third quarter outside reading book review

Third quarter outside book review

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

Little brown and Company, 2008. Fantasy fiction.



Breaking Dawn is the four books in the twilight saga, continuing and perhaps concluding the story of Edward and Bella’s romance, and the Journey they have been through together. The book is written in three sections; in Bella’s point of view, then Jacobs, and then back to Bella’s. It starts off with Edward and Bella’s wedding, which Alice plans, although Bella is reluctant to let her. They leave for their honeymoon that night and end up at Isle Esme, a private island on the coast of Brazil that Carlisle bought Esme. They arrive at the home they will be staying in, and fulfilling his promise, Edward makes love to Bella. After a long stay on the island, Bella realizes her period is late, and feels a bump in her stomach, which she thinks to be a baby, but realizes that it couldn’t have grown so much in this amount of time. She calls Carlisle who tells them to come home immediately, and learns she is pregnant. The baby grows very quickly and is a vampire hybrid. Because it is so strong it is hurting Bella from the inside. After just a month, the baby is born, by tearing its way out through Bella’s stomach. Bella loses so much blood that Edward can only save her by turning into a vampire. She sees her child for the first time, and names her Renesmee. Soon, the Cullen’s got a visit from Irina, who misunderstands Renesmee for being an immortal child and goes to the Volturi, who then try to kill Renesmee and the Cullens. The Cullen’s go around the world in search of other vampires to stand as witnesses that Renesmee is not a threat. When the Volturi confront the Cullen’s and their witnesses, they realize that they have been mistaken and execute Irina for her mistake. When they are still deciding whether Renesmee is in fact a threat to the discovery of vampires, Alice and Jasper show up with a hybrid named Nahuel, who demonstrates that she poses no threat.

“A near-genius balance of breathtaking romance and action…” –VOYA

Stephanie Meyer has an incredibly descriptive writing style that shows throughout her series. Love is also a prominent theme in all of the books. In this book, however, she used two different perspectives of the story, something she has not done before. She references the bible several times, and also uses Shakespeare’s books to compare with events or struggles in the story.

“Though the fire did not decrease one tiny degree-in fact, I began to develop a new capacity for experiencing it, a new sensitivity to appreciate, separately, each blistering tongue of flame that licked through my veins-I discovered that I could think around it.” – pg. 378

Yes, I am one of those crazed Stephanie Meyer fans. The ones who come home from a long day of school and pick up the book right as they walk in the door. But the reasons for this are her amazing use of description, and getting to know each and every character and event so well, as well as her emphasis on the power of love, that everyone, including me can relate to and strive for.