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Breaking Dawn |  | Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: CDN$ 23.99
Buy Used: CDN$ 4.99
as of 9/10/2010 01:27 BST details
You Save: CDN$ 19.00 (79%)
New (22) Used (98) from CDN$ 4.99
Seller: _betterworldbooks_
Rating:  113 reviews
Sales Rank: 14695
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 756
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.7 x 2.4
ISBN: 031606792X
EAN: 9780316067928
ASIN: 031606792X
Publication Date: August 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 113
 Like reading crib notes... drones on and on. July 24, 2010
A. Nowak (Victoria, BC)
I think that in her series, Stephanie gives us a good idea of what life must be life for Edward. Having to listen to the endless "what if's" that go through every character's mind (with or without Edward) makes the story read more like a disjointed bullet list of notes that hasn't yet been trimmed down to create a story. You could literally read every third page and get the basic story (and seriously, the details aren't worth the wasted time). In the end, the characters are lost in all of the complaining and you'll likely want to swig down a huge drink with your prozac and say "Steph, this one's for you." Additionally, because of this constant droning, the editor must have also gotten bored or bogged down since the grammar and sentance structure isn't perfect. I want to give everyone a lesson on how to use "Me, Myself and I". Remember that from grade school? Please do. You'll want to burn the book when you do.
In the end, I know that young kids like repetition. Unfortunately, this book isn't geared towards kids *that* young. If you just take the diatribe about how perfect the man-god Edawrd is, you'll find a cut and paste of that on every other page. When it comes to "reading a book by the cover", that's what Bella has done with Edward, and that's the message ultimately being sent. People shouldn't be summed up in their 'perfect face', but evaluated on character. The only book that should ever be read by the cover is this one, since there really is no character within it.
When it comes to youth literature, I know I'm old school with this one but tell them that if they really want a good love romance, to just read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The story is a well written version of this. The language is intelligent and the kids will learn something of proper chivalry, the evolution of the English language, and real drama while still being entertained. Reading that is something that a kid should be proud of, and will definitely help them in school - and even in a real writing career if they should choose. If they like Vampires, hand them Anne Rice when they're 16. Any of her books are excellent on this topic.
 not as bad as "Eclipse" but still couldn't save the saga June 15, 2010
Nathalie Wigmore (Canada)
I went into the fourth and final installment of the "Twilight" saga hoping it would be better than "Eclipse" and somehow redeem the series from complete literary mediocrity. Unfortunately, "Breaking Dawn" turned out to be yet another disappointing letdown that, at the end, made me think, "Thank God I'm done with this series" once I finished the last page.
The book showed some promise after the first hundred pages or so, more specifically with the start of Book Two, the narrative told from Jacob's perspective. For that entire section, from pages 138 to 360, everything about the story was superb - the nail-biting suspense, the pace, the fear - and every second, the plotline was driven forward relentlessly. I even found myself sympathizing with Bella, and that's quite an accomplishment, considering I can't stand her character. So by the end of Jacob's chapter, I found myself thinking that maybe, just maybe, the book could redeem the saga.
Unfortunately, it all went downhill after page 360, once the narrative switched back to Bella's perspective. Not much at all happened for about 300 pages, and by the time the last 100 pages rolled around, the exciting momentum generated by Jacob's chapter had long since fizzled out. The end result was that what was supposed to be the climax of the story ended up feeling flat and inconsequential. Three hundred pages of sloshing through a story grinding to a boring halt does a lot to kill any amount of caring the reader might've had left for what happened at the end.
The real problem with the "Twilight" saga is that it doesn't feel like a vampire story. It feels like a story about a bunch of beautiful mutants with glowing red eyes who wield superpowers. At no time throughout the entire series does the vampire nature of the characters actually come into play or matter at all to plot development. Either the characters are "vegetarians" with total mastery over their urge for human blood (in which case, what's the point?), or they are minor characters whose "carnivore" vampire nature doesn't affect the story at all (in which case, again, what's the point?). Either way the end result is the same: it doesn't feel like a vampire story. Stephenie Meyer chose to focus almost exclusively on the "superpower" angle to the extent that calling her characters "vampires" feels like just a convenient excuse to give them abilities that, in the end, make them feel a lot more like mutant X-men than vampires.
My two-star rating goes once again to Jacob Black, the only truly interesting character in the whole series. It's unfortunate that his personality faded in the background after the narrative switched from his perspective back to Bella's, but at least he stood out as the one thing the author really made come to life. Even Alice, who started out strong and interesting in the first book, ultimately turned out to be little more than a sad, one-dimensional fashionista page filler - an injustice from which, in my opinion, she never entirely recovered by the end of "Breaking Dawn," despite Meyer's obvious attempt at trying to give her a key role in the climax of the story.
The rest of the cast, along with the extremely thin plotline and dragged-out narrative, were entirely forgettable, and that's a real shame because there was some tremendous potential to do some great stuff with the characters, to make them really come to life. But the story, or rather the lack thereof, pretty much prevented genuine character development from the beginning. The "Twilight" saga was, in the end, little more than a vapid "love" story with no substance and, with the exception of Jacob Black, no real, believable characters. Any reader who is genuinely interested in vampire literature would do well to steer clear of this disappointing and seriously-overrated series.
 this author could engage the reader on any topic May 7, 2010
lafleurpetite (canada)
stephanie has a way of writing that draws the reader in, making them not want (or be able perhaps) to stop! I am still surprised I read books based on teenage vampires but they really live up to their reputation - all 4 were phenomenal.
An absolutely heartbroken fan... April 27, 2010
M. Ainslie (British Columbia, Canada)
It just kills me to write this...
I wanted to love this book. I truly loved the first three books, and was scared when I read the continual criticism for Breaking Dawn...
But oh god.
It was a letdown of absolutely mammoth proportions.
Up until Edward and Bella's honey moon, it was fine...
I found myself thinking 'this isn't so bad, this book still has hope"...
But then Bella turns into a nymphomaniac. All she can think about is sex.
At that point their relationship lost all the depth it had nurtured in the first three novels.
I found myself longing for another scene like the bedroom scene from 'Twilight'...
Bella and Edward lying together, actually SPEAKING and REVEALING things about themselves...
Giving us, the readers, some insight into WHY they are together...
But here they are on a remote island doing very little besides having sex.
The only communication seems to be trying to arouse the other into another trip to the bedroom...
Throughout the first three novels, I felt emotional connections to Bella, Edward, Jacob, Carlisle, Alice...
Heck, I felt emotional connections to Laurent and Jessica throughout the series!
But Renesmee... she's like a little one-dimensional alien that was dropped into the series.
The way she was portrayed made her feel so unnecessary to me... which is unfortunate, since she played such a key role in the storyline.
But seriously, she's lacking so much in depth and personality that I found myself with my head in my hands while reading.
All she does is smile and look 'angelic, perfect'. There's just so much that could have been done with this character...
I would have loved it if I had cared, truly *cared*, for her safety at the end of the novel.
But I didn't. I felt no connection whatsoever, and I truly could have cared less what happened to her...
The birth scene is another aspect of the novel which is getting a lot of negative criticism.
However, I understood where Stephenie was coming from with the graphic nature and found it fitting~.
A half-immortal baby gnawing its way out of its mother is going to be a bloody scene no matter how you approach it, so I'm glad she didn't make it a swift vaginal birth that was over in a few minutes.
I'm glad Bella had to suffer somehow for her choice to carry Edward's baby.
Because I'm glad she had to feel SOME form of sacrifice throughout the novel... because GOD, she certainly didn't need to feel any once she was transformed!
The themes of this series...
Forbidden love, choice... and sacrifice?
I was under the impression that Bella's choice to become immortal came with a great deal of sacrifices. Was I wrong there!?
But no, she's transformed into the strongest, most beautiful and graceful vampire to ever grace the Cullen household. She completely skips the 'newborn' stage and is in complete and utter control of her emotions...
She isn't forced to break ties with Jacob, and she continues to have a loving relationship with her parents.
... don't even get me started on Charlie after the transformation.
Even though he realizes there's something mentally and physically 'wrong' with his daughter, and he requests to be kept on a 'need to know basis'! It's absolutely ridiculous!
Where has Charlie gone!? He's the chief of police for crying out loud!
First his abrupt acceptance of Bella's engagement, and now this! His character has been whittled down to a one-dimensional pushover!
The third book, where Bella finally becomes a vampire, is the point where I finally felt that Bella, Edward and Jacob had slipped from my hands.
It was like the characters I loved from 'Twilight' and 'New Moon' turned to sand and blew right through my fingers...
And realizing this was absolutely *heartbreaking*.
Because I love this series. Really and truly...
I read the first three books with my mind going in thousands of different directions. I knew in my heart that Bella would be turned by Edward, but I was fascinated where their lives would go, and how Bella would cope...
But not in a million years would I imagine an ending like this...
I didn't get butterflies while reading Breaking Dawn once. I felt it numerous times with the other books... but Breaking Dawn seriously felt like it was written by a completely different person, about a completely different cast of characters, and on a far more unpolished scale.
There were so many grammatical mistakes they actually distracted me from my reading.
(Check pgs.280 and 699 for some examples...)
All this negativity is so difficult for me to write.
I could lie to myself, give it five stars, and claim that the ending satisfied me because Bella and Edward lived 'happily ever after'.
But I can't lie to myself, and by saying that I'd do an injustice to the series.
'Twilight', 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse' brought me an unbelievable amount of enjoyment, and I was able to live vicariously through Bella in a fantasy that tantalized me so much.
... and all of that was absolutely *shattered* with Breaking Dawn.
I'm sitting here now, in absolute shock and beyond the point of crying.
I know Stephenie loves us, the fans, and I know she wanted the best ending for her characters...
But there is no way I can believe that she wrote Breaking Dawn with her fans in mind.
She wrote the ending she wanted, and I feel like the part of my heart where I kept this series was ripped from my chest and destroyed forever.
I still love this series more than I can express.
The saga to me will forever be 'Twilight', 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse'.
As for the ending, I'll close my eyes and imagine the ending that I feel this magical series so rightfully deserved.
Interesting April 3, 2010
Cheryl Davenport
I liked a little more than half of it.It keep me interested. Eclipse was the best over all. I would love to see a spin-off with them annihilating the vulturi.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 113
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