I read Breaking Dawn...And I Liked It. A lot.
Things to keep in mind: I read spoilers (see my thought back then here and here). I knew about human!Bella being pregnant with half-vamp!Renesmee Carlie, the book being separated into three parts with second being Jacob POV, and Jacob imprinting on Nessie…
I thought I was going to be a hater, it sounded such badfic…but surprisingly it turned out a lot better than I expected. I think reading the spoilers helped, I think I braced myself for the worst. Also I like to focus on the positives…I can have a lot of knee-jerk HATEHATEHATE negative reactions when I read or watch something for the first time (I threw Deathly Hallows while reading it a couple of times) but I usually get over those kind of flash-hate opinions pretty quickly It was not EPIC FAIL and I swear to God in Heaven above, if I never hear/see those words used to bash BD SMeyer anything tbqh again, it will still be too soon. I like Breaking Dawn, it might even be my favorite book…maybe. No, Twilight is still my favorite, followed by BD and New Moon tied for second, and then Eclipse. I felt like it was very different from the other books, besides the fact it had 2 different POVs; darker? More mature (topics, at least)? Something different in SMeyer writing style itself, maybe? I am not sure.
Mostly I think it was the following: READING SPOILERS = PREEMPTIVE HATE = DRASTICALLY LOWERED EXPECTATIONS = ACTUALLY LIKING MOST OF THE BOOK BECAUSE I WASN'T EXPECTING IT TO BE GOOD AT. ALL.
- Book I: Bella -
Um, so I didn’t read Chapter 1, I just skipped to Chapter 2. I’d read it online, and I didn’t like it. Looking back it might be the worst chapter of Book I. So yeah, not gonna say much about this Book. It was typical human!Bella voice…not that that’s bad, I just think the rest is better. The wedding was great with Alice and Renee and Charlie. The reception was kind of hilarious. I mean come on, Angela catches the bouquet and Edward takes the garter off WITH HIS TEETH *mind wanders* …And I am back!- and then throws it at Mike?! :D Also SETH♥!!! And Billy & Sue. And the Denali coven. I KINDA OF LOVE TANYA. All those fics making her out to be an Edward-stealing bitch conditioned me into expecting to hate her, I tell you! But she and the others were nice.
Ah, the honeymoon. Off to Isle Esme. I wish I was married to Carlisle so I could get an island. So, yeah you guys, maybe I am just not your typical horny fangirl because I was fine with SMeyer’s lack of detail for the sex scenes. *shrugs* It didn’t bother me at all. I did like though the pillow biting and the headboard destroying, thought that was funny. EDWARD, IN THE OCEAN, NAKED. Just sayin.
The pregnancy and its accelerated speed was spoiled so…The baby was so cliché, such a cop-out. I HATE the idea of it, but I like the way SMeyer dealt with. I did like Bella not wanting to give it up though (not because I'm pro-life, am pro-choice, like it because she would want to keep it). I’ve read some fan comments going back and forth about how SMeyer’s trying to push pro-life with the whole aborting a mutant, definitely half vampiric, quite possibly deadly parasitic baby…I didn’t see it like that. I saw Edward freaking and not wanting Bella to die (he doesn’t do to well with that line of thinking, does he? *cuddles*) and Bella choosing to keep the baby and not letting anyone bully her…Loved that she immediately gets Rosalie on her side. The housekeeper, the one that knew the legends of vampires/half-breed-vampires was kind of awesome for being terrified of Edward and still yelling at him. God, I want to hear Edward speaking Portuguese and the native language. A lot. *loves fluent speaking of foreign languages*
- Book II: Jacob -
So I was incredibly hesitant about the book of Jacob (sounds like something from the Bible :P). (I did not like the epilogue of Eclipse from his POV.) I ended up loving it. Being my crazy backwards self, I am going to talk about the Book of Jacob by starting with an opinion about the second book of Bella: When we got back to Bella POV, the first two chapters I had to reacclimatize myself to Bella’s voice. I was afraid of going back to whiny Bella after the awesome of Jacob. His book/voice was so refreshing! Like spending months inside house and then suddenly finding yourself in a forest just after it had rained and taking a deep breathe. Not that I hate Bella’s voice, it was just a nice change. I didn’t want to leave his POV, though in hindsight the telling of the events of Book III wouldn’t have worked from Jacob’s POV…
I have always like Jacob. I never liked the Bella/Jacob pairing or how he was with all that. This made me love Jacob.
The cute scene with Quil and Claire and Paul imprinting on Rachel were nice.
But I really like it when the story picked up, when Jacob saw that Bella was back, still human, and “really sick”. His reaction to the pregnancy was pretty in character I thought. I like being able to see familiar characters from an unfamiliar angle. Loved the Bella and Rosalie thing and Emmett and Esme siding with them, Carlisle wanting to do something but not forcing Bella, and Edward going crazy. I liked how Rosalie and Edward would not leave and would almost stay in physical contact with Bella all the time (like Rosalie with her head in Bella’s lap and Edward sitting at her feet with her soothingly running her hands through his hair) I really loved that last part. Edward going crazy to the point where Jacob realized he should be smug but couldn’t take advantage of it and could see how crazy and agonized he was. I didn’t mind the whole Edward trying to get Jacob to offer his Human-ish!Baby Making Skillz to Bella, because he was literally that deranged and unhinged and desperate and I will never be able to say how much I love crazy!Edward. Love love love.
One of the coolest things about Book II was the whole pack thing. I thought the way SMeyer wrote their communication was handle really well. I was so upset when I read how Seth (and Jacob) suffered because it felt like treason when they didn’t want to harm Bella when Sam decided to attack. I LOVE SETH, BTW. You’ll be hearing that a lot, too. And then Alpha in Jacob coming out and leaving the pack and him running to warn the Cullens. And then running faster because he can hear someone behind him and he has to get there first, AND IT IS SETH CLEARWATER FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN, and how they couldn’t hear the other pack and just the fact they were their own new pack. And then Leah! I like that there was no lying about her reasoning for joining Jacob’s pack. Sure, she wanted to watch out for Seth, but it being mostly because she could be free of Sam was totally understandable (I’d do the same in her shoes). I liked that Jacob’s pack was ‘homeless’. The whole bit with the Jake’s pack trying to figure what Sam would do and stratagize was cool (forget fluff and sexytiems, give me some build up to potential battles with lots of strategy and stuff!) and that the Cullens depending on them to provide the watch and info on how/when/where to hunt was great. And can I just say that Jacob not having a problem with Carlisle, respecting/liking him as a person was so good and grown-up of him! I always wanted there to be more of a friendship between Edward and Jacob and I got it. HOWEVER, I HATED that Sam, I character I had really liked was turned into a "bad guy" for part of the book. I don't like that I didn't like him, if that make sense.
Jacob and Rosalie were amazing! Loved the blonde jokes to death, literally laughed out loud at them. And the whole doggie-bowl-food-throwing? “You. Got. Food. In. My. Hair.” (Rosalie, pg 304) Awesome Line! Alice and Jacob, too, with him being her painkiller from all the headaches she was getting. And that girl that Jacob met when he drove to the park trying to widen is range for imprinting was fun. Lizzie, I believe it might have been?
Bella drinking blood for the baby was kind of gross. Her puking blood when the baby started going into distress was really gross. It’s not even the blood part, it’s the VOMITING of blood that gets to me. I got kind of worked up about this scene, so I rushed through it as fast as I could with out missing anything. The spine breaking was AMAZING though, it stopped be in my tracks as it were. Finally, Bella Got Bit!
- Book III: Bella -
Of the two books of Bella, I like Book III a lot more, it’s more exciting. I really liked seeing The Change from the inside. It has always been explained to Bella, but I liked hearing it from Bella as it happens to her. I like vampire!Bella a lot more than human!Bella. I mean she is still Bella and therefore will always be somewhat annoying to me , but she was better. I think it might be that she feels useful. She has always been pushed to the middle when others ring around her trying to protect, and besides that she did a lot of running (away like in Twilight, to the rescue kinda in New Moon) and hiding (in Twilight for a bit with Alice and Jasper and in Eclipse from the big battle, little good that did). No she gets to plan and fight and practice and she must feel that she gets to do important things to help protect instead of just being protected. So, with that she gains some much need self-esteem. To me, she should a whole lot less whiny (it’s not completely gone, though).
So, I thought how we could finally see the senses and such of a vampire from first person. I thought the hunt and the running into the hiker and Bella’s control were done really well, especially the part about how sensual Edward hunting was! :P And then when she returned and got to bond with Nessie (Bella as MOMMY, Edward as DADDY: Cute!) only to find that Jacob had imprinted and she starts freaking out. Hilarious line: “You nicknamed my daughter after The Loch Ness Monster?” (Bella, pg 451) because that is exactly what everyone was saying after reading the spoilers and SMeyer preemptively took it, flipped it, and made it WIN. I laugh so hard. Real quick I want to say that after reading the spoilers I hated the concept of Jacob imprinting in Nessie. It was creepy! She was just an infant! But SMeyer made it sweet. And Thank God, an end the E/B/J triangle of infinite annoyingness. She obviously has some magical voodoo mind-control-influencing powers of her own.
FAMILY TIME. Is what I am calling the next little bit. I liked seeing the Cullens and Jacob’s pack all kind of together and stuff. I just really got a kick from remembering the old tension/hatred between them and then reading about how Jacob and Seth and Leah (kind of) stroll in the house and raid the prop food and have Esme mother-hen-ing extend to them and hang out with these vampires. If I hated Nessie, I would love her just for this (personally, I find her irresistible as well). Emmett was great, with all is sex jokes teasing Edward/Bella. Favorite sex taunt: “What were you guys doing last night? Discussing the national debt?” (Emmett, pg 490) And the arm-wrestling and Jacob and Edward laughing at Emmett losing and him wanting a re-match. Alice and Rosalie all playing dress up with Ness because she grows too fast was nice. And you guys JASPER, tagging along wherever Bella went like a puppy because she was so happy and he liked feeling so happy was TOO CUTE. AND OMG CHARLIE! Oh, how annoyed I had been with him during Eclipse and how I love him now! How well he took his limited need-to-know information because he loved Bella and his new granddaughter and just went with it and watch football with Emmett (nice of Emmett to break the awkwardness there). And him and Sue and the whole vampire’s dad and werewolves’ mom thing was nice.
And now the excitingness. So you guys I just have to say that as much as I love big battles and all, I love the build up to them more. The strategizing, the waiting and the worrying. What I like to call the Gathering of AlliesTM, which must be something I got from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (when all the trainee slayers show up ) and was carried through to Harry Potter (the forming of the DA and then later when everyone shows up at Hogwarts for the final fight). I don’t care if they show before or during the battle, I just love that they show at all, and I’m like “GO TEAMWORK! *waves pom-poms*” So Irina is stupid and I kind of wanted to punch her for taking one look while distraught at seeing wolf-Jacob and assuming shit because you know what they say about assuming…From the part where Alice starts get her visions of the Volturi and Irina as the trigger to the end of the book I thought was written really well and I got really into. I can’t believe that the characters would so assuredly believe that Alice would abandon them, was like, “She’s coming back with the cavalry, bitches!” However I did like that in the scene when they were asking Sam where Alice went, and they were like “what do we do now?” it’s Emmett that clearly say with conviction that they stand and fight. &hearts Emmett so much. Liked Sam’s pack joining up. Loved Carlisle and Esme and Rosalie and Emmett going for help.
I believe that one of my favorite things in general about this book was all the other covens/vampires. The chart in the back was so cool (I can’t help but imagine if somehow James hadn’t been the one to go after Bella, but we still got to this part and he showed up. I mean it would be good to have tracker on their side too, right? To counter Demitri, you know, and make it more even). I loved meeting all of them and seeing there powers and different personalities. Loved everyone from Denali, Benjamin♥ and Tia and the other Egyptians, the Amazons and the Irish and Vladimir and Stefan who were hilarious because how gleeful they were to up against the Volturi and I totally imagine traditionally Dracula-vamps with accents and capes with the popped collars. AND OMG GARRETT♥ THE REVOLUTIONARY/PATRIOT. *WAVES FLAG LIKE NO ONE’S BUSINESS* I canNOT wait for fanfiction with the new covens! I thought that SMeyer handled the one-on-one and group training of Bella really well.
As for the not!battle, it was interesting. I don’t mind that they didn’t actually fight. I liked seeing Bella’s power being used to protect so many at once, though I hated the concept when I read the spoiler. I know people were calling it a “love shield” but I thought it was more of an “anger shield” because she had to be mad that her loved ones were threatened. I thought the hopeless goodbyes when everyone saw that Bella ans Edward were sending Jacob and Ness away (Edward calling Jake his brother= *\O/*, Edward calling Jake his son *cringe and slightly-disgusted snort*) and everyone was saying bye and love you before they thought the fight would start was touching. And then BAM! ALICE AND THE CAVALRY! And they all live to fight another day (...next story in Forks? Hmm? I am on to you, SMeyer.). Well, except for Irina, which that was kind of harsh as bad as her rushing off made things, and I love Tanya and Kate’s reactions and Carlisle and Garrett having to calm them down. Especially since Garrett♥ had to calm Kate down while being electrocuted it gave us a good example of Bella’s power when moved the shield between them.
- Where Do We Go From Here? (You know you love the Buffy musical episode!) -
As much as I would LOVE an Alice/Jasper book, from Jasper's POV, it's probably not going to happen. A Carlisle book would be awesome too, and again, very unlikely, IMO. I think with the Jacob/Ness, the introduction of half-vamp Nahuel, the Gathering of AlliesTM, and the fact there was not a battle, SMeyer has her “other stories to be told in Forks”. Getting the obvious out of the way, she could always try a love triangle with Jacob/Ness and Nahuel. Blerg. More important and intriguing is the situation with the Volturi:
“…The Volturi won’t forgive what happened here.”
“They’ve been seriously shaken; their confidence is shattered. But, yes, I’m sure they’ll recover from this blow someday. And then…” His eyes tightened. “I imagine they’ll try to pick us off separately.”
“Alice will warn us wen they intend to strike, Siobhan said in a sure voice. “And we’ll gather again. Perhaps the time has come when our world is ready to free of the Volturi altogether.”
“That time may come,” Carlisle replied. “If it does, we’ll stand together.”
“Yes, my friend, we will,” Siobhan agreed. “And how can we fail, when I will it otherwise?” She let out a great peal of laughter.
(Siobhan, Edward, and Carlisle, pg 743-744)
I think that is what The Next Story In ForksTM will include. I have always really enjoyed the thought of Aro and Cassius Caius (but not Marcus cuz he is always bored) getting paranoid about the Cullens. They are the biggest coven ever (?) according to the chart, even before Bella (and Ness) and they follow a different lifestyle which makes they’re bonds stronger making them way hard to take down (no dividing and conquering this lot). But they had their guard. Now the Cullens have Bella, Ness in like four years, Jacob and the wolves (who’ve grown in number, 6 new I think, and who are really shape-shifters who happen to turn into wolves unlike the Children of the Moon who seem to be closer to traditional werewolves) and then all the allied covens and nomads and whatnot (I hope the Romanians come back when they fight ;D, if this is indeed where SMeyer is thinking of going). Adding to the paranoia is they are essentially lead by the Awesomeness that is Carlisle Cullen, just look all of those friends and people who respect him and are willing to follow him and at how he handle the situation. The Cullens are definitely the Volutri’s biggest threat now, if not ever. I mean, looking Garrett and his speech, I would like to point out that I think it was important that Meyer specifically mentioned that he was a Revolutionary (suggesting the Volturi=England, the Cullens&Friends=American Colonies, and I think we know where that could go thanks to History Class). And since they are paranoid and terrified they are going to be rash and go on the offense (idiots, the Cullens and Co. would not instigate anything). And then as soon as Alice sees they want to start something it’s the Gathering of AlliesTM all over again. *pumps fist* I hope I really am onto you, SMeyer, as I sort of really want to see this.
- Final Thoughts-ish...I guess...*shrugs* -
So, I liked the book. A lot. It might be my favorite, not sure yet. I am kind of disappointed at just how much hate there seems to be. It is kind of her book, she can d what she likes with it. And I liked what she did with it. SMeyer still has a fan in me.
I really only have one question: How does the whole pack thing work now? They split because Jacob (and Seth) didn’t want to harm Bella to destroy Ness. Now that Jacob imprinted and Ness is really a threat, Sam’s pack can’t/won’t harm her. But now there are two Alphas and I can’t see either going back. So do the two pack coexist in La Push? Does Jacob’s pack more wandering in the sense that they can go home to LA Push but they are also welcome on the Cullens land? What about Embry and Quil? And the new explosion of wolves? Do they get to chose which pack they are on? Or did I miss something and Jacob is now kind of a lone wolf and Sam is in charge of the others? I think I would have got that…and 15 is a gigantic pack…So yeah, am totally confused on how the packs are working now.
Also as much as Iliked the books, there were enough eye-raising/cringing moments that I can't see this as a movie. I don't want it to be a movie. It works in book format, but there are too many threads and zero physical fight scenes and it won't work. If they add physical fight scenes like they did with Twilight it is going to suck, because at least Twilight had some physical fights to begin with, BD had none.
NOW SOMEONE WRITE ME SOME ALLIED-VAMPIRE-COVENS/NOMADS FIC! ...ESPECIALLY WITH GARRETT!
…damn, that got long and ramble-y.
I thought I was going to be a hater, it sounded such badfic…but surprisingly it turned out a lot better than I expected. I think reading the spoilers helped, I think I braced myself for the worst. Also I like to focus on the positives…I can have a lot of knee-jerk HATEHATEHATE negative reactions when I read or watch something for the first time (I threw Deathly Hallows while reading it a couple of times) but I usually get over those kind of flash-hate opinions pretty quickly It was not EPIC FAIL and I swear to God in Heaven above, if I never hear/see those words used to bash BD SMeyer anything tbqh again, it will still be too soon. I like Breaking Dawn, it might even be my favorite book…maybe. No, Twilight is still my favorite, followed by BD and New Moon tied for second, and then Eclipse. I felt like it was very different from the other books, besides the fact it had 2 different POVs; darker? More mature (topics, at least)? Something different in SMeyer writing style itself, maybe? I am not sure.
Mostly I think it was the following: READING SPOILERS = PREEMPTIVE HATE = DRASTICALLY LOWERED EXPECTATIONS = ACTUALLY LIKING MOST OF THE BOOK BECAUSE I WASN'T EXPECTING IT TO BE GOOD AT. ALL.
- Book I: Bella -
Um, so I didn’t read Chapter 1, I just skipped to Chapter 2. I’d read it online, and I didn’t like it. Looking back it might be the worst chapter of Book I. So yeah, not gonna say much about this Book. It was typical human!Bella voice…not that that’s bad, I just think the rest is better. The wedding was great with Alice and Renee and Charlie. The reception was kind of hilarious. I mean come on, Angela catches the bouquet and Edward takes the garter off WITH HIS TEETH *mind wanders* …And I am back!- and then throws it at Mike?! :D Also SETH♥!!! And Billy & Sue. And the Denali coven. I KINDA OF LOVE TANYA. All those fics making her out to be an Edward-stealing bitch conditioned me into expecting to hate her, I tell you! But she and the others were nice.
Ah, the honeymoon. Off to Isle Esme. I wish I was married to Carlisle so I could get an island. So, yeah you guys, maybe I am just not your typical horny fangirl because I was fine with SMeyer’s lack of detail for the sex scenes. *shrugs* It didn’t bother me at all. I did like though the pillow biting and the headboard destroying, thought that was funny. EDWARD, IN THE OCEAN, NAKED. Just sayin.
The pregnancy and its accelerated speed was spoiled so…The baby was so cliché, such a cop-out. I HATE the idea of it, but I like the way SMeyer dealt with. I did like Bella not wanting to give it up though (not because I'm pro-life, am pro-choice, like it because she would want to keep it). I’ve read some fan comments going back and forth about how SMeyer’s trying to push pro-life with the whole aborting a mutant, definitely half vampiric, quite possibly deadly parasitic baby…I didn’t see it like that. I saw Edward freaking and not wanting Bella to die (he doesn’t do to well with that line of thinking, does he? *cuddles*) and Bella choosing to keep the baby and not letting anyone bully her…Loved that she immediately gets Rosalie on her side. The housekeeper, the one that knew the legends of vampires/half-breed-vampires was kind of awesome for being terrified of Edward and still yelling at him. God, I want to hear Edward speaking Portuguese and the native language. A lot. *loves fluent speaking of foreign languages*
- Book II: Jacob -
So I was incredibly hesitant about the book of Jacob (sounds like something from the Bible :P). (I did not like the epilogue of Eclipse from his POV.) I ended up loving it. Being my crazy backwards self, I am going to talk about the Book of Jacob by starting with an opinion about the second book of Bella: When we got back to Bella POV, the first two chapters I had to reacclimatize myself to Bella’s voice. I was afraid of going back to whiny Bella after the awesome of Jacob. His book/voice was so refreshing! Like spending months inside house and then suddenly finding yourself in a forest just after it had rained and taking a deep breathe. Not that I hate Bella’s voice, it was just a nice change. I didn’t want to leave his POV, though in hindsight the telling of the events of Book III wouldn’t have worked from Jacob’s POV…
I have always like Jacob. I never liked the Bella/Jacob pairing or how he was with all that. This made me love Jacob.
The cute scene with Quil and Claire and Paul imprinting on Rachel were nice.
But I really like it when the story picked up, when Jacob saw that Bella was back, still human, and “really sick”. His reaction to the pregnancy was pretty in character I thought. I like being able to see familiar characters from an unfamiliar angle. Loved the Bella and Rosalie thing and Emmett and Esme siding with them, Carlisle wanting to do something but not forcing Bella, and Edward going crazy. I liked how Rosalie and Edward would not leave and would almost stay in physical contact with Bella all the time (like Rosalie with her head in Bella’s lap and Edward sitting at her feet with her soothingly running her hands through his hair) I really loved that last part. Edward going crazy to the point where Jacob realized he should be smug but couldn’t take advantage of it and could see how crazy and agonized he was. I didn’t mind the whole Edward trying to get Jacob to offer his Human-ish!Baby Making Skillz to Bella, because he was literally that deranged and unhinged and desperate and I will never be able to say how much I love crazy!Edward. Love love love.
One of the coolest things about Book II was the whole pack thing. I thought the way SMeyer wrote their communication was handle really well. I was so upset when I read how Seth (and Jacob) suffered because it felt like treason when they didn’t want to harm Bella when Sam decided to attack. I LOVE SETH, BTW. You’ll be hearing that a lot, too. And then Alpha in Jacob coming out and leaving the pack and him running to warn the Cullens. And then running faster because he can hear someone behind him and he has to get there first, AND IT IS SETH CLEARWATER FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN, and how they couldn’t hear the other pack and just the fact they were their own new pack. And then Leah! I like that there was no lying about her reasoning for joining Jacob’s pack. Sure, she wanted to watch out for Seth, but it being mostly because she could be free of Sam was totally understandable (I’d do the same in her shoes). I liked that Jacob’s pack was ‘homeless’. The whole bit with the Jake’s pack trying to figure what Sam would do and stratagize was cool (forget fluff and sexytiems, give me some build up to potential battles with lots of strategy and stuff!) and that the Cullens depending on them to provide the watch and info on how/when/where to hunt was great. And can I just say that Jacob not having a problem with Carlisle, respecting/liking him as a person was so good and grown-up of him! I always wanted there to be more of a friendship between Edward and Jacob and I got it. HOWEVER, I HATED that Sam, I character I had really liked was turned into a "bad guy" for part of the book. I don't like that I didn't like him, if that make sense.
Jacob and Rosalie were amazing! Loved the blonde jokes to death, literally laughed out loud at them. And the whole doggie-bowl-food-throwing? “You. Got. Food. In. My. Hair.” (Rosalie, pg 304) Awesome Line! Alice and Jacob, too, with him being her painkiller from all the headaches she was getting. And that girl that Jacob met when he drove to the park trying to widen is range for imprinting was fun. Lizzie, I believe it might have been?
Bella drinking blood for the baby was kind of gross. Her puking blood when the baby started going into distress was really gross. It’s not even the blood part, it’s the VOMITING of blood that gets to me. I got kind of worked up about this scene, so I rushed through it as fast as I could with out missing anything. The spine breaking was AMAZING though, it stopped be in my tracks as it were. Finally, Bella Got Bit!
- Book III: Bella -
Of the two books of Bella, I like Book III a lot more, it’s more exciting. I really liked seeing The Change from the inside. It has always been explained to Bella, but I liked hearing it from Bella as it happens to her. I like vampire!Bella a lot more than human!Bella. I mean she is still Bella and therefore will always be somewhat annoying to me , but she was better. I think it might be that she feels useful. She has always been pushed to the middle when others ring around her trying to protect, and besides that she did a lot of running (away like in Twilight, to the rescue kinda in New Moon) and hiding (in Twilight for a bit with Alice and Jasper and in Eclipse from the big battle, little good that did). No she gets to plan and fight and practice and she must feel that she gets to do important things to help protect instead of just being protected. So, with that she gains some much need self-esteem. To me, she should a whole lot less whiny (it’s not completely gone, though).
So, I thought how we could finally see the senses and such of a vampire from first person. I thought the hunt and the running into the hiker and Bella’s control were done really well, especially the part about how sensual Edward hunting was! :P And then when she returned and got to bond with Nessie (Bella as MOMMY, Edward as DADDY: Cute!) only to find that Jacob had imprinted and she starts freaking out. Hilarious line: “You nicknamed my daughter after The Loch Ness Monster?” (Bella, pg 451) because that is exactly what everyone was saying after reading the spoilers and SMeyer preemptively took it, flipped it, and made it WIN. I laugh so hard. Real quick I want to say that after reading the spoilers I hated the concept of Jacob imprinting in Nessie. It was creepy! She was just an infant! But SMeyer made it sweet. And Thank God, an end the E/B/J triangle of infinite annoyingness. She obviously has some magical voodoo mind-control-influencing powers of her own.
FAMILY TIME. Is what I am calling the next little bit. I liked seeing the Cullens and Jacob’s pack all kind of together and stuff. I just really got a kick from remembering the old tension/hatred between them and then reading about how Jacob and Seth and Leah (kind of) stroll in the house and raid the prop food and have Esme mother-hen-ing extend to them and hang out with these vampires. If I hated Nessie, I would love her just for this (personally, I find her irresistible as well). Emmett was great, with all is sex jokes teasing Edward/Bella. Favorite sex taunt: “What were you guys doing last night? Discussing the national debt?” (Emmett, pg 490) And the arm-wrestling and Jacob and Edward laughing at Emmett losing and him wanting a re-match. Alice and Rosalie all playing dress up with Ness because she grows too fast was nice. And you guys JASPER, tagging along wherever Bella went like a puppy because she was so happy and he liked feeling so happy was TOO CUTE. AND OMG CHARLIE! Oh, how annoyed I had been with him during Eclipse and how I love him now! How well he took his limited need-to-know information because he loved Bella and his new granddaughter and just went with it and watch football with Emmett (nice of Emmett to break the awkwardness there). And him and Sue and the whole vampire’s dad and werewolves’ mom thing was nice.
And now the excitingness. So you guys I just have to say that as much as I love big battles and all, I love the build up to them more. The strategizing, the waiting and the worrying. What I like to call the Gathering of AlliesTM, which must be something I got from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (when all the trainee slayers show up ) and was carried through to Harry Potter (the forming of the DA and then later when everyone shows up at Hogwarts for the final fight). I don’t care if they show before or during the battle, I just love that they show at all, and I’m like “GO TEAMWORK! *waves pom-poms*” So Irina is stupid and I kind of wanted to punch her for taking one look while distraught at seeing wolf-Jacob and assuming shit because you know what they say about assuming…From the part where Alice starts get her visions of the Volturi and Irina as the trigger to the end of the book I thought was written really well and I got really into. I can’t believe that the characters would so assuredly believe that Alice would abandon them, was like, “She’s coming back with the cavalry, bitches!” However I did like that in the scene when they were asking Sam where Alice went, and they were like “what do we do now?” it’s Emmett that clearly say with conviction that they stand and fight. &hearts Emmett so much. Liked Sam’s pack joining up. Loved Carlisle and Esme and Rosalie and Emmett going for help.
I believe that one of my favorite things in general about this book was all the other covens/vampires. The chart in the back was so cool (I can’t help but imagine if somehow James hadn’t been the one to go after Bella, but we still got to this part and he showed up. I mean it would be good to have tracker on their side too, right? To counter Demitri, you know, and make it more even). I loved meeting all of them and seeing there powers and different personalities. Loved everyone from Denali, Benjamin♥ and Tia and the other Egyptians, the Amazons and the Irish and Vladimir and Stefan who were hilarious because how gleeful they were to up against the Volturi and I totally imagine traditionally Dracula-vamps with accents and capes with the popped collars. AND OMG GARRETT♥ THE REVOLUTIONARY/PATRIOT. *WAVES FLAG LIKE NO ONE’S BUSINESS* I canNOT wait for fanfiction with the new covens! I thought that SMeyer handled the one-on-one and group training of Bella really well.
As for the not!battle, it was interesting. I don’t mind that they didn’t actually fight. I liked seeing Bella’s power being used to protect so many at once, though I hated the concept when I read the spoiler. I know people were calling it a “love shield” but I thought it was more of an “anger shield” because she had to be mad that her loved ones were threatened. I thought the hopeless goodbyes when everyone saw that Bella ans Edward were sending Jacob and Ness away (Edward calling Jake his brother= *\O/*, Edward calling Jake his son *cringe and slightly-disgusted snort*) and everyone was saying bye and love you before they thought the fight would start was touching. And then BAM! ALICE AND THE CAVALRY! And they all live to fight another day (...next story in Forks? Hmm? I am on to you, SMeyer.). Well, except for Irina, which that was kind of harsh as bad as her rushing off made things, and I love Tanya and Kate’s reactions and Carlisle and Garrett having to calm them down. Especially since Garrett♥ had to calm Kate down while being electrocuted it gave us a good example of Bella’s power when moved the shield between them.
- Where Do We Go From Here? (You know you love the Buffy musical episode!) -
As much as I would LOVE an Alice/Jasper book, from Jasper's POV, it's probably not going to happen. A Carlisle book would be awesome too, and again, very unlikely, IMO. I think with the Jacob/Ness, the introduction of half-vamp Nahuel, the Gathering of AlliesTM, and the fact there was not a battle, SMeyer has her “other stories to be told in Forks”. Getting the obvious out of the way, she could always try a love triangle with Jacob/Ness and Nahuel. Blerg. More important and intriguing is the situation with the Volturi:
“…The Volturi won’t forgive what happened here.”
“They’ve been seriously shaken; their confidence is shattered. But, yes, I’m sure they’ll recover from this blow someday. And then…” His eyes tightened. “I imagine they’ll try to pick us off separately.”
“Alice will warn us wen they intend to strike, Siobhan said in a sure voice. “And we’ll gather again. Perhaps the time has come when our world is ready to free of the Volturi altogether.”
“That time may come,” Carlisle replied. “If it does, we’ll stand together.”
“Yes, my friend, we will,” Siobhan agreed. “And how can we fail, when I will it otherwise?” She let out a great peal of laughter.
(Siobhan, Edward, and Carlisle, pg 743-744)
I think that is what The Next Story In ForksTM will include. I have always really enjoyed the thought of Aro and Cassius Caius (but not Marcus cuz he is always bored) getting paranoid about the Cullens. They are the biggest coven ever (?) according to the chart, even before Bella (and Ness) and they follow a different lifestyle which makes they’re bonds stronger making them way hard to take down (no dividing and conquering this lot). But they had their guard. Now the Cullens have Bella, Ness in like four years, Jacob and the wolves (who’ve grown in number, 6 new I think, and who are really shape-shifters who happen to turn into wolves unlike the Children of the Moon who seem to be closer to traditional werewolves) and then all the allied covens and nomads and whatnot (I hope the Romanians come back when they fight ;D, if this is indeed where SMeyer is thinking of going). Adding to the paranoia is they are essentially lead by the Awesomeness that is Carlisle Cullen, just look all of those friends and people who respect him and are willing to follow him and at how he handle the situation. The Cullens are definitely the Volutri’s biggest threat now, if not ever. I mean, looking Garrett and his speech, I would like to point out that I think it was important that Meyer specifically mentioned that he was a Revolutionary (suggesting the Volturi=England, the Cullens&Friends=American Colonies, and I think we know where that could go thanks to History Class). And since they are paranoid and terrified they are going to be rash and go on the offense (idiots, the Cullens and Co. would not instigate anything). And then as soon as Alice sees they want to start something it’s the Gathering of AlliesTM all over again. *pumps fist* I hope I really am onto you, SMeyer, as I sort of really want to see this.
- Final Thoughts-ish...I guess...*shrugs* -
So, I liked the book. A lot. It might be my favorite, not sure yet. I am kind of disappointed at just how much hate there seems to be. It is kind of her book, she can d what she likes with it. And I liked what she did with it. SMeyer still has a fan in me.
I really only have one question: How does the whole pack thing work now? They split because Jacob (and Seth) didn’t want to harm Bella to destroy Ness. Now that Jacob imprinted and Ness is really a threat, Sam’s pack can’t/won’t harm her. But now there are two Alphas and I can’t see either going back. So do the two pack coexist in La Push? Does Jacob’s pack more wandering in the sense that they can go home to LA Push but they are also welcome on the Cullens land? What about Embry and Quil? And the new explosion of wolves? Do they get to chose which pack they are on? Or did I miss something and Jacob is now kind of a lone wolf and Sam is in charge of the others? I think I would have got that…and 15 is a gigantic pack…So yeah, am totally confused on how the packs are working now.
Also as much as Iliked the books, there were enough eye-raising/cringing moments that I can't see this as a movie. I don't want it to be a movie. It works in book format, but there are too many threads and zero physical fight scenes and it won't work. If they add physical fight scenes like they did with Twilight it is going to suck, because at least Twilight had some physical fights to begin with, BD had none.
NOW SOMEONE WRITE ME SOME ALLIED-VAMPIRE-COVENS/NOMADS FIC! ...ESPECIALLY WITH GARRETT!
…damn, that got long and ramble-y.