Breaking Dawn

Ugh. Ugh. Appalling.

Having read the first three of Meyer's books, I was looking forward to this, the fourth installment in the series. Little did I know that Stephenie Meyer had gone completely insane between the third and fourth books.

The book started out as expected. Bella and Edward, about to be married, Bella clawing at Edward to sleep with her and Edward reluctantly agreeing. I wasn't surprised; Meyer had been leading up to this moment for three books already, it was about time. However, the godawful consequences of allowing it – a half-demon baby? A mutated part-vampire pregnancy that kills Bella (had Edward not turned her, she would surely have died)? And then, when the child is born and Bella becomes a vampire, all the pre-established canon flies out the window.

Turning into a vampire was difficult; was painful and hard, for every member of the Cullen family, no matter how pious or prepared for the turn, no matter how openly they welcomed the change or how reluctantly they took their new supernatural burdens. But not for Bella. No, Bella gets to frolic around hours after she's turned; days later she can hang out with her very human father with not so much as a batted eyelash. Ridiculous.

And the wrenching angst of imprinting, portrayed so beautifully in the first three books by the difficult love triangle between Sam Uley and his ex, Leah, and his imprint, Emily... gone. No, in Breaking Dawn, imprinting wipes out all love for everything you ever felt love for. No longer is it difficult and wrenching and hard. No, it's simple. Simple as pie!

I had to put the book down once Bella was turned, I was just too disgusted by the appalling deviation from a set canon, not to mention the amateurish writing. Meyer's editors must have been handed a bombshell. I don't know if I should applaud them or condemn them for being able to put it into printing condition.