible if somehow Jacob was killed (maybe he couldn't live without Bella's love so HE jumps from 'the' cliff) and his soul is released from his body but his essence still cannot be without Bella. The author kept noting over and over how Edward didn't have a soul... Maybe Jacob could've given Edward what he seemed to want~ his humanity~ and in the end Jacob could still be with Bella (in a sense) by giving Edward his soul. Bella would have both Edward and Jacob... Edward would become human again rather than Bella becoming a vampire. That would have been more interesting to read than what was truly written. I guess my only hope left is for the movie. Hopefully the author will have enough guts to let the fans get what they want through the movie rather than her marshmellow unrealistically happy ending.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Another dissapointed customerNov 17, 2009
Okay so I have to add my 2 cents . . .
I'm a 31 year old woman and I loved the first three books. The story of Edward and Bella's blossoming love in Twilight was wonderful and sucked me right in despite a few flaws in the book. The heartbreak of New Moon was real and absolutely in character for our stubborn Edward and over dramatic Bella. The emotional war in Eclipse was understated but fascinating. And then, I was hugely disappointed with Breaking Dawn.
I will try here to put my finger on why. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW.
The actual plot of the book and what happens doesn't bother me as much as how the author explains it to us. I think that I could have dealt with the pointless honeymoon, the horrible birth, the weird baby, Bella's easy transition into vampire life, and the anti-climactic confrontation with the Volturi, if the book had continued to explore Edward and Bella (and even Jacob) in a meaningful way. As other reviewers have mentioned, it seems like this book was written with the plot driving the characters rather than the characters driving the plot, as with the other books.
So here's what I didn't like:
Bella's embarrassment over her new car was cute but her hatred of the wedding was getting old. I do understand the fear of attention and her outwardly harsh statements about all the fuss, but internally, between the reader and Bella, there should have been more complex feelings about why she is doing this and feeling this way. A glimmer of understanding that she is being a bit silly even though she cannot overcome her fear and act according to the social norm. But she just whines with seemingly no concern for what it does to Edward.
The wedding itself was fine, I'm not bothered by her lack of description. I was prepared to deal with her mediocre writing skills and fill in with my imagination because, usually, her characters make up for it. Jacobs showing up was interesting and a dramatic foreshadowing to the drama ends up happening with the sex and baby.
The honeymoon night was terribly disappointing and not because she did not give us a sex scene. We didn't need to "see" the sex (the painful details) but this moment between them should have been a reflection of all of the yearning and torture that they had suffered. It should have been a kind of culmination of everything that they'd been through, but instead it was insulting. Bella doesn't even remember what happened. She just knows that her body liked it and that she felt no pain. It sounds like she blocked it out of her memory because it was frightening. The author should have given us a poignant summary through Bella's thoughts without describing the act because HOW they made love for the first time is important. Did Edward start out tender and then lose control slowly? Did he just snap and throw her on the bed to ravish her with barely restrained violence? And here's a crazy thought (I know we women like to be taken but. . .) why not have Bella take charge while Edward concentrates on staying in control? It seems like an awful lot to ask of him to let go and remain in command of himself at the same time. But no, we get nothing but more of Edward's self-loathing and Bella's irritation that he can't just get over it. Bella doesn't even try to understand how hard it must have been for him. But then again, she wasn't even paying attention apparently.
Bella getting pregnant did not bother me. I have no problem with the liberties that the author took with vampire lore. All a vampire needs is some way to transfer his essence to the woman so that her body can do the rest. Strict biology aside, this is not hard to imagine this in the world of fantasy. What did bother me was the needless torture heaped upon Edward again. How much does this boy have to suffer anyway? He already hates himself for bruising Bella during sex even though a little rough sex hardly makes him a monster, but then he has to deal with this horrifying baby killing the woman he just married. Is it any wonder he went crazy in this book?
And here we come to another problem. While I enjoyed hearing Jacob's voice, I think that the perspective hurt the characters of Bella and Edward. I get that Edward did not show his frenzied state to Bella so only Jake could tell us about that but Jake doesn't spend an awful lot of time dwelling on what Ed's going through like Bella would have, so we lose Ed in this section. Jake tries to tell us that Ed is absolutely insane at this point, which is why Ed suggests offering Jake as a stud, but the depth of his despair is lost on many readers and they think Ed's request is out of character. I think that readers were expected (rightly or wrongly) to really get into Ed's head by themselves in order to understand his perspective. Relying solely on Jake's words and thoughts is a mistake but one which author left open for readers to make.
Also, because of Jake's perspective, Bella comes off as crazy. She coldly disregards everyone's advice because she's suddenly obsessed with protecting the child. If we had been in Bella's head, perhaps we would have understood her motivations better, but instead she becomes an uncharacteristically brainless b**ch.
The birth was horrifying and the transformation was completely unromantic. Yes, shattering our idealistic notion of how Edward would change Bella was unforgivable. I wouldn't have minded her bloody body and the syringe to the heart so much if we had been able to follow Edward around with a bit more tenderness as he bit her again and again, desperately injecting more and more of his venom. Again Jake's perspective ruined the moment.
Okay, yes, the baby's name is stupid but what gets me is that the child is creepy. She just takes over. Everyone obeys her and no one thinks that is strange. Nessie scares the crap out of me and that ruins the whole effect of the baby. Besides, neither Bella nor Edward really respond to the child that well. They'd much rather be in the bedroom so the child is actually more of an inconvenient distraction until she gets her claws on you and you become mush in her little evil hands [shudder].
Jake imprinting on the baby is therefore disturbing. I love Quil and Claire and I totally get the platonic nature of imprinting on a child, but Jake just becomes a slave to the evil demon child. It's not cute, it's just convenient. Jake should have imprinted or fallen in love with Leah. They have both been broken by people who they loved who had "imprinted" on someone else. They are perfect for one another. And here's a thought, how about having them actually fall in love with each other rather than being suddenly linked by magic? Their natural bond (which would have been similar to Bella and Jacob's if Ed had not returned) could have been a touching counter point to everyone else's magical love. It could have been nearly as beautiful as Bella and Edward's love. Jake could have been deservingly happy with a love based on mutual respect and understanding. And they would have bred strong wolf pups, perfect!
I don't have an issue with Bella's gift of self-control. She was always overly protective of everyone and didn't want anyone to get hurt so being able to control her blood lust is a fitting gift. However, the protective shield and being able to share her mind with Ed was just too much. I was already sickened by the all too perfect wrap up of Bella, Edward, and Jake, and then we have to make her a super vampire on top of it all. Gag!
And then Bella's new vampire life with Edwards is relatively boring so let's have another vampire fight, shall we? The confrontation with the Volturi was exclusively for tying up loose ends and lacked any drama because I knew that they would just find a way to explain the baby, like Bella wanted to in the first place, and all would be well. Bella and Edward's dread over them never concerned me.
So, basically, I think that the downfall of the book is that we loose the Bella and Edward that we love. This is due to forcing of the wrap-up plot which lacked the opportunity for Bella and Edward to emotionally conclude their tale with the reader. This was then exacerbated by the section from Jacob's perspective that has zero purpose if nothing happens with Leah. Edward would have been a more appropriate narrator for that section. He could have just read Jake's mind and told us about the episode with Sam and his breaking the Alpha chains. We would then have been more emotionally tied to what was happening with Bella and Edward rather that just horrified. Maybe then we could have come to terms with what actually happens.
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