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Customer Reviews
By Melissa Miller (Houston, TX USA)
I really enjoyed the much awaited 4th book in the Twilight Series. But I wanted to post a review to present why I think the response to this book is so split between disappointment and love.
The major plot points seem to be what's tearing the fan base in two:
Bella and Edward get married
Bella and Edward have a daughter
Bella becomes a vampire
Jacob imprints on Bella and Edward's daughter
#1) Bella and Edward's marriage. For many, the Twilight series is based on passionate, undying, but impossible love. The unlikeliness and the challenge of Bella and Edward's love creates a tension and sense of longing that forms the very core of the first three novels in the series. For the first three books, the inescapability and inevitability of this seemingly impossible love creates and intimacy that's so deliciously tangible that readers can practically taste it. For the first three books the central driving (and intoxicating) question is: Will they ever get to be together?
When Bella and Edward get married, which they do very early on in the 4th book of Meyer's series, for many readers, I expect that this drastically repaints the previous books' tone. A tone that for many, was the point of interest. The longing is gone, the tension is gone, the question is answered: Bella and Edward get to be together. Readers who were looking for the longing and the tension and the tantalizing prospect of impossibility are going to be disappointed.
However, readers who see the series as a description as an evolution of the maturity of love (and I suspect many of these readers will be among the older, married chunk of the Twilight fans) will probably enjoy Bella and Edward's marriage. If Twilight is about falling in love, and New Moon is about losing love, and Eclipse is about choosing love, Breaking Dawn is about committing to and growing that love. Of course, in the 4th book, there are still some unrealistic aspects to Bella and Edward's idealized love: we never see them making any major couple decisions together about money or housing or child-rearing, they still seem to be under the wing of their "parents" Carlisle and Esme, and the insatiability of their desire for one another never seems to fizzle. However, they do seem to develop an awareness that their love for each other is only reinforced by their love of their family--the way the Cullens come together around Bella and Edward and the way their bonds grow deeper as a family is one of the strongest and warmest themes in this 4th book. A theme, again, that perhaps the non-teen Twilighters will thoroughly enjoy.
#2) Bella and Edward have a daughter. I assume that many readers see Bella and Edward's daughter as a plight on their love. I can see that many would think "eeewwww" or "blek--Bella's too young" (Bella's only 18 when she has her baby). And I bet that for many, the baby makes the whole forbidden vampire love way less sexy. A lusty love scene between Momma Bella and Dadda Edward would certainly be a little icky for the younger reader who doesn't want to imagine that parents have the capacity, humanity, desire or equipment to feel impassioned.
But, for the readers (again, probably the older readers) that know and believe that the experience of creating and raising a human being with your partner adds unimaginable layers of depth, understanding, respect, sacrifice, and joy to a relationship--these readers will be very very pleased...maybe even relieved...that Bella and Edward have the opportunity to have a child. To these readers, their love will have reached the apex of its possibilities. To these readers, their love would have seemed shallow and selfish without a child. Again, the resounding theme of the book that's so strong and enjoyable will be family and familial bonds.
#3) Bella becomes a vampire. So much of the fun in the first three books is that Bella is a majorly clumsy, constantly endangered damsel in distress. She's constantly being saved by superhuman, supper hot hunks. They're rescuing her from everything. Every book, Bella's extracted from at least 3 near death experiences. And the whole damsel thing is very very fun for many readers (myself included).
But in the 4th book, aside from Bella's nearly fatal pregnancy, she's not the ultimate victim anymore. And as a newborn vampire, she's even physically stronger than her beau, Edward. For many readers, I bet that undermines Edward's ability to be her hero and dilutes some of his superhuman sexiness. No longer will two hunky supernatural guys be fighting over and perpetually saving the vulnerable, constantly endangered human babe. For others (myself included) this was be a welcome disappearance of Edward's constant upper hand. I really enjoyed that Edward felt unburdened once he no longer had to restrain himself and constantly protect Bella. I also really enjoyed to read how thrilled Edward was that Bella was finally strong. It fortifies their relationship that they're on the same level, and some will like that. But others will very much miss Bella the damsel. For it's Bella's family (again book 4's family theme...) that's threatened by the Volturi in the book, it's no longer just Bella.
#4) Jacob imprints on Bella and Edward's daughter. This will be a letdown for all of those who wanted Jacob and Edward to fight, or who wanted Jacob to sacrifice himself somehow, or who wanted Jacob to keep the Series' rift of impossible love and tension alive by prolonging his fight for Bella.
Yes, it did feel a little "tied up with a bow" for me when Jacob imprinted on Renesmee (Bella and Edward's daughter). But thinking back to previously books, the clues are there. From Book 1 forward, Bella and Jacob constantly describe each other as family and Bella wishes repeatedly in 2 and 3 that Jacob was a family member, not a love interest. By the end of Book 3, even Edward is described as seeing Jacob like a brother. I enjoyed the 4th book's development of Jacob and Edward's unlikely brotherly relationship. Again--Family! Jacob starts becoming part of the Cullens in a really heartwarming, charming way. And the complexity of his friendships with and admiration of Edward and Bella is really compelling.
Finally, I want to add that I was impressed with Meyer's ability to write the book from three points of view: Bella's human perspective, Jacob's perspective, and Bella's vampire perspective. The difference between Bella's human and vampire narration really added a sensory richness and new appreciation for the vampire side of Meyer's world. I think that as Twilight's readers age and start to experience some of what Bella experiences (marriage, children, new families) if they take another look at book 4, they'll have different appreciation for it.
Ultimately, I think Meyer, having magically dreamed her characters and their world, couldn't help but give them everything they wanted and more. She loves them almost as if she's imprinted on them. I think Meyer's imprinted on her fans too and that she desperately wants to give us what we want. But her characters come first. She can't help but spoil them--they are her babies. They are her family. Her adoration of her characters has never been a secret and it's always been evident in her the way her writing caresses them. I think the obviousness of that love is what gives this series so much staying power. I think that the 4th is no exception to that rule: like I said before, right now, Book 4 is more adult than Books 1-3, but I bet that many of the younger Twilighters will grow into this book and love it every bit as much as they love the rest of the series.
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