Vampire Hell!

**BEWARE ALL WHO ENTER HERE**

*If you read on in this review there will be spoilers for the book*

Hello there and welcome back to Ink Stained Fingers where I review the books that I love hate and everything in between.

As you all know, I’ve been working my way though a vampire frenzy. All this brought about by the showing of the movie Breaking Dawn Part 1 that has hit the theaters like a whirlwind.

Granted, I have not yet seen the movie myself but I know I have super high expectations of it. So far the series in movie form has been less than impressive and there are many things I would’ve changed or not done at all.

But this isn’t the place where movies are reviewed, this is for books. Unlike the theater, I’m going to review all of Breaking Dawn the book at the same time. There is just no feasible away for me to break it up into two parts like the movie when I haven’t seen it yet.

Oh sure, I could scour the internet for the movie and figure that out but that would ruin the movie going experience.

So, let’s dive right into the fourth installment of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn.

This series has taken the route of many book series for this age bracket. Breaking Dawn is no exception to the rule. The books are getting longer and longer as the series progresses. Look at Harry Potter. Seems people are playing copy-cat.

Breaking Dawn is finally the book where everything comes to a head. We know we have a wedding, a honeymoon, and Bella becoming a vampire to get to so in a way it does make sense for the book to be a little hefty.

However, this book takes a different approach than the typical series ender. The book is split up into three “sections”. The book starts off in Bella’s perspective as the whole series has been. However, after the honeymoon is over, it switches over to Jacob’s perspective and then later back to Bella’s when she wakes up as a vampire.

Why was this done you may ask? Now, I’m not all together sure. I’m sure there is some reason out there on the net from the author herself. But I feel that this was done because of the way the events unfold in the story itself. It allows for a time lapse between the honeymoon  and their return as well as for the days that Bella is unconscious. Also, there are emotions expressed and explained about the situations that arise that normally would never have been shown to the readers.

This is a great way to slide that into play as well as something new and different. I personally enjoy seeing how the events are really affecting Jacob. We have what Bella thinks but most of the time those turn up to be wrong and it’s just not as moving or heart wrenching.

The wedding itself is done really well. You’ve got great description, the characters interacting more with each other than they ever did in the other three books. I may not be one for uber romantic moments but having a wedding at one’s house with the party outside…now that’s something I can jump on board with. Even this tomboy had to admit being a hopeless romantic.

Now, the honeymoon. Here is where things are simply not what I expected them to be. The honeymoon, believe it or not, was Bella’s idea. NOT Edward’s despite the fact he wanted to marry her in exchange for being the one to turn her. Odd yes?

Well, he had a good reason. We all know vampires are super strong and they have to work not to break things around them simply because they don’t know their own strength. What usually happens on a honeymoon boy and girls? Sex. Edward is afraid that he will hurt her however, he makes the choice to give this a try. Apparently, he is easily won over by Bella’s award winning arguments.

Before every gets all squeamish, the book never goes into details about Edward and Bella having sex. It was kept very carefully in a range that would at least be acceptable for teens. I still wonder what parents think it’s all right for their 10 and 11 year old girls to be reading things like this.

However, the honeymoon is not talking about in much detail after this simply because Edward finally gains back his nerve after breaking the bed they had sex in. Oh, we get Bella constantly trying for more, which she does get actually. However, nothing else is in much detail. Just small summaries of things they do while on their honeymoon.

Here comes a spoiler so avert your eyes.

The honeymoon has to end abruptly because apparently Edward is a stud. Apparently, they were completely wrong about vampires being unable to reproduce because Bella becomes pregnant. Not knowing what to do they have to race home.

However, Bella knows that they will try and get rid of her baby and the one thing that Rose said would happen happens. Bella wants to keep her child. She suddenly has maternal instincts.

Now, this is the point I want to backtrack a bit for a bit of a rant. I completely understand wanting to have a honeymoon because you get married to someone. However, the fact that she doesn’t want to be turned till she has sex with Edward seems like a complete 180 to her need to become a vampire as soon as possible. Where did that come from? Did Rose’s talk with Bella have that effect? If it didn’t why care about having sex before you are turned into a vampire?

Some of my friend have pointed out this very thing. Seems odd to not be worried about the fact that having sex with your husband could end your life or make things very uncomfortable for a long time. And for crying out loud it’s your honeymoon. You can stay on it as long as you want because they OWN the friggin island that you are staying on. So, get changed into a vampire, wait the three days and then have sex with your husband all you want. To me it seems more logical to get over not being around humans sooner rather than later. Despite the fact that this is a plot device it doesn’t make a lot of sense in the long run.

I digress.

The story changes pace and tells the story onward in Jacob Blacks point of view. This is one of the more effective tools that they have used in this entire series. The reader gets to witness more pain and anguish than the other characters get to see and we see and hear it from a person other than Bella.

It’s in this perspective that we see Bella have complications while having her baby that was killing her the majority of the time. Edward and the others fight to save her and the baby.

After all of this, then we switch back to Bella’s point of view when she wakes up. Edward had saved her by turning her and helping to deliver the baby while the other were out. It’s here were Bella defies the odds and isn’t rampaging for blood from every place she can get it from.

Despite the good vibes they have going that they could end this series on they bring in the last drama with the Volturi. Even though Bella is human, her child looks more like the new borns that the Volturi fought to rid from the South when they were being used to fight in vampire wars. This brings them back into the Volturi’s attention and so the Cullen’s now need every vampire they know on their side to prove this isn’t a new born.

Now, I personally think they should have ended the series with the arrival of Bella’s baby. It doesn’t make sense to me to throw this in at the last moment and force another confrontation out of this book. Even though they wanted to have some heavy moment at the end of the book where they have to face off with the Volturi, it really seems to fall flat. There’s no grand battle, there’s no punishment, there’s barely even stress because of impending possible doom.

It’s rather disappointing to add something like this in at the end of the book and not fully commit to the moment. They just give us something that’s more for show than to actually give the big finish they had hoped for. Everything just ends happily ever after.

This book has its highs and lows in my book. If I had to rate this book against the others it’d only come in third place. While there are some beautiful scene likes the wedding and the change in point of view to give the readers another angle on the story, my problem is the rest of the story.

The rest of the story seems jammed in there, it doesn’t flow very well, and the ending was not only rushed but a serious let down. Bella’s actions don’t make any sense and Edward looks like a push over to whatever Bella wants from him.

The series as a whole feels like, to me, that they could have separated this up into more books than just four. The author would have given herself much more room to expand on various aspects of the characters and more breathing room to really get the story across.

In the last review, I rated Eclipse against the other books and said it was number one in my head and that’s just as true now. The books in order of best to worst, for me, are as follows: Eclipse, Twilight, Breaking Dawn, and finally New Moon.

While this book isn’t as good as it should be; it still wraps up every loose end which is more than I can say for other books out there. While there may be a few plot holes in the series they are rather light and don’t add anything more to the story if they had been added.

Breaking Dawn is the end of the Twilight Saga for good unless the rumors of creating the series again from Edward’s point of view appear on the shelves.

My final analysis: while the book isn’t great it does its job well. It moves us from the last days of Bella’s life as a human into her vampire years. It wraps the family up in a nice little package that seems like they will never have a problem ever again. Every member of the family now has a husband or a wife so there won’t be anyone else joining the family unless they come across some murder or other later. The book needs to be read if for no other reason alone except for ending out the series.

While I’m not a fan of the white picked fence look, it’s the way the author chooses to end her story so I don’t really have room to gripe.

All in all, if you just like reading about different ways to look at vampires then this series is for you. If you like mushy romances, then this series is also for you. However, if you don’t like either then I would suggest to turn around and start running especially if you don’t think vampires should sparkle in the sun like a human disco ball.

And this ends the Twilight Saga book reviews.

Hope you enjoyed our little roller coaster ride through the vampire as viewed by Stephanie Meyer.

Until next time, I’m Creative Karma and the next time you see me I might be reviewing your favorite book.

On the Crazy Train to Vampire Land

            Hey everyone on the internet. It’s Creative Karma again. That means it’s time for another book review.

            Like I promised, over the next couple of days I will be tackling the Twilight series. Last Wednesday I went over Twilight. Today it’s time to tackle the second book in the series New Moon.

            This time around I won’t be going into as much detail since you have the basic foundation for the way the characters work. The only thing that really changes is the amount of “face time” the characters receive in the story.

            Without further adieu, here is New Moon.

            This time the book really takes the readers on a ride. In the first book, it was all about Edward and Bella. This time the readers get thrown for a loop as Edward completely removes himself from the field. I won’t say why because if you haven’t read the story then I don’t wanna ruin it for ya.

            However, this allows the readers to really see the relationship between Bella and Jacob which is something the reader didn’t have. It was only ever implied that they had a friendship. Now, we get to see how deep the friendship goes.

            That is something I really appreciate about this series. They don’t just give a straight forward romance and stick with it. They have ups and downs and they let it fall together completely. At least they offer Jacob as a true friend to keep Bella from being completely alone.

            There are some issues I have with the Bella acts in Edward’s absence is that she is in a very deep depression. I get that a girl could be upset when her first boyfriend disappears on her. However, she is so depressed that she cuts herself off from all her friends. We may not see if her friends try to help her out but it is presumed that friends would help each other. This leads to my second issue, Edward and Bella were only together for what…half of one school year? Maybe the summer and a bit into the next? Even so, seems like a really short amount of time to be so depressed over the loss of a boyfriend.

            Now, Bella has completely alienated herself from her friends and the only one she has to turn to is Jacob. By the way, those school friends of hers. Time to start saying your goodbyes. They will be making their last large appearance in this book. In the next one they are the minority.

            So now that Bella has a friend to talk to and hang out with, she can hang out, talk about how she feels, get over Edward, and move on with her life right? Wrong. Despite how kind Jacob is being in trying to distract Bella from the loss of Edward, Bella spends all her time doing stupid stuff in order to have hallucinations of Edward. The picture of mental health.

            This continues no matter where or who she is with. You would think she’d try to just maintain a sense of normalcy but no. She’s too obsessed with Edward that she will do anything to see his ghostly figure again. This is really turning out to be healthy relationship.

            Unfortunately, this crazy train doesn’t stop here. Nope, we have our last stop. All of this comes to a crazy head when Bella decides to take up cliff diving. Now, to make this a stupid thing she goes alone despite the fact Jacob had offered to take her to do this very thing. Nope, she’ll do it alone and maybe die because she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Reeeaaalll smart move there Bella.

            Of course, the series doesn’t end here so we know she doesn’t die but she gets really close. Jacob saves her life and berates her for her actions. This being the normal part of this scenario. He takes her back to her home and we see the return of a Cullen. My personal favorite (besides Jasper) named Alice.

            Just to review for those that don’t know, Alice has visions of the future based on a line of choices a person has made. Until the choice is made the future remains foggy. Alice can always see Bella’s future except when she is around the wolf pack. This being said, Alice saw Bella jump off the cliff but didn’t see her being rescued. Like any sane person, this led Alice to believe that Bella was dead. So, she rushed back to Forks to see for herself.

            However, the problems start mounting immediately. Through Jacob’s hatred of the Cullens and the lack of correct and complete information lead Edward to believe what Alice came to confirm or deny. That Bella was dead. This is where we truly see that Edward, despite his disappearance from Bella’s life, still was just as in love with her as ever because he would rather be dead with Bella than alive without her.

            Now, you may think I’m crazy but everything after this is more logical. Hear me out first before you throw things at me.

            If there was someone you cared deeply about who thought you had died and it was up to you to go and prove otherwise so they wouldn’t kill themselves, wouldn’t you go? I know I would. And this is exactly what Bella does. However, unlike for most of us this requires her to get on a plane and fly with Alice to Italy. In Italy, is the group of vampires known as the Volturi who are more or less the vampire police. They were the ones that made the rules about what not to do and what the punishment would be for doing it. Rule number one: don’t reveal the existence of vampires. Ole Edward is gonna break this rule in order to make the Volturi kill him.

            As I said before, this book series wouldn’t have more in them if one of the members of the love triangle died. It just wouldn’t be interesting to most people anymore if they killed off Edward.

            But now they have a bigger problem. Here they all are together in front of the Volturi. Let’s see here. Aro, vampire. Caius, vampire. Jane, vampire. Marcus, vampire. Dimitri, vampire. Felix, vampire. Alice, vampire. Bella, human. Edward, vampire. Oops, Bella is a human that knows about vampires. Now, those that read the book know that the Volturi have a human working for them. However, they are more than willing to kill her or turn her if she either becomes more useful or a hazard. Edward on the other hand…not so much.

            This is the drama in the book that I actually appreciate. Emo girlfriends. Just no. But because you’ve fallen for a vampire and are discovered for it, that is something I can get behind. It creates a sense of urgency and fear. If they don’t agree to turn Bella by a set time then the Volturi will definitely make Alice’s vision of Bella’s death come true. I will ignore the fact for now that Bella is way too willing to become a vampire.

            If Bella hadn’t been as willing throughout the books and then this happened, I think it would have been much more believable and riveting. Then, it’s not just about Bella and her wants that have to come to pass but about her survival. Thanks to Alice’s visions, Bella is saved because everything is back on course for Bella to be a vampire one day. Obviously Edward is no longer thinking about staying out of Bella’s life.

            So after a less than thrilling anti-climax where they get to go home, we get to the end of our story where Charlie gets to be a dad for a page or two, Bella gets around Edward’s wishes by voting with the rest of the Cullen’s for her to join the family after she graduates high school, and a nice little time skip.

            The rest of the pages afterward doesn’t seem to be much of anything. One might think they could skip these pages and leave the book alone. But don’t do it. They are there for a reason. It’s in these pages that Edward finally has something over Bella. These pages make me laugh. All this time Bella has been completely eager to become a vampire. However, she’d rather have Edward change her into a vampire. Oh, but Edward gets an idea. He would be more than happy to turn her tomorrow if she agreed to marry him tonight. Makes me laugh thinking that Bella is finally out done.

            Personally, I would have taken the offer. However, Bella’s odd way of thinking has her completely against being married so young but she’s more than willing to be a vampire at nineteen. Kinda backwards isn’t it?

            Anyway, the book ends with no decision made and a nice little prologue which I will keep secret. To me it’s like the icing on the cake. Funny, drama, Charlie doing what he does best and Bella in actual trouble for once.

            Now, with all this said about New Moon, I do like the book. However, it’s still not my fave. Wait for my review of Eclipse for that. But this book changes things up. It’s not all about Edward and Bella. It shows us just how deep the friendship goes for Bella and Jacob. We get more details that wouldn’t have been revealed if this book never came out. Edward’s reactions my seem to come out of nowhere but if you read between the lines then you can see the act he was putting on in hopes that Bella would try for her own life without him in it. Sounds like a decent guy to me.

            However, this book has some serious negatives. Bella’s reactions to Edward leaving are WAY too over the top for me. It doesn’t feel logical or real. It feels like an overly obsessed emo girl going crazy over a boy who she barely knew much about and knew only for a short time. Bella’s friends are a little too forgiving in this book as well for all the psycho things she’s done.

            I don’t hate this book, but I don’t love it either. If I had to rank this book against the others then it would come in last place. However, there are other books I hate far worse than New Moon and with any luck you’ll hear about them soon enough. Now, this judgment might change with the next reviews but we will see how it goes.

            For what it’s worth, give it a shot. You need this book to at least understand what is going on in the last two books. Every book series has a book that’s not as great as the others and for the Twilight saga New Moon is that book unfortunately.

            Well, that’s all for now. Tune in next time for my review of Eclipse and you’ll see why that book is my personal favorite of the series. Until next time, I’m Creative Karma and I love me a Southern vampire.