The fourth book in the "Twilight Saga" by Stephenie Meyer.
< read all 71 reviews Warning: this review contains spoilers.
I read this book about a year ago because...well, to put it simply, I had read all the other books and felt like I deserved to know how it ended. This book has three modes: disturbing, ridiculous, and downright boring. The story begins with the preparations for Bella Swan's wedding to Edward Cullen. Those who read the previous book in the series will know that Bella Swan did not want to get married, but that Edward refused to turn her into a vampire or have sex with her if she didn't. They basically played a game of manipulation against each other to get what they wanted and Bella spends the first chapter or so of Breaking Dawn completely humiliated that the whole town knows she's getting married at eighteen years old. When the wedding is over, Edward flies her to a private island where presumably they have sex. Since this is a young adult novel, there is no graphic scene, but the morning after scene is pretty disturbing as it is. She wakes up covered in bruises because Edward's vampiric animal nature makes it impossible for him to control himself. Bella doesn't mind this at all and has a very "oh well" attitude towards it. Edward decides that they shouldn't have sex anymore while she's human but Bella doesn't like this and insists that they keep doing it. A manipulation game (again) leads to more sex and more sex leads to a vampire pregnancy. Yep. A vampire pregnancy.
Edward wants Bella to abort it. He feels like he has hurt her more than enough and doesn't want the baby to kill her. Bella insists that she has a bond with the child and must keep it. The child ends up eating her alive for several months and breaking her ribs. Eventually she starts drinking blood (despite not being a vampire herself) and things get easier. When the due date arrives, Edward gives Bella a c-section with his teeth (I'm not kidding) and then turns her into a vampire to save her from dying. Jacob, Bella's childhood friend who is still in love with her, imprints on the baby. Imprinting means that Jacob, seeing Bella's child for the first time, knows that the baby Renesmee is his soul mate.
This is not the end of the story, but it stays this disturbing and implausible throughout. Aside from the very unfortunate messages of this story (that it isn't a big deal if you get bruised from sex, the controversial idea that you should never abort a child even when it is killing you, and the acceptability of child grooming) this book is just downright boring and anticlimactic. The rest of the book is spent gearing up for an epic battle with the vampire police that never happens. This is by far the most painful Twilight books to read.
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