Al

Well, I finally finished the last installment in the Twilight saga. My review might include some spoilers, so read ahead at your own caution.



It seems to me that the quality and wow factor of this series has diminished incrementally from the first book. Twilight was by far my favorite; seriously, I loved it. New Moon was alright, Eclipse definitely lacked something, and this final book was a disappointment. I felt that Breaking Dawn was far too long for the material that it contained. Either the editor should have cut down on the number of pages, or Meyer should have developed the plot more intricately and fully.



At the beginning, I was hoping for a better wedding scene, and of course, a much more descript honeymoon. Bella was still being petulant about the marriage, and that ground on my nerves. Once that scene was finished, bam, they're at the island. I'm not a romance buff by any means, and I hate smutty writing, but Meyer could have given us readers just a bit more in terms of the whole honeymoon sex scene. Don't get me wrong, I just think that Bella and Edward's relationship on the island could have been even more solidified through Meyer writing about it just a tiny bit more in depth. Instead, it was like, wham, they have mysterious sex and suddenly Bella's pregnant, of course after the first time.



After she finds out she's pregnant, the novel DRAGS. Seriously, I'm sorry, but the whole middle section of this book was a bore. Finally the baby's born, given a ridiculous name (both her first and middle names annoy the heck out of me) and Bella becomes the vampire that we've all been waiting for her to become.



I'm also a bit disappointed in how easily Bella overcame the whole newborn thing. I know, she had a shielding gift, and I didn't want her to kill anybody, I just thought that there could have been a little more struggle to her vampire initiation.



The ending was also a letdown. The whole meeting fo the vampires was great and all, but if the Volturi are coming all the way there and all that animosity is going around, why was there not a battle scene? I thought it was far too easy that the Volturi just saw another half-vampire and were like, ok, let's go back home. This means that the Volturi are still around. I wanted them to be destroyed, or at least made to fight with the other vampires. It's the whole good vs. evil thing. When Edward mentioned something like, oh, the Volturi are really just bullies, but cowards underneath' I was like, WHAT? I mean, they were this huge threat, and there was supposed to be a huge confrontation, and suddenly they just walk away to go live in their castle?



It seemed like all the action was crammed into the last 200 pages of the book, and everything before it was far too drawn out and dullingly descriptive. I think Meyer could have done a better job, had she been given time to let her plots thicken and develop, and time to trim down on useless pages of nothing.



The book had so much potential; I just wish it could have been a better finish to the series.

I thought that Divergent, the first book in this series, was a relatively good read; Insurgent was, I felt, even better. Unlike the Twilight series, where the books went downhill as they were pumped out, this series seems to be getting better.

I have been looking for a fun series to read for a while, and this is hitting the spot. Insurgent was full of just enough action, suspense, a dash of romance...and the fact that it takes place in a cordoned-off, futuristic Chicago rocks my socks.

Everyone seems to frown on this series because it doesn't perfectly embody the dystopian novel. So what? I say the books have extremely interesting and strong characters, a storyline different from anything else I've read, and overall decent, if not excellent writing. Sure, there are a lot of unanswered questions. That's what (for me) made Insurgent “un-put-down-able.” It had two major plot climaxes and an awesome cliffhanger ending. I now have to wait until fall of 2013 before I can read the next installment. I haven't looked forward to a book release this much since Harry Potter.

Overall, Insurgent was, in my opinion, fantastic. Not perfect by any means, but definitely fun. It had me sitting on the edge of my seat, developing theories, and yelling out loud when characters got killed off.

Recommended.

Wonderful writing style, a good view into human emotions and behaviors, very quick read...but this book left me wanting more. It spanned several decades (yes, as told in the book description), but I was disappointed when each chapter found the characters in a new year, a new situation...but without necessarily finishing up what had happened in the previous chapter. Too jumpy.

For being a tale of love between Agnes & Pierre, I found an in-depth look at these two characters lacking. I felt that there was much more focus on their families and the trials & tribulations they were going through, as opposed to what Agnes & Pierre were feeling. Brief glimpses into the main couple's love and emotions were not enough for me, sorry.

Worth the read, but wish it could have been longer/more in depth, or something. Will try reading Suite Francaise at some point, for sure.