SubscribeFinally, the much anticipated book, the fourth in the “Twilight Saga”, Breaking Dawn, is out! It’s taken me about a week to read the entire book. I’d have to check to see just how much longer this book is than the other three in the Twilight Saga, but, one thing I know for sure is that this book was a whole lot heavier than the other ones, and didn’t fit into the bag I carry to and from work nearly as well as the others did. Now that I’m done reading, I’ve decided it was worth the extra effort required to lug this tome around with me.
If you are reading this review hoping to find some “spoilers”, well, then, you will be awfully disappointed. No spoilers here. I greatly enjoyed this series, (or “Saga” as I hear it being refered to as now), and part of that enjoyment came from the fun of not knowing what would happen next. I cannot, in good conscious, destroy that fun for another reader by giving away all the juicy details in a book review. You will just have to pick up a copy, and read it yourself. It’s worth it, I promise!
I will say a few things, though, that will cause no harm. First of all, it is absolutely imperative that you read Twilight, and then go read New Moon , and after that read Eclipse before you crack open Breaking Dawn. This is not a series you can read out of order, at all. Another thing worth mentioning is that although these four books all are part of one big story, and have the same characters in them, they are not all the same. Twilight is, among other things, a love story. New Moon felt like more of a drama to me. Eclipse reads like a thriller, but also has some components of drama and romance.
Breaking Dawn, however, is a book that I feel fits squarely into the Horror genre. True, there’s still a lot of romance, and other parts are full of anticipation, and action, but, this book kind of jumps the hazy line between “Teen/ Young Adult” books, and “Adult” Fiction. There is more blood and gore in this one than the other three combined, and there are many scenes that are incredibly intense and scary. From my viewpoint, as an adult who loves vampire books, and has been reading the work of Stephen King since I was nine, Breaking Dawn is awesome! On the other hand, this is not a book I would readily hand to a twelve year old. There are some concepts in this book that, in my opinion, might be too much for a twelve year old to deal with, especially a particularly innocent, or impressionable one. I’m not saying that only people of high school age or older should read it, just that parents need to know that this one is quite a bit darker than the rest of the books in the saga. Read it before you just hand it off to your kids, and decide for yourselves.
Here is what the author, Stephenie Meyer had to say about Breaking Dawn :
Fans of this Saga have been going nuts, waiting for this last book to come out, so they could find out how it all ends up. A quick browse through YouTube will show more videos of people’s experiences attending the Midnight Parties for Breaking Dawn than I would have expected. Most fans either dressed in costume for these parties, as their favorite character, or, decorated a T-Shirt to show the world what “team” they were on. “Team Edward” is the group that wanted Bella to end up with Edward, and those shirts were often black or white. “Team Jacob”, (vastly outnumbered by “Team Edward”), was the group who wanted Bella to end up with Jacob. There were a lot of creative designs and sayings displayed. (A few people from my store went with the slogan “Bite Me”). The excitement level at these Midnight Parties matched the excitement of the crowds at the Harry Potter Midnight Party last summer, which I didn’t think was possible.
I found a few of the more watch-able videos of these parties to share with my readers here, to give you a little view into what this was all about.
Team Jacob:
Team Edward:
Midnight Release Party Madness: (This store had a band play, and did a “Bella’s Prom” theme.)
Overall, I loved the “Twilight Saga”! This is one of the few “Teen/ Young Adult” books that will appeal to adults as well as teens. I would hesitate to hand this series to anyone younger than fourteen, but that’s just my own, personal, opinion. It’s been a week since the book came out, and every day, I go to work at the bookstore I am employed at, and find a few people who not only love the Twilight Saga, but who are super excited about finally being able to read Breaking Dawn. All of them want to gush over their favorite characters, and discuss what they hope will happen in this last book. Oh, and based on the popularity of this series, we can be sure to see a lot of vampires and werewolves running around on Halloween this year. I may even dress up as one of the characters myself. Few series are as capativating as the Twilight Saga is, and I am so glad I decided to go ahead and “try” this “teen vampire book”.
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