Last in the twilight series. I approached this one with trepidation because I had heard it was the worst in the series, and I'd already dealt out some nasty reviews. There are plenty of annoying things about this book (big spoilers ahead):
- Bella is supposedly in love with Edward but plays a ungrateful spoilt little kid at the wedding, which she doesn't want, and acts like it is just another party Alice wants to organise for her.
- Bella and Edward finally get jiggy, after marriage of course, and Meyer manages to write a suitably Mormon sex scene. Of course the very first time Bella has sex she gets pregnant.
- Bella names her freak baby 'Renesmee Carlie' (a combination of the Grandparents' names), which is the most pathetic, ridiculous name I have ever heard of.
- Jacob is reduced to being a glorified guard dog for most of the book.
- Bella finally gets her vamp on, and is completely disappointing as a newborn - where's the ferocious thirst and ensuing bloodbath?
- The baby is perfect, doesn't cry, has super powers, and practically looks after itself. C'mon, we could of at least had a bit of uncontrollable baby vamp!
- The Cullens amass an army that starts to be more X-men than anything else (now we're talking), with all sorts of different super-powers in the mix. There is an awesome setup for a huge battle with the Volturi which comes to.....nothing. No one important dies and they live happily ever after thanks to Bella's care-bear force field. Yay.
Having said all that I was entertained. Despite the book being 754 pages long, there was so much less stuffing around than in the other books. The wedding and honeymoon happen fairly quickly and were much less agonisingly drawn out and overblown than I was expecting. The book read like a fairly mindless action novel, and was fun to read, even if it threw away all the most interesting plot opportunities in favour of happy endings.
3.5 stars
I second Renesmee Carlie as a terrible name. This book was the worst of the lot in my opinion. I have to admit, I am in team Jacob camp and (SPOILER ALERT) Jacob imprinting on Renesmee was a bit icky and disappointing. And there could have been a few big deaths (die Edward die!). That always makes for a better series!
ReplyDeleteDid you see that they are marketing "Wuthering Heights" with a twilight style cover? I wonder if it will make it more popular. I will concede that the covers of the books are pretty good and that they have done some very clever marketing.
First google result for 'twilight' and 'wuthering heights', how sad:
ReplyDeleteBella's Bookshelf: Twilight and Wuthering Heights
This is a blog for discussing the classic literature that Bella Swan Cullen mentions through the course of the Twilight Saga...
Getting off topic a bit: I find new covers made for novels post-movie release really annoying. Invariably, the movie actors faces are on the front cover, so you don't get to use your imagination to paint a picture of the main characters, you just always picture the actors.
i agree. It's hard to find covers without the movie characters sometimes. I have heard that the Coen Brothers doing a remake of True Grit, and in one way i am pleased cause it will mean that there will be more copies of the book around (I have only seen my copy - the library only has an audiobook), but it will probably have a photo of some chick who will be Mattie Ross, and who could really do her justice?
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