Perhaps I'm a touch behind, but some friends of mine kept pestering me until a couple weeks ago I finally caved (note: 27 year old female here).
I have just finished Breaking Dawn.
The books aren't bad, but they're not the best I've read and I think that Stephanie Meyer still has a lot to improve on should she wish to continue writing (yes, I know about the "indefinite hiatus" on Midnight Sun).
If I had to choose the weakest of the four books, I think I would actually go with the second one. I actually found myself flipping pages ahead to see if Bella was still moping, and depressed, and moping, and using Jacob, and so on and so forth. That combined with, to me at least, I felt no real conflict in that book. One thing that JK did so well with the Harry Potter series is that even though all seven books were tied together with a central ongoing plot, each book had it's own subplot occurring complete with their own conflicts and resolutions. I did not get that feel with New Moon. The conflict of Victoria's hunting of Bella was introduced, but would not be resolved for another book. Granted there was Bella's internal conflict of dealing with Edward, but that -- to me -- just didn't feel like enough and that particular chapter in this saga left me dissatisfied.
Going against the grain of the majority of fans, I actually didn't find Breaking Dawn all that bad. To me it matched well with the previous books in the saga. I'm not sure how I feel about the portion devoted to Jacob's point of view, as it would seem that Edward would be the more likely candidate, but that's obviously the way she chose to wrote it. To me, if she had gone with Edward instead of Jacob, it would've been a better way to lead in to Midnight Sun as the retelling of Twilight from his perspective (I hope that makes sense).
Will I go see the Twilight movie? Yes
Will I keep my set of books? Yes (as I said in another thread, I don't like getting rid of books)
Will I read the series again? Probably (perhaps not as much as I reread some of the other books I love that I enjoy immersing myself in)
Do I agree with the "She's the next JK Rowling" lines that I've seen about her? No, and I would like to address this one for a moment (and apologies, it's probably going to go off on a tangent)
For a while now, the PR push for authors to be "The Next JK Rowling" has had me.......... worried (best word I can think of) about some of the future of books for young adult readers. I feel like editors and/or publishers are so eager for their authors to have this title that the quality isn't really being cared about. At least with Twilight (to me at least), there's a pretty original plot that's able to give it it's legs (unlike, say, the Eragon books, which so far the plot=Star Wars + Lord of the Rings). But there's a lot about the Twilight books that kind of scream a cheese factor and borders very dangerously and perhaps even crossing over (on several occasions) to Mary Sue type Fanfic.
This is why I do not listen to ads or even critics reviews that claim authors as the next JK Rowling (or the next JRR Tolkein, or the next Anne McCaffrey, etc...), because unless I feel the quality is at *least* as good as their books? To me that 'faux title' is just a bunch of crap.
Again, just my opinions, but I hope I made sense regardless. Agree or disagree with me, I would enjoy hearing your views
I have just finished Breaking Dawn.
The books aren't bad, but they're not the best I've read and I think that Stephanie Meyer still has a lot to improve on should she wish to continue writing (yes, I know about the "indefinite hiatus" on Midnight Sun).
If I had to choose the weakest of the four books, I think I would actually go with the second one. I actually found myself flipping pages ahead to see if Bella was still moping, and depressed, and moping, and using Jacob, and so on and so forth. That combined with, to me at least, I felt no real conflict in that book. One thing that JK did so well with the Harry Potter series is that even though all seven books were tied together with a central ongoing plot, each book had it's own subplot occurring complete with their own conflicts and resolutions. I did not get that feel with New Moon. The conflict of Victoria's hunting of Bella was introduced, but would not be resolved for another book. Granted there was Bella's internal conflict of dealing with Edward, but that -- to me -- just didn't feel like enough and that particular chapter in this saga left me dissatisfied.
Going against the grain of the majority of fans, I actually didn't find Breaking Dawn all that bad. To me it matched well with the previous books in the saga. I'm not sure how I feel about the portion devoted to Jacob's point of view, as it would seem that Edward would be the more likely candidate, but that's obviously the way she chose to wrote it. To me, if she had gone with Edward instead of Jacob, it would've been a better way to lead in to Midnight Sun as the retelling of Twilight from his perspective (I hope that makes sense).
Will I go see the Twilight movie? Yes
Will I keep my set of books? Yes (as I said in another thread, I don't like getting rid of books)
Will I read the series again? Probably (perhaps not as much as I reread some of the other books I love that I enjoy immersing myself in)
Do I agree with the "She's the next JK Rowling" lines that I've seen about her? No, and I would like to address this one for a moment (and apologies, it's probably going to go off on a tangent)
For a while now, the PR push for authors to be "The Next JK Rowling" has had me.......... worried (best word I can think of) about some of the future of books for young adult readers. I feel like editors and/or publishers are so eager for their authors to have this title that the quality isn't really being cared about. At least with Twilight (to me at least), there's a pretty original plot that's able to give it it's legs (unlike, say, the Eragon books, which so far the plot=Star Wars + Lord of the Rings). But there's a lot about the Twilight books that kind of scream a cheese factor and borders very dangerously and perhaps even crossing over (on several occasions) to Mary Sue type Fanfic.
This is why I do not listen to ads or even critics reviews that claim authors as the next JK Rowling (or the next JRR Tolkein, or the next Anne McCaffrey, etc...), because unless I feel the quality is at *least* as good as their books? To me that 'faux title' is just a bunch of crap.
Again, just my opinions, but I hope I made sense regardless. Agree or disagree with me, I would enjoy hearing your views
)
