Voicing an Unpopular Opinion

WARNING- if you have not finished Breaking Dawn and are afraid of having the plot spoiled, then reading this post is a bad idea. Also- if it makes you uncomfortable to see the word sex more than twice in a paragraph, then this is not the post for you.

I keep getting asked about the details behind my dislike of Breaking Dawn, and have decided to go ahead and write my scathing review here. I have avoided dong this partly because I know I may offend some people who live and breathe for this last book, and partly because I didn't want my blogging idol to think that I was copying her. For the record- I am not! I have had this post in my head since about page 110 of the book.

I love books! I love reading. My wonderful mother was very good at recognizing my advanced aptitude for the written word, and she began exposing me to good literature from a very young age. When other frst graders were reading Hop on Pop and Go Dog Go, my mom was introducing me to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Roald Dahl. When my second grade class had moved on to Peter Rabbit and the Berenstein Bears, I was getting familiar with Anne Shirley and Emily of New Moon. When my third grade class had finally discovered- some of them at least, what I was reading in first grade, my mom brought home the Chronicles of Narnia from the library. In 8th grade, my Honors English teacher was a little disconcerted to hear that I had already read all the Shakespeare plays she had on the sylibus. In my Junior Year, my Honor's English teacher made me re-write an end of term paper because she was certain that I had plagierized my analysis of Anna Karenina from the internet somewhere. Suffice it to say, I know a little something about good literature.

Let me start out by saying that I do like this series. The story line is imaginative, and some of the characters are very appealing, and there are vampires (I really heart vampires!). The first three books were a good weekend read. However, I have been kind of put off by the low level of writing from the beginning. Meyer's diction is extremely limited, and her syntax does not vary nearly enough for how many characters play a part in the book. Her foreshadowing makes the twists and turns unbearably obvious, and her main character is a whiny and weak person who has no business putting her nose into the realm of supernatural mysteries.

I was fine with the low level of writing at the beginning because the story was enough to keep me interested for the short amount of time it took to read the books. It did, however, bother me that thelevel of writing seemed to get worse with every book. I compare this to J.K. Rowling. I was drawn ino the Harry Potter books for the imaginative story line, the same way I was drawn to Twilight, but Rowling's level of writing was fairly low. This was fine because it suited her target audience to a tee. It was fun for me to see how much Rowling improved with each book. I had a children's lit. teacher tell me that this was done on purpose by Rowling because she wanted the kids to move up to higher levels of reading little by little. I think that is dumb! The writing gets better because usually, when you write more than three full length novels, you become a better writer. By her seventh book, Rowling's plot had become just short of ingenius, and her writing style and the level of description far surpassed what was used in The Sorcerer's Stone. Meyer has done the opposite. Twilight was her best book. The rest all went down in levels of plot, suspense, and descriptions. J.K. Rowling was writing her legacy and trying to leave a mark on the page of literary history. She was using her full capacity to create something original. Meyer was rushing to get to the book debuts and cash her checks.

Probably her biggest mistake was writing the series in the first person perspective. I love the frst person perspective in other books because it allows you to see what is happening and how a character is feeling from a very personal standpoint. Unfortunately, Meyer ruined a lot of her suspense by having Bella write the book. You know from the beginning that she can't die- she wrote the book. I have heard the argument that she does change the perspective from Bella to Jacob in this last book half way through, so there is a chance that she still could have died. Let me remind you however, that if Bella had any time before her approaching death, she would not have spent it writing a detailed sketch of her honeymoon, rather she probably would have found some way to re-live the honeymoon relations again.

That brings me to my biggest complaint about Breaking Dawn. There was a lot of sex!! Normally this wouln't bother me all that much. Sexual scenes are a big part of some really great books, and some of the greatest story lines all center around it. Catch 22, 1984, Grapes of Wrath, Flowers For Algernon, The Scarlet Letter, Catcher in the Rye, The Crucibal, Anna Karenina, and a good handful of the Shakspeare play all utilize sex as an important part of their stories. What is the big deal with the naughtier parts of Breaking Dawn? Well, the Twilight series was not written for adults like all of those other books were. The obvious target audience for this caliber of book is 13-14 year old girls. There is no part of me that thinks it is ok to expose pre-adolescent youths to the idea that sex is a good thing, and is the key to a happy ending. I know what all you die-hard Meyer fans are going to say to this, mainly because people keep saying it to me- "I am an adult, and I like it! No one is making the teeniboppers read it! etc."

Twilight is a high-school drama. Who likes to read high-school dramas more than anything else? The girls who aren't in high school yet! The Twilight series is written at basically a 6th to 7th grade level. Who do you think that really appeals to? The Twilight series is offered in a number of the Scholastic book orders, and can be purchsed at the book fairs that come to ELEMENTARY schools. Do you really think that adults are the ones being introduced to these books from those methods? Stephanie Meyer may not have set out to be the role model of young women, but her story line and writing level place her right in the midst of the adoring herd of pre-pubescent girlhood.

Even if it wasn't her intention to have that kind of following, she knew who her fans were by the time she got to writing the fourth book. I think it was incredibly irresponsible of her to write such a sex-riddled novel that she knew would be in the hands of countless Jr. High students. I would have maybe even been OK with it if the honeymoon had been the only place where it came up. I mean, they were married (at 18) so at least she wasn't spreading the idea of pre-marital sex- but couldn't that have been the end of it? Instead we see that familiar theme pop up again and again. Edward wants to abort the demon baby and have Jacob knock up his wife with a little wolf baby. Yes, he is trying to save her life- but really? Do you want your little girls reading about 'stud services'? When Bella and Edward share their immortal fate, they have a number of nights FULL of intercourse because vampires don't have to catch their breath or rest or shower or goto the bathroom. Emmet jokes about the fact that he and Rosalie actually had crazy enough romps in the sack that they broke down a couple of their houses due to their enthusiasm. Edward talks about the fact that the only reason he plays the piano so well and knows so many languages and has read so many books is because he is the only vampire in the house who hasn't had a companion in the bedroom. Even the very last line in the book takes away from a beautiful gift tha Bella was trying to give Edward. Finally, after three books of mental silence on Bella's part, Edward finally had the chance to see into her thoughts- to have a first-hand glimpse of just how much he meant to her, and all he could do was jump her!

It was too much! I was blushing the entire time, not because it made me uncomfortable, but because I imagined my little sisters, and cousins, and all those little 10 year old girls waiting in line reading those parts. I could never, in good conscience, expose my little girls to that crap, and neither should you.