Book four: Breaking Dawn
I won’t lie and I won’t hold back. This is where the author majorly screws up and the story just goes downhill. This is where she pretty much screws everything over in my opinion. It’s like the author just couldn’t leave it alone. The entire time I read it, I was cringing at all of the ever so convenient plot devices and twists that occurred. This book alone was worse than all of the other three put together.
Bella, who has decided she wants as many human experiences as possible before she becomes a vampire, marries Edward. His condition for even attempting physical love is that they have to be married. So being the good little brainwashed girl that she is, she agrees and marries Edward. And I’m sure you can guess what happens on their honeymoon. Not only is Edward able to not kill her during lovemaking, he gets her pregnant.
It’s painfully obvious what’s going on and of course the little freak grows at an abnormal rate. Bella is too conditioned to do anything for her love and refuses to abort the baby, even when it’s clear that it will kill her to have it. She clings to the stubborn notion that if she is strong for them, she’ll live. This is another similarity I have run into with the LDS religion. There is a belief that you are put here to overcome trials. Bella is unswerving in her determination to carry the baby to term.
I’ve seen this time and time again, people suffering needlessly in order to pave the path for redemption. Yes I know this conflicts with the fact that she sort of gave into evil by choosing to become a vampire, that’s not the point, it’s the attitude of accepting and being unwilling to go another path that is the problem. It is considered better to die than to do certain things differently, and Bella goes completely into this frame of mind. There is no choice that she makes that is not centered on Edward.
Upon learning that Bella is going to give birth the werewolves decide they have to destroy the baby. This conveniently forces Jacob, her childhood friend, to break from the Alpha male’s lead. How can he do this? Because he also ‘conveniently’ has the lineage that would have made him the Alpha if he had wanted it. The perfect loophole so he can stop them from killing Bella and the baby.
So Jacob and a few other wolves end up warning the vampires and siding against the other werewolves. The painful manner in which they apparently get along is only broken up by tasteless and tacky blonde jokes between Jacob and one of the vampires. Why a group of vampires, who are a quite a bit stronger, don’t just put Bella under and abort the baby for her is a mystery. Their fake father is a doctor and yet they do nothing?
Of course not, it leaves things open for the drama of Bella giving a brutal birth that pretty much kills her. So as she’s literally dying, Edward finally injects the venom of a vampire into her in an effort to ‘save’ her. It ever so neatly takes away the sin of her having chosen it. She was in no position to say otherwise. And then while she’s ‘changing’ the werewolf Jacob decides to kill the baby since it’s an abomination.
Unfortunately, that was not to happen. Instead he did what’s known as imprinting on her. For a werewolf, this means she is the perfect person to be their mate. So now, none of the wolves can do anything to harm and must actually protect one who is considered a brother. I honestly wanted to just gag at that moment. Just when the author had a chance to give some real depth to the story, she took another cop out and made everyone happy.
I didn’t even go into how the baby is super special either. Bella’s transformation is equally as perfect as she has suddenly lost all of her human flaws, immediately. All of her clumsiness is gone and there is no surprise when she’s apparently strong enough to magically resist the lure of human blood. Her transition is that of a Mary Sue vampire. She has no difficulty adapting to her new life, at all. Newly born vampires, according to the mythos, are supposed to take close to a year to adapt to it. Not Bella, she does so immediately.
You’d think the author would just let it go and end this disaster, but the ever so evil vampires from the second book have decided, based on an inaccurate report, to come and destroy the baby since they think it is one made by venom instead of by birth. Vampires apparently stop developing at the age they are turned. So that makes Bella forever a teenager and any children changed have to be destroyed since they don’t mature. Anyway, it’s no surprise that they manage to convince other vampires to come and witness that the baby is a half breed instead of a true immortal child.
Nor is it a surprise when Bella magically learns to use her ability to shield others and protect everyone from the vampires that are so powerful no other group will go against them. And this is when she hasn’t been a vampire for more than four months. She’s nowhere near the standard year of adapting. The entire ending was full of nothing but clichéd and convenient moments that wrapped things up in a pretty bow that left everyone happy. The final and most powerful similarity can be seen here; Bella overcame everything and gained her perfect love for eternity. They are vampires, but good ones, apparently.
