Chaos and Cupcakes

My  Breaking Dawn review is still generating some wonderful discussion.  To date, it has gotten over 11,000 views and over 60 comments.  Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on the book!  Now I need to get off my heinie and review all the books I’ve planned to write about for several months now!

After I read Breaking Dawn, the thought came to me late one night that I would just jot out some thoughts that I had on it.  I didn’t realize that it would get a pretty good response.  I was talking about this with Jared and we came up with the idea to start a new collaborative blog.  We haven’t got it all set up yet so don’t go to the page just yet, but the website will be bookreviews.ottleys.net.  Jared, Taylor, and I are all voracious readers (and hopefully all the other kids will follow suit).  I read at least three books a week.  I get asked all the time by those looking for a good book what I am reading or have recently read.  So I thought this blog would be a great way for people to get suggestions on reading material.  Hopefully it will be up and running by next weekend.

We’ve got another blog coming soon, too!  It will be aspergers.ottleys.net.  If you go to that page right now, though, it is just blank.  I am waiting for Jared to get our new server set up and migrate everything over to it.  Hopefully he will get his priorities straight and get that done this week rather than doing his real job.  This spin-off blog will be all about Andrew’s experiences with Asperger’s and our experiences parenting a child with Asperger’s.  It will be authored by both Jared and me.  Our hope is to get a big enough reader community that we can have lots of guest posts by other Asperger’s parents, people with Asperger’s, and family members of Aspies.  We will also be asking our own kids and our parents to guest post from time to time.  I am really excited about this new blog and hope that it will be a great support to those out there who either have Asperger’s Syndrome or have a loved one who is an Aspie or who are just curious as to what life is like with this in it.  Look for it hopefully by the beginning of next week!

Since we have so many blogs in our family (Jared’s, mine, Taylor’s, and these 2 new ones) we will have a central page, www.ottleys.net,  that you can go to and access all our blogs (Taylor’s will still be password-protected).  It will be ready along with the new blogs.

We will be busy getting all this done this week!  It is the last week of summer vacation, as well, so we’ve got to fit in one last day at Seven Peaks.  We also just got back an hour or so ago from our four-day camping trip to Zion National Park (post coming soon about this) so I’ve got a mountain of laundry to do.  Hmm, suppose I should get off the computer now and get some of that done!

Warning:  this review contains spoilers.  If you haven’t read or finished Breaking Dawn (and plan to in the future), you might want to skip this post for now.

I am disappointed in Breaking Dawn.  I suspect my reading of it was tainted by the fact that I expected to be disappointed in it merely because I have been progressively disenchanted with the Twilight saga books.  I loved Twilight, liked New Moon less than Twilight, and liked Eclipse less than New Moon.  So perhaps I set myself up to like Breaking Dawn less than Eclipse.

One of my problems with Breaking Dawn is that while Stephenie Meyer pushes the maturity level of this book sexuality-wise considering it is classified as a “Young Adult” novel, her prose does not follow suit.  Quite frankly, I became bored with the descriptions and the dialogue.  The writing just didn’t spark my imagination this time.

Perhaps this is a good thing, considering what much of the book was devoted to– Bella’s honeymoon and newlywed status.  The Twilight saga has become such a cult phenomenon amongst teenagers and even “tweens” that it made me a bit uncomfortable reading about Bella’s unending preoccupation with sex while thinking about this demographic reading about it as well.  Sure, Bella went along with Edward’s “old-fashioned morals” but I don’t think all the talk about breaking furniture and such was necessary (unless you are suddenly going to change the market of the book from young adult fiction to adult fiction, which Meyer didn’t.)  As the book doesn’t actually graphically describe the sex scenes, just alludes to them, I would have had no problem with them if this wasn’t a young adult novel.  It appears that Meyer is following in J.K. Rowling’s footsteps by making each novel progressively more adult.

Another problem I had with the book (and here is where a spoiler comes in, so again, beware) is the whole pregnancy/child thing.  My friend Lauren said that she thinks Meyer “jumped the shark” on this one, and I whole-heartedly agree.  Sure, it’s great that Bella doesn’t have to miss out on the opportunity to become a mother.  But a one-month gestation (not to mention the great timing of Bella’s cycle with the honeymoon night to make this possible)?  Just a little too convenient.  I’m sure Meyer wanted to make fans happy with giving Bella a nice, enriched life and tie it all up with a bow on top.  That’s what makes her money, right?  Making the fans happy.  But that is not for me.  Also, I have practicality issues with the whole female vampires are sterile but males aren’t.  Doesn’t make enough sense to me.  Now, of course, you should know that Jared hates watching movies with me because I am always saying things like “well that’s not very realistic” or “that could never happen” or “that doesn’t make any sense.”  And Jared always responds, “It’s just a movie!  It’s entertainment, not real life!”  So I shouldn’t really have a problem with the fact that male vampires can reproduce even though females can’t when, after all, it’s a book about vampires and werewolves (aka shape-shifters).  But I do.

I am disappointed in the whole (spoiler coming…) Jacob imprinting on Renesmee thing.  I had hoped that he and Leah would get together.  I have to give it to Meyer there.  That was a great red herring to have Leah come over to Jacob’s pack and ask if she could follow him when he left.  That made for a surprise when he imprinted on Renesmee.  I also didn’t love how the middle section of the book was from Jacob’s point of view.  It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t particularly exciting to me, either.

One thing I especially disliked about the book:  the name Renesmee.  Blech.  I’d have much preferred she go by her middle name of Carlie.  Esme and Renee are both beautiful French names, but in that combination? Please, no.  It was a nice tribute to the mothers, but perhaps there is a better way to combine the names?

The ending of the novel was very anti-climatic and unsatisfying to me.  I was waiting for this great battle and gnashing of teeth and some of the Volturi to be taken down.  Instead it just felt like a big set-up for a later novel.

My biggest hang-up with Breaking Dawn, perhaps, is the lack of education I received from reading it.  For me, reading is not just entertainment, but education as well.  I like novels that I come away with having learned things I never knew (or had maybe forgotten).  Right before I read this novel, I had just read Chris Bohjalian‘s Skeletons at the Feast from which I learned so much and gained a great deal of insight into what it was like to live in Germany during World War II.  I can’t say that I learned anything of value from reading Breaking Dawn. Now there is nothing wrong with reading just for entertainment’s sake, but I am a consummate multi-tasker so I would prefer to be entertained and educated at the same time if I am going to expend the time to read the novel.

All in all, it was true to Meyer’s form by being a fun, fast read.  Stephenie Meyer does know how to make a page turner.  And even though I am not totally thrilled with Breaking Dawn, I will still look forward to the next one (Midnight Sun).

So tell me, what did you think of Breaking Dawn?

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