The rumors of a bad book can only be confirmed by taking the time and reading it to verify just how horrible the book really is. Quite a few books have made this list, but the one in question was labeled bad from the very beginning of its popular series called “The Twilight Series.” Even though some of the books have received some praise from the literary world, not to mention the outpour of adoring fans who would practically die for this self-proclaimed “saga,” the series fails where it should have had a huge literary finale.
After searching for the words “Stephanie Meyer’s controversy,” several websites, mostly fan-based, reveal what seems to be a controversy that not even the FBI can solve. In her last book, “Breaking Dawn,” we are faced with Bella Swan (the protagonist of the story, if you’re not aware by now) in a difficult situation and hanging in the threads between life and death. She finally marries her vampire sweetheart Edward and head off for a lovely honeymoon on a secluded island in South America. It is there that Bella’s innocence is lost (quite violently, may I add, because after all, he’s a vampire and one of the strongest creatures in this book’s world). It is after this act that we learn of Bella’s predicament.
Let’s examine pregnancy for a moment. Fundamental science tells us that in order for pregnancy to occur, a live ovum has to be fertilized by a live sperm in order for the “magic” to work. Notice how I added the word “live” to emphasize that the couple in question would more than likely be alive. Now, let’s go back to the “Twilight” world. Bella is definitely alive. She’s the human that Edward Cullen can’t live without, however, Edward Cullen is dead. He’s been around for 104 years, 18 of those years as a human, the rest as a walking undead. At first, yes, that doesn’t sound appealing, but to Bella, he is a god-like creature of perfection. However, that doesn’t defeat the fact that he’s dead. Stone dead. Going back to the concept of pregnancy, how is it that a live ovum (Bella’s) is joined by a dead sperm (Edward’s) and create a half-vampire, half-human child? If this review has disappointed you by now, you are welcome to walk away (as I should have done when I first read that). It only gets worse.
The pregnancy is not only real in the story, but it is also accelerated. In a matter of weeks, Bella is already months pregnant, due to her child’s vampiric nature, but Bella’s priority is to save the child from her new family who, aside from the woman who despised Bella, Rosalie, are planning to kill this child to save Bella’s life. Here we enter the second issue. Rosalie has disliked Bella since book one. In book two, she expresses why she wouldn’t like Bella converted into vampirism and her opinion is validated: Rosalie didn’t have a choice to become a vampire. If she did, she would have chosen not to and live a perfectly normal human life cycle (She sounds sane, doesn’t she?) However, the animosity between the two continues to exist, that is, until Bella asks her for help to protect the child. Rosalie becomes Bella’s best friend in “Breaking Dawn” and guards her, even threatening to attack her own family just to protect this half-undead fetus. However, as soon as the child is born and new problems arise, Bella’s new BFF is out of the picture and all we see of her is when she’s hugging Emmet, her beloved, at the end of the novel. Bella completely takes her out of the picture once the little zombie is born.
Other discrepancies that didn’t make sense were: Why didn’t Edward ever tell his daughter that he loved her? Why was it so easy for Bella’s dad to accept her situation? Why did Alice leave so abruptly without explaining? (To which she claims she did so to avoid Bella stressing out so much, therefore, she left the entire family. Such commitment!) What happened to Renee? Bella’s mother was always on her mind, but not once did she bother to reach out to her. Where’s that bond they supposedly shared in book one? Why were the Volturri, the vampire royalty and quite powerful beings, afraid of the Cullens and their “witnesses” if they were indeed as powerful as they claimed? Where’s the battle?
However, to give some credit to this book, there were some parts that were really nice and deserve some acknowledgement. “Breaking Dawn” is divided into three parts. Bella narrates part one and three, but Jacob Black, the Native American “werewolf” narrates part two and it is well narrated. This is the time when Bella is still pregnant and Jacob decides to protect her on his own, breaking away from his wolf pack and creating his own. It is through his eyes that we see the monstrosities of Bella’s pregnancy and the worry that the Cullens have when facing the problem and guard dog Rosalie. It is through Jacob’s eyes that we experience our true human emotions to this absurdity. They’re going to let her give birth? Really? The creature just broke her ribs? And you’re going continue to let it exist? The fetus wants blood and you’re going to give Bella a sippy cup with a straw so she can have gallons of blood that perhaps could have saved lives in Seattle? All the way through the second part, the reader is perplexed with what’s going on along with having unanswered questions, and thanks to Jacob, we don’t feel so alone. However, when the second part ends, so does Jacob’s credibility. Jacob was quite gung-ho about killing this newborn thing and when he sees it, his world changes. The next time he appears in part three, he’s giving his life for this little leech. Then again, Bella’s telling the story and we don’t get that half-human feel in the story anymore.
The bothersome part of the second part is that the reader comes to understand Leah Clearwater, the only female “werewolf” in the pack. The reader understands her frustrations and even creates a connection with her, feeling sorry for her and loving her free-spirited ways, but once Jacob’s part is over, so is Leah. She only appears here and there, with no importance whatsoever. What will happen to her? What about her menopausal state of being because she’s a werewolf? Is she ruined forever? Why would Stephanie Meyers create an interesting character only to abandon her reader’s interest in her? Leah Clearwater is indeed one of the most interesting characters in the*
A powerful part in the story that deserves merit is toward the end when the vampire Irina is destroyed. She was the one who saw the infant monster (because at several days after birth, she is now a one year old) and was determined to turn the Cullens in for making a vampire baby. The difference between a vampire baby and this creature of lust is that a vampire baby is a child that was intentionally made into a vampire and this Cullen creature was made through love (see the live ovum and undead sperm discussion above). The Volturri arrive to condemn the Cullens and find out that the parasite isn’t an undead baby, but half-human. Irina is apologetic and attempts to clear everyone’s name when the Volturri attack her for wasting their time. That was beautiful. A powerful organization trying to inflict fear in its followers’ undead hearts and simply making an example out of one misguided vampire. Unfortunately, their power crumbles as they run away with their tails between their legs, to avoid conflict, of course. That one moment in the story was enough to make me cheer for the ghost of a well-written book. However, the entire piece doesn’t match that one page at the end.
Finally, the marketing for the book has claimed that this is a saga. A true saga would have generations of Cullens, starting with Bella. If this were a true saga, the first book would have been about Bella and her new life. The second book would have been a review of the Cullens’ lives and how they came to accept Bella as their new sister. The third book would be “Breaking Dawn.” The fourth book would be the leech child Reneesme and her half-human life. The fifth book (God forbid) would be about any other Cullens that may enter the picture. This would demonstrate how generations of Cullens, focusing on Bella’s generational tree branch, evolved over the years. That is a true saga. The Twilight books are nothing but continuations of the previous book with a separation of several months in between. Young readers are being misled.
The Twilight books are not a gift from the literary world to the people. It is full of plot holes, unanswered questions, and weak characters. One can tell whom Stephanie Meyers adored more in this novel. Those characters that were slightly developed and slightly loved were scratched as soon as Bella walked into the room. Even Edward gets scratched out at the end. This novel series becomes an egotistical Bella ride and if you’re not her, you can’t get on. Overall, however, there are children (and adults) reading this novel who perhaps would never pick up a book on their own and that does deserve some credit. However, in literary merit, this book series is a joke that could have been redeemed if Ms. Meyers wasn’t too eager to get the books out and perhaps spent a little more time rethinking her outlines, especially for “Breaking Dawn,” which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It simply leeches away the reader’s time and all credibility from Meyers’ writing. There is a way to make the incredible believable, but Ms. Meyers was incapable of accomplishing this feat, thus producing a joke of a series.
* This was left intentionally to demonstrate how Leah was cut off abruptly in the book
