Lesbian Book Review: Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Myer

BOOK REVIEW

by Cynthia Rodriguez

Finally, I got to the last installment of Stephenie Myer's immensely popular vampire series, Twilight. My goal was to finish all four books before the movie came out last year in November. That didn't work out, but hey, I read it. From the research I did it sounds like it recieved quite a few mixed reviews. It was the only one in the series that seemed to have done so. Here's my take on the finale of the story of today's most renowned star-crossed lovers since "Romeo and Juliet"---and maybe "West Side Story"...

*I DON'T USUALLY DO THIS, BUT I'M ACTUALLY DOING A SPOILER ALERT FOR THIS REVIEW, BECAUSE, LET'S FACE IT, IT'S BEEN OUT FOR AWHILE, AND BY NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT HAPPENS ALREADY.*

"BREAKING DAWN"

by Stephenie Myer


First of all, it was LONG. It's the thickest book of the series, and after reading it, I can understand why. Myer had alot of ground to cover, and squeeze into one book. I think they probably could have split it into two books. I've heard they may do that when it comes to the movie version, which I'm sure will be quite the challenge. The almost first half of the book is narrated, as usual, by Bella. Breaking Dawn reminds me of relationship similiar to Bella and Edward's. You know it's no good for you, and at times it's killing you, but you can't stay away from it. You can definitely pick up some of Meyer's Mormon attitude throughout the book, more than all the others in the series.This may be a little bit off the subject, but part of me felt guilty about getting into the series so much and being part of the gay community being that the Mormons were a big part of passing Prop 8 in California. Part of me thought , "...she's one of them! She's the enemy!..." but I digress.
So in the beginning the still human Bella ties the teen nuptials with her dark prince Edward, and it's off to the honeymoon. You can't help but think to yourself, "Finally! They both get LAID!". The honeymoon scene could have been a bit juicier. Just like in movies, I find it amusing that, for the sake of the young ones, they'll clip off a bit of the sex parts, but leave plenty of violence in it's place. Yeah, that'll balance it out. The whole middle of the book narration is taken over by my personal favorite, Jacob, Bella's best friend and the head werewolf. I like when he narrates, he's funny, and it's just refreshing to have someone else narrate for a while. Everything's fine and dandy until Bella discovers she is with (half-vampire) child, which her and her new husband didn't think was possible. Apparently in the media and among fans, (and their Moms) there was alot of negative hoopla regarding all the gore surrounding the birth. Personally, I didn't think it was a big deal. Again, I wish they would have done that more with the love scenes. Yeah, yeah, it was originally written for young adults. Whatever. Finally, the last almost half of the book, the narration goes back to Bella. Once her transformation is complete, the book takes on some whole new twists and turns you never would have thought of when reading the first book. I have to admit, I miss the human, klutzy Bella, and some of the events that take place are borderline absurd, but you can't put it down. The ending IS a little too neat, and "Happily Ever After", however, once you've fallen under the Twilight spell, you just love it, even when you want to hate it.
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