Helpful Score: 2
Whew. Nearly 800 pages. I'll say this much on the positive side -- it still felt like a quick read although my arms hurt from holding it. So much for the positive. Wow, was that awful. After being pleasantly surprised by the first book, a bit put off by the second and then reengaged by the third, I went into this conclusion pretty psyched. And then the romance just faded. Not just my romance with these novels, but The Romance between Bella and Edward, which was pretty much the whole point. As a fan of supernatural stories I can suspend disbelief pretty easily. Let's face it from the get-go vampires were known to be sexy and seductive even though we all know that technically without flowing blood some things should be impossible. After this there will be spoilers so be warned ...
Therefore, it's not the mechanics of the pregnancy that bugged me but rather how the baby story line added yet another love interest for Bella and stretched the romance out even further. Frankly, it pulled it the point of breaking. First there were two. Then there was a triangle. And lastly there was a very squicky pairing between a grown up and a child that we were supposed to accept as part of a happy ending.
Yet all that is not the problem with this novel. What makes the book ultimately fail its predecessors is that there is no longer any price for the huge decision that Bella must make. Once she choose Edward I thought we might be allowed a little exploration of that price -- would it be worth it? Would things change when they were equal? Might there be one final obstacle for their journey as a couple? It's not so much the fact of the happy ending (this is a teen romance after all) but that it was accomplished with no cost. Sure there was drama -- a disgusting birthing scene worthy of the goriest slasher tale, a kinda battle of wits and a tiny surprise-lite ending to resolve that conflict. But the angst that was the bedrock of the previous three books wasn't felt any longer. Maybe the perfect child sapped it away. Kids can kill romance :) Or maybe it was just a writer who was rushed and rather done with her story.
Therefore, it's not the mechanics of the pregnancy that bugged me but rather how the baby story line added yet another love interest for Bella and stretched the romance out even further. Frankly, it pulled it the point of breaking. First there were two. Then there was a triangle. And lastly there was a very squicky pairing between a grown up and a child that we were supposed to accept as part of a happy ending.
Yet all that is not the problem with this novel. What makes the book ultimately fail its predecessors is that there is no longer any price for the huge decision that Bella must make. Once she choose Edward I thought we might be allowed a little exploration of that price -- would it be worth it? Would things change when they were equal? Might there be one final obstacle for their journey as a couple? It's not so much the fact of the happy ending (this is a teen romance after all) but that it was accomplished with no cost. Sure there was drama -- a disgusting birthing scene worthy of the goriest slasher tale, a kinda battle of wits and a tiny surprise-lite ending to resolve that conflict. But the angst that was the bedrock of the previous three books wasn't felt any longer. Maybe the perfect child sapped it away. Kids can kill romance :) Or maybe it was just a writer who was rushed and rather done with her story.
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