Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr, is about a girl who can see fairies. One of these, the Summer King, sees her and decides he wants her to be the Summer Queen. She spends most of the book trying to get him to leave her alone.

It starts off interesting. I like the bit of a change-up that the mysterious magical guy that is relentlessly pursuing the girl is actually not the one she wants, and she does everything she can to get him to leave her alone. And I’m kind of curious how it will go from here, after how it ends. But there’s just so much sex in the story, and that puts me off. The fairies (aside from Donia, so far) are all just ridiculously lascivious and hedonistic. I guess that’s what fairies traditionally are like, but it makes it supremely hard for me to actually like any of them. I thought when it started that we were meant to dislike Keenan, despite how he obviously doesn’t see himself as a bad guy, but reading further it seems that the author truly likes Keenan and wants us to like him, which is disappointing, considering what he’s like. Even Seth, the mortal, is known for sleeping around and admits to the girl he supposedly loves that he’s had lots of meaningless sex with girls that don’t matter, and all the reason he can give is to shrug and say, “Felt good. Drunk.” Which makes me really not like him very much (and yet the interview at the end of the book calls him “any girl’s dream guy”; please).

Not to mention the story doesn’t really make sense in some ways. If Seth lives in a couple train cars at the train yard, how does he have a kitchen area and a bathroom? You can’t tell me that train got hooked up with plumbing and electricity. And I can’t tell where this is meant to be set, but it’s somewhere that gets snow in the winter. That train car would turn into a freezer in the winter and an oven in the summer. And he’s got a snake, which would do even less well living in a freezer than he would.

And if Keenan needs to find his queen before coming into his power, why doesn’t Beira need a king to keep her full power? For that matter, why was the Winter Queen’s husband the Summer King, if the Summer King expects his wife to be the Summer Queen? And [spoiler] why does Donia not need to find a man to be Winter King before she can get her full power at the end [end spoiler]?

Then there’s the issue of the Summer Girls. These are mortal girls who decided not to take the test to see if they were the Summer Queen (because if they weren’t, they’d become the Winter Girl, which is portrayed as a pretty unpleasant existence). Summer Girls are basically the court bicycles. They’re the harem. They are at the sexual beck and call of not just Keenan, the king, but also his two advisers and all his guards. The fact that they want to have all that sex is not really such a mitigating factor as it seems, considering their personalities are forcibly changed when they become Summer Girls. One girl is mentioned as having been reluctant to have sex while mortal, but is much more ‘affectionate’ now. Oh, and they have no choice about becoming Summer Girls (other than the options to take the queen test or die). Once a mortal is chosen by Keenan, she becomes a fairy. No going back, no changing it, that’s her fate. So, these Summer Girls are basically mortal girls who were going about their lives until this jackass Summer King came along, made them fairies, and the best option they had was to get turned into the king’s mindless sex slaves. And there are 80 of them. And the book makes no negative mention of what is essentially one eternal mass date rape. And still, we’re supposed to like all these male characters.

The book’s well-written, and it has some original twists on some common YA fantasy themes, but I’m just very put off by the wanton sex (not to mention all the underage drinking, occasional bad language, and mentions of drug use), the fact that neither of the guys the main character is choosing between are at are desirable, and little things that we’re apparently supposed to ignore just because they’re cool or needed for the story even if they don’t make sense. I like the idea of Aislinn and Keenan having a sort of business partnership after this rather than a romance, but I’m afraid this will turn into a love triangle in later books, and I don’t care for that trope. It’s overused in this genre, and in my mind, it’s a lazy way to infuse conflict into a story which always only seems to draw out what is really a fundamentally quick moment of decision. Overall, I don’t recommend this book. Flat characters, too much sex, and too many things that just don’t make sense.

Dream Thief is a book by an author I’ve enjoyed in the past, Stephen R. Lawhead. First published in 1983 (my copy’s from 1993), it’s actually been sitting on my shelf for years. I figured it was about time I read it. Here’s the summary of the book from the author’s website:

‘The dreams had been at Spence again. He could feel their lingering presence like a dimly remembered whisper. They were unsettling in a vague sort of way. Haunting – there was the world that seemed to fit. He felt haunted.’

Through his research, Dr. Spencer Reston, sleep scientist on space station Gotham, has made himself vulnerable. Unaware of the fact as yet, he has become a vital link in a cosmic coup masterminded by a mysterious creature known as the Dream Thief.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I don’t read a lot of Christian fiction, mainly because I find the Christian elements are usually clumsy and heavy-handed. This book didn’t have that problem. I thought the Christian elements blended well with the rest of the story and added an extra level of interest for me. I also don’t read a whole lot of sci-fi, mostly because I find the concept usually overshadows the characters and I end up not caring about any of it. This book didn’t have that problem either. The focus on the main character’s inner struggles and development was quite strong. I liked him well enough, and the other characters were enjoyable. My favorite was the friend, Adjani. The plot was interesting and the ending satisfying.

There were some things I thought could have been handled better. The only two female characters of any note are the love interest and the love interest’s mother, and for a large chunk of the book, the love interest is only there to play the damsel in need of saving. It would have been nice to have at least one important (or even notable) female character who was interesting on her own account. The villain was pretty generically evil, so it would also have been nice to see him be a bit more complex. This book took me much longer to read than average, partly because it’s just much longer than average, and partly because it’s pretty slow moving. Which is a bit annoying, but at the same time, I can’t point to any parts that could be cut or significantly shortened. I guess that’s just a warning that if you’re an impatient reader who has to have something exciting happening all the time, you might get tired of this book quickly. Also, even though my copy was the ninth printing, there were still at least a dozen or so typos, and those are always jarring when I come across them.

So, not a perfect book, but a solid, entertaining story, and in my opinion a very successful blend of the Christian and sci-fi genres. Four out of five stars.

To note a couple things: when I wrote this, I was not reading much, so the speed with which I read the Twilight series was surprising. Now, not so much. I average more than a book a week these days. Still, at the time, it meant something. Also, since the book’s been out for a while, I wonder how much people are still complaining about the things I address here. It’s probably all a moot point, but oh well. I don’t really care if I’m late to the party. Okay, onto the years-old post:

**

I just finished reading the last book in the Twilight series.  I started the first book not too long ago, and immediately became so engrossed that I read each book in about a week.  That, for me, is a very rare thing.  I’m a slow reader and often will take six months or more to finish one novel.  But with these, as with the Harry Potter books before them, I just got so sucked in that the pages flew by with none of the effort or practically even awareness that is usual for me with most books.  I had waited until I had all four books sitting on my shelf to begin, which meant that I didn’t wait and build anticipation for the last book as many people did, and as I did for Deathly Hallows.  While, when I began Twilight, I knew next to nothing about the stories, I couldn’t hold off my curiosity long enough even to read at the pace I was going, so I (both intentionally and inadvertently) spoiled myself for major plot points along the way, especially in regards to the last book.  By the time I started reading Breaking Dawn, I knew, in mostly a rough, basic way, every major thing that happens, including how it ended.  This did not negatively affect my enjoyment of the novel in the slightest.  I had also heard many, many negative things about this book and the fan reaction to it.  I’d even read a thread somewhere where people were planning to return their copies en masse because they thought it was so horrible.  So, my expectations were low.  Perhaps that helped.  I can’t say.

The fact of the matter is that this is far and away my favorite book of the series (or, I should say, of the four published novels; I’ve read the online draft of Midnight Sun and it looks very promising, so my mind may change if that is ever finished).  I laughed, I cried, I turned the pages eagerly, staying up into the late hours of the morning to read.  When I got to the end, I felt more satisfied than I have with a completed story (book, show, or film) than I have for a long time.  So it is with something close to astonishment that I look again and see the crashing wave of negativity that surrounds this book.

This is not a defense of Stephenie Meyer.  Not that I have anything against her (although I do wish she’d get back to Midnight Sun), but I just know that she’s not exactly the most brilliant author in the world.  She’s no Shakespeare.  For that matter, she’s no Tolkien, or even Rowling.  The series has some serious logical flaws, both internal and general, the dialogue is at times gag-inducing, the story structure is often wildly irregular, and I’ve caught more spelling and grammar mistakes than in pretty much any other book I’ve ever read.  The Twilight series is far from great literature.

But I didn’t expect it to be.  I didn’t read Twilight because I wanted great literature and I didn’t keep reading because I expected it to become so.  I read it for enjoyment, pure and simple.  And I did enjoy this series, and especially this book, immensely.  I had fun reading it and at the end I was left with a warm, contented glow and a lingering fondness for the characters and world of the story, which is really the most I ask from such a series.

Since I enjoyed it so much, I feel a bit defensive when I read the various criticisms people have of Breaking Dawn, especially since it seems to me that many of those criticisms are entirely unfounded and based on a misunderstanding of the text.  So I would like to address some of the concerns and issues that people have raised in opposition to this novel.

(From here on, there will be major spoilers for Breaking Dawn.)

Complaint #1: “This book is sexist/racist.”

I’m gonna start off with this one because it’s an issue that I have with a common criticism of pretty much anything.  It drives me nuts when people think that a single portrayal of a character who fits into a certain gender/race/religion/whatever is meant to somehow stereotype that entire group of people.  No.  A character is not primarily a representative of their demographic.  A character is an individual, with individual traits, strengths, weaknesses, and values.  Some of the reviews I saw on Amazon.com made such accusations as, “Jacob drops out of high school.  What does that say about Native Americans?”  It says absolutely nothing.  They may as well ask what it says about shape-shifters.  Or maybe it does say something.  Maybe it says, “If you’re Native American, and you can turn into a wolf, and you don’t age, and you find yourself imprinted on the half-vampire infant daughter of your best friend, then it’s okay to drop out of high school to stay with her as she grows up at twice normal speed.”

That same review claimed that the portrayal of the non-white vampires that we see is racist, citing the description of the Amazons as being wild-looking.  The person who said that conveniently ignored the fact that the Amazons are also portrayed as being powerful, loyal, intelligent, kind, and of vital importance to the defense of their group.  This reviewer also ignored the character of Benjamin, an Egyptian vampire who is not only one of the most powerful among them, but is a friendly, confident, pleasant person  whom Edward describes as having “a very clear sense of right and wrong” and steadfastly stands beside the Cullens in their conflict with the Volturi.

Another review said, “this portrays women as weak and wanting nothing more than sex.”  No, it portrays Bella as a young woman who trusts her husband enough to want to have sex with him on their honeymoon, despite the fact that he’s physically strong enough to crush her to death in the process.  Honestly, is it really such an abnormal thing for a person to want to have sex on their honeymoon with the love of their life?  I can’t speak from experience, but I really don’t think it is.

Complaint #2: “Stephenie Meyer is shoving her religion down our throats.”

Really?  Did she tie you to a chair and force you to read her book?  Authors often come at a story from their own moral viewpoints.  C.S. Lewis did it, J.R.R. Tolkien did it, and Phillip Pullman did it.  It’s not the mark of a bad or unimaginative writer.  No matter what the author’s worldview, it’s almost guaranteed that it will somehow show through in their writing.  Because stories come from the deepest part of who we are, and who we are is often shaped by our beliefs on such important topics as God, the afterlife, souls, etc.  And for those to whom their beliefs are especially important to them, why on earth would they want to write something that would seem to endorse something to which they’re morally opposed?  The fact that Meyer is religious does not mean that her own morality is somehow less valid from a writing standpoint than someone who is an atheist.  The default setting of characters should not be “atheist” any more than it should be “white” or “male”, with a good reason always needed for any deviation from that standard.  People have certain morals, certain beliefs, and a heck of a lot of people belong to one religion or another.  There’s absolutely no reason why fictional characters should not have just as much freedom to believe one thing or another.  Some people seem to think that the only reason a character should have religious faith is if they are a priest or nun.  Most people of faith are just normal, everyday people in all walks of life.  Thinking that a religious character has to be a priest/monk/nun is like thinking that a character who likes to read has to be a librarian or English teacher, or that a character who likes sports has to be a professional athlete, or that a person who takes care of people must be a doctor.  The world doesn’t work like that.  If anything, it seemed to me as if she was largely tip-toeing around the subject of religion and faith.  I was a bit shocked that she even went so far as to have Carlisle claim a faith in God, even a vague, undefined one, especially as she was sure to note that all the other characters seemed just as unresolved on the issue (with the possible exception of Charlie, who once mentioned something about Jacob “taking the Lord’s name in vain”).  Religious people should not have to justify incorporating their beliefs into their art, just as atheists are not shy about doing the same thing.

Complaint #3: “Bella doesn’t sacrifice anything.”

I disagree.  The fact that in the end she gets to keep her vampire family, Jacob and the pack, and even Charlie, doesn’t negate the fact that she was willing to give Jacob and Charlie up, and that she had in fact made the decision to do so.  The important thing here is that she chose Edward and life as a vampire with the belief that she would be giving up the people in her human life.  She had the strength of will to make that decision, regardless of the outcome.  Just because you don’t end up having to give something up doesn’t mean it’s not important that you were willing to.  Besides, she does give some things up.  Or rather, people.  She gives up her human friends (notably Angela), and more than that, she gives up her mother.  I’m curious how that worked out, but it seemed clear that they weren’t going to let Renee in on the secret because she couldn’t have handled it, which means that Bella would have had to cut her out of her life completely before too long.

I have to say that, as far as Charlie goes, I’m very glad that he stayed in her life.  Not for her sake, but for his.  Charlie didn’t deserve to lose her.  Charlie didn’t deserve to watch his only child go off on her honeymoon, hear she’d contracted a fatal disease, and believe she died before she hit twenty.  And Charlie deserved to know his granddaughter.  Besides, things might have progressed with Sue regardless, in which case he’d have found out about the wolves anyway, and it’s only a short hop from there to the vampires.

Complaint #4: “Meyer is going against established canon; vampires can’t have babies.”

Granted, I haven’t read every single interview with her or anything, but I did see one where she said that she was very careful not to say that male vampires can’t impregnate human females.  Of course it’s true that her vampires can’t get pregnant, but Edward wasn’t the one that got pregnant.  Nothing I read in any of the previous books said that vampires can’t have children—nothing that was a fact and not just hearsay, anyway.

Complaint #5: “The characters acted out of character.”

I’m not completely sure what people are getting at with this one, but there are a few characters in particular that I’ve noticed people commenting on, or where I noticed a shift in the book.

Renee – Some people complain that Renee has been against marriage this whole time and then suddenly she’s supporting Bella’s decision to get married.  But we’ve never actually heard her speak out against it.  All we’ve gotten are Bella’s assurances that her mother hates marriage, and Bella’s as surprised as anyone that Renee is okay with it.  This is one of those instances of not being able to take everything the narrator says as fact, as sometimes she’s mistaken.

Jacob – There is certainly a shift in Jacob’s character after he imprints on Renesmee.  I see it as a shift back to pre-wolf Jacob, back to the more fun, lighthearted character.  He’s older and has gone through a lot since then, so he’s still different from the first Jacob we saw, but mainly he seems to be missing the angst and bitterness that this whole fiasco with Bella brought on.  Not to mention that, now that he’s imprinted on a half-vampire, his prejudice against vampires (at least “vegetarian” ones) all but entirely disappears.  It’s a change I like.  I kinda stopped liking Jacob after he wolfed out and got all angsty and bitter, so it’s nice to see him happy and cooperative again.  He’s much more pleasant to be around.

Bella – It’s quite true that there’s a noticeable shift in Bella’s character after she becomes a vampire, although I think it’s actually due more to her becoming a mother, but it happens at more or less the same time, so it’s hard to say.  Frankly, I like her better this way. I didn’t really like Bella at all until half-way through Breaking Dawn.

There are, of course, some problems with this book that I’d like to point out.

- It really seems unlikely that seven vampires with who knows how many medical degrees between them (Midnight Sun says Edward has two, Carlisle probably has several, and some of the others may have as well) couldn’t figure out that the half-vampire baby wanted blood.  That’s one of those logic slips.

- While on that excursion to J. Jenks, Bella hears the other side of a phone conversation.  This is exactly as it should be.  However, it only serves to highlight the already-existing logical flaw in Twilight, where Bella was talking to James on the phone and Alice couldn’t hear what he said.  Which is, of course, a problem with that book, not this one.

- Bella believes that the Volturi tracker can’t track her because of her mental block power.  Methinks she’s forgotten the entire climax of the first book.  Unless we’re to presume that James had in reality been tracking Alice and Jasper.  Did I miss something?

- I don’t buy this explanation that Jasper’s power works on Bella because emotions aren’t mental.  That’s kind of a load of crap.  If emotions were nothing more than blood pressure and other physical symptoms, then his power wouldn’t work on vampires.  This stinks of a failed attempt at retconning.

**

So, that’s it. I really need to go back and reread the series. After watching the first three movies more than once, I’ve gotten the books pushed out of my head for the most part, and I don’t like that. As for this blog, maybe I’ll keep posting stuff. A lot has changed since my last post, and I don’t really mean to catch up. I guess we’ll just see what happens.

Oh yes, I also want to add that since I finished the Twilight series (and I refuse to call it a saga, because that’s just silly) I also read Meyer’s Bree Tanner novella (which I enjoyed; I hope we see more of Fred at some point) and her ‘sci-fi’ (even though there’s no actual science or pseudoscience involved; just because it has aliens doesn’t make it sci-fi) novel The Host, which I absolutely loved. Seriously, like five out of five stars. Largely because I adored Doc like I adored Carlisle, but also because it’s a great, fresh take on an old sci-fi trope. That woman sure does have some imagination. I look forward to anything she decides to write in the future (fingers crossed for a book about Renesmee and Jacob, because how cute is that?).

Sorry about the one big paragraph.  WordPress doesn’t like my formatting.

And now I’ll be moving into the realm of spoilers, so don’t read further if you want to be surprised.

First, a note on the cast.  For the most part, the people they cast don’t look much like the way I’ve imagined the characters in my head.  Jasper, Charlie, and Angela particularly looked so different that if I hadn’t been told who they were, I would never have guessed by looking at them (well, other than Jasper’s yellow eyes, that is).  One thing I find amusing in a slightly annoying way is that, of the three blond Cullens (Carlisle, Rosalie, and Jasper), all of them are natural brunettes.  Ordinarily this wouldn’t really matter, but unfortunately, to varying degrees, it’s somewhat noticible.  The eyebrows give it away, for one.  Carlisle particularly–not that his hair looks especially bad; it just looks as obviously faked as his skin and eye color.  As for the acting, I think they mostly did a decent job.  It was kind of hard to tell, as Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and Esme probably had a total of twenty lines between them.  Jasper had some nice intense looks, though, especially if you have read enough to know what he’s thinking.  Carlisle was the second-most used Cullen (in that he had more screen time than the others, but still way behind Edward), which was nice.  I think Peter Facinelli did a pretty good job.  There is something I noticed, though–something I noticed before going in with watching interviews and stuff, too.  Despite being, I think, 33 (ten years older than Carlisle should look, but the right age for what he’s “barely passing” for), there’s something very young about him.  I know it’s one of those things I can’t really explain very well because it’s more just an impression, but he just didn’t have the quiet, steady, but undeniable presence that I would expect from someone in his 300s.    He just didn’t seem much like a patriarch.  For a story where Edward’s the main focus, for Carlisle to actually appear to fill the role that he does, he’s got to really radiate authority and wisdom, and he just doesn’t.  That’s all just my impression, though.  I can’t really say anything bad about the performance, and I actually liked it well enough, but it just seems like maybe a different casting choice might have brought a little more to the role (though I heard that they almost cast someone in his 40s, and that would have been a travesty).

As for the humans, I thought most of them were great.  Jessica was just as vacuous as she should be (though maybe not quite petulant enough), and Eric, Mike, and Tyler (a trio so ethnically diverse it’s a little hard to ignore the obviousness of it) are actually really funny in their dorkiness.  Where in the book, all this attention from guys was just annoying and unrealistic, these three are so over-the-top that it just makes for good comic relief.  And Mike especially (played by Michael Welch, a young actor I’ve seen in various parts since he was a kid, including roles in Star Trek Insurrection, Frasier, Stargate SG-1, and The Invisible Man, which makes him the cast member I’m most familiar with), who in the books mostly comes across as creepy and annoying, is actually so adorable that I just can’t dislike him.  Charlie, unfortunately, is mostly wooden and emotionless, but admittedly Charlie is pretty low-key… though a bit more life in the whole Bella-storming-out scene would have been nice.  Billy and Jacob, on the other hand, were wonderful.  Billy was very likable and sufficiently mysterious, and there’s this moment where he and Edward pass each other in their cars and slow down to give each other such an antagonistic glare that it just cracked me up.  I was pleasantly surprised with Jacob.  He really did seem just about perfect, both in looks and in manner, and I really look forward to his expanded role in later films (though I am a bit nervous about it–it’s just not physically possible for him to make the change that Jacob does so rapidly in the second book [and I don't mean the turning into a wolf part], but I hope there’s at least some noticeable bulking up).

But of course, this is a story about Bella and Edward, so most of the other characters sadly aren’t in it enough to really even develop into three-dimensional characters, though I hope having four movies will help that some.  Now, as for Bella and Edward… Bella initially comes across as a much stronger girl than she seems in the book, and I think that’s largely due to the actress, Kristen Stewart.  Just the way she carries herself, and her rather low voice, seem to lend a maturity to her that was often talked about in the books, but which I never saw.  Unfortunately, this largely goes out the window when the whole “being in love with Edward” thing starts, but I saw it pick up again near the end.  Really, given how stupid and silly this character is, I think the fact that I bought her at all speaks very well of Kristen.  Edward was… not terrible.  He was kind of… well, just odd.  I’m not sure how much of this to attribute to Robert Pattinson’s acting, though, as the lines he was given were largely ridiculous.  Well, anyone who’s read the book should know how cheesy much of what Edward says is, and I was actually surprised by how many lines were lifted directly from the book (though I was more surprised to find that two of what I think of as big ones, “Do I dazzle you?” and the whole “Not her” bit, were left out entirely).  But there’s just something that seemed really forced about Edward–or rather, about Edward and Bella’s interactions.  I just didn’t buy this relationship, which, given that it’s the primary focus of and reason for this movie, is kind of a a problem.  The only time I bought it, the only time I saw any actual chemistry, was the final scene when they’re dancing at the prom.  That was it.  Everything else just felt so… well, forced.  Though this, of course, might easily be blamed on the fact that the relationship in the book wasn’t entirely believable either.

Now, a note on the pacing.  Maybe it’s because I’m less protective of the source material than, say, LotR or Harry Potter that I can appreciate the efforts made to tell the same story in a much shorter period by moving things around a bit.  Some sections are removed entirely, but mostly things are just shifted around or told in very short beats.  While this has the benefit of getting most of the story in there and staying fairly true to the book, it also means that everything seems to go at super-speed, and a romance which was unbelievably rushed in the book becomes jarringly instantaneous.  By the time Edward says, “I’m done trying to stay away from you,” it really doesn’t seem much like he’s tried to stay away from her at all.  And what initially looks like Bella’s natural curiosity about a strange (and cute) guy who first hates her, then is polite to her, then saves her life by stopping a runaway van with one hand, becomes “true love” at some point I must have missed and suddenly all credibility the character had with me is lost.  The threat from James happens really too quickly, as well.  One second they’re chatting politely and the next Edward is frantically driving away and telling Bella how James will stop at nothing to kill her.  Again, this happened pretty quickly in the book, but even that gave enough detail and time for it to be marginally understandable.

One thing I did think the movie did well was setting up the bad guys much earlier on.  It shows a couple scenes of them killing people, and some mentions of the effects of that, gradually, so that their appearance isn’t completely out of the blue.  One of these scenes involves the bad vamps killing an old friend of Charlie’s, which leads to Bella and Edward stopping by the station on their way home from Port Angeles (a change from the book), and Carlisle coming out and telling them what happened.  Here was one of those nice subtle moments where, if you’re familiar with the characters, is quite amusing.  Carlisle tells them, “He was attacked by an animal,” then immediately looks at Edward, and Edward reacts just enough that you  know that Carlisle followed up his spoken words by thinking, “It wasn’t an animal,” or somesuch.  This wonderful, understated example of the ease of communication between Edward and his family, which is a part of the unfinished Midnight Sun chapters that I loved, is a great little addition.

Speaking of parts I loved, I do have to say that the scene where Edward brings Bella to his house to meet his family is really awfully hysterical.  The adorableness of Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett excitedly cooking something for Bella, Rosalie’s overreaction to the news that Bella’s already eaten, Jasper’s creepy-eyed entrance as he tries to withstand the proximity of the human, the awkward/funny vampire conversation, and, most of all, Edward’s expressions through everything–there’s pretty much nothing in that scene that’s not made of win.

Just a few more random notes… The scene that was shown in some of the trailers, of Emmett confronting Edward about Bella at his car, is nowhere to be seen.  Hopefully this means there will be some deleted scenes on the DVD.  I really hate it when they put scenes in the trailer that don’t end up in the movie. … Watch for Stephenie Meyer’s cameo as a customer at the diner counter in one scene.  It’s not funny or anything, but it’s there, and I think that’s nice.  … When Edward was about to show Bella his sparkling, all I could think was, “This had better be awesome.”  Of course, it wasn’t.  I had read one review online (maybe Ebert’s) that said that the effect made it look like he was just really sweaty, and it totally, totally did.  This does not seem like an effect that would stop traffic, make women scream, and instantly cause such chaos in a crowded square that a hoard of vampires would swoop down for fear of their secret being revealed.  I really do wonder how they could possibly pull off the big climax in the next book if that’s all that it looks like (remember, Edward chooses this over lifting a car over his head or killing a bunch of people–it’s meant to be dramatic and stunning.  It’s totally not).  … Also, the scene where Edward has to suck the poison out is funny, what with Carlisle first having to keep Alice from pouncing on wounded Bella with what I recall as a kind of hilarious, “Come on, really?” look on his face, then the way he’s like, “Edward… Edward…” when Edward needs to stop because he’s gotten all the venom out and is killing her (which apparently Carlisle knows by magic, since he has no medical bag so Bella don’t get no morphine).  Although I do have to wonder yet again why he just didn’t do it himself, especially since in this version he’s not particularly doing much doctoring, just apparently keeping Bella’s femoral artery compressed with one hand, which he probably still could have done while sucking out the venom, and anyway, handing off that job to Edward would have entailed much less risk than letting him actually drink her blood.  Although I suppose the point is that Carlisle was asking Edward to make the decision whether to suck the venom out or let her become a vampire, but… meh.  Once again logic takes a back seat because Edward’s the main vampire.  Or maybe that’s just my preference for Carlisle showing.  (BTW, the flashback scenes of him biting Edward and Esme?  Yeah, totally hot.)

Overall, I thought the movie was quite entertaining, and often hilarious (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not).  It’s not as much fun as the book, but it does have the same mix of cheesiness and actual likability to make it worth watching, and I find myself quite looking forward to seeing the sequels.

As usual, this will contain spoilers.

The last half of Breaking Dawn returns to Bella’s point of view, starting with her transformation into a vampire. It then goes on to describe her first days in her new body, then everything goes on well for a while until Alice gets a vision of the Volturi showing up to pretty much kill them all. Then they scramble together all the vampires they know who will help them stand against the bad guys, but in the end it’s resolved peacefully and the Volturi go on their way. That’s the gist of it, anyway.

The first thing that I have to say about this section is that this is absolutely the best Bella has ever been. I’ve read some comments online where people have said that Bella becomes less easy to relate to after she becomes a vampire because she’s too perfect. I disagree. I think I’ve mentioned that I don’t find human!Bella particularly relatable (as I’m not a braindead, hormonal moron), so really just about anything was going to be an improvement. Although I think that the fact that she becomes a more grounded character is because of three things that happen at nearly the same time: 1) She becomes a vampire. Yes, that’s the obvious one. She loses her klutziness and, more importantly, stops getting in life-threatening danger every five seconds, because she’s now a super-powerful vampire who’s actually stronger than even the strongest of the Cullens (due to the whole ‘newborn vampires are freakishly strong’ thing). Which means that it would be especially hard to find anything that would actually be a danger to her, so for her to intentionally seek some out would be a challenge (although now would have been a lovely time to go cliff diving). 2) She becomes a mother. Really, I think this is possibly the most important improvement to her character. It redirects her focus away from single-minded devotion to Edward. Desperation to keep her child safe is much more understandable to me than desperation to keep safe a guy who is infinitely more powerful and better able to take care of himself than she was (as a human). Once the child, Renesmee, enters the picture, it just seems like Bella becomes more aware of the rest of the members of the family, and actually acknowledges the fact that there is more to life than being in love with Edward. 3) She’s married to Edward now, so the sexual tension is pretty much gone. Because when they get all hot for each other (metaphorically, of course, as they’re both like living ice statues now), rather than getting all angsty and going through the whole, “Oh, no, we shouldn’t. Oh, I can’t touch you,” etc., they simply have sex, then they move on to other things. Sure, a lot of people would say the breakdown of that tension ruins the heart of the story, but as that was never a part of the story I liked, getting over it was a relief. Actually, there’s a fourth reason, as well. 4) She’s over Jacob, so the love triangle aspect is gone. Again, some would complain about that, but all I wanted for those three from the beginning of New Moon was for everyone to just get along, so I was very pleased when they finally did.  So, yes, in my opinion, vampire!Bella is a far more sympathetic, far more rational, far more relatable character than human!Bella.

Another thing I really liked about this part of the book was the continuing abundance of Cullens.  Because, yeah, they’re cool, and I like reading about them.  And seeing them, from Bella’s POV, as her equals rather than as untouchable god-like figures was nice.  Also, we get to see a whole bunch of other vampires.  We’ve seen other vampires before, of course, but most of them have been evil.  Here we get a nice range, from the Denali clan (who are the only other “vegetarian” vampires, and call themselves the original succubi), to the various nomads, to the kind of hilarious ancient vamps that Jacob fondly refers to as “Dracula One and Dracula Two”.  I was surprised to find how much I liked many of these.  The element-controlling Egyptian lad, Benjamin, was very pleasant, Kate of the Denali was highly amusing, Garrett the nomad was just plain awesome, and all the others were a nice addition.  It was a great way to show us the wider world of this Twilight-verse.  Oh, and I’m now a total Kate/Garrett shipper.

There are a lot of other things I’d like to address, but I think I’ll save them for a different post in which I plan to address the major criticisms this book gets and share my take on them.  For now, I’ll just close by saying that Breaking Dawn was my favorite of the four.  It kept me engaged all the way through, it never frustrated me with characters acting stupid, and I was very pleased with the way it ended.  Which is far more than I can say for Deathly Hallows.

Given that we had very little to do tonight, I kind of wish I’d found out she would be on earlier.  I may have gone downstairs to the GH offices to see if I could watch a bit of what was going on (I could probably have said that I wanted to help, as I heard that they were going a bit crazy).  Ah, well… woulda coulda shoulda, as they say.

Book two breaks away from Bella’s POV and is told from Jacob’s perspective. Admittedly, I was a bit leery of this. After all, Bella’s the one who’s suddenly pregnant. I figured she’d be where the action is, and where the Cullens are (and I’ve learned that how much I enjoy each book is directly proportionate to how much we get of the Cullens). I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out, Jacob’s voice is much more interesting to listen to. For one, he’s less whiny. For another, he doesn’t obsess over Edward and constantly talk about how hot he is. Yes, he does think a lot about Bella, but it has the sense of less obsession and more normal concern. Also, he’s a bit crasser, a bit more blunt… a bit more like a normal teenager. Being inside his head was, in a weird way, kind of a relief. It was also more fun in that there were other people inside his head, as well. He talked quite a bit with the other wolves in his head, and at times shared thoughts that went deeper than just words, which was interesting. And when Edward as there, it was interesting to have Edward respond to Jacob’s thoughts which only occurred in description, knowing as we do that Edward can hear everything he’s thinking. It seems like a bit of a timesaver, with Jacob not needing to voice his thoughts.

I was a little worried that it would all be about the pack and we’d miss out on actually seeing anything about Bella’s pregnancy. I was pleased to be wrong about that. There was some stuff with the pack, but it was quite interesting, and not too much. What pleased me even more was that Jacob finally made peace with the Cullens, going so far as to break off from the pack to join their side. I’d kind of been wanting him (well, all of them, really, but Jacob’s a good place to start) to do that since he first changed and started trash talking the vamps. The Cullens didn’t deserve to be thought so badly of, as they’d proven themselves nothing but trustworthy when it came to being around humans. It had especially irked me when Jacob spoke ill of Carlisle, who, as I’ve mentioned, is my favorite, and even more than the others deserved to be thought well of by the werewolves, as he’s never killed a single person in over three centuries of being a vampire (not to mention the fact that he had to figure out on his own how to survive without doing so, as there was no one around to help him when he changed). So, Jacob won major points with me when he began to acknowledge that Carlisle is actually a decent guy, and pretty much joined the side of his natural enemies out of respect for one who he knew didn’t deserve what the wolves were planning for them.

The interactions between Jacob and Edward were quite odd, but certainly dramatic. Bella’s insistence on keeping the baby, and her resulting extreme deterioration in health, set Edward’s nerves so on edge that Jacob literally wondered if he’d gone crazy. So really, it’s not so surprising, given that Edward would pretty much do anything to keep Bella safe, that he suggested that, if Bella wanted children so badly that she would die to have one, then Jacob could give them to her. Not that he was willing to give Bella up, of course. Merely that he would allow Jacob to impregnate her so she could have the children that he himself couldn’t give her, hoping that the suggestion would convince Bella to let them terminate the pregnancy that was killing her. Revolted as he was by this offer (which only further solidified his belief in Edward’s insanity), he was tempted enough by it to suggest it to Bella, who dismissed it out of hand. Twisted, yes, but perfectly believable, given the situations and characters we’re dealing with.

We got to see some interesting things about some of the other characters, as well. There was quite a bit of Seth, one of the younger werewolves and the only one thus far who was perfectly happy being friends with the vampires. I like Seth. He’s a good kid, and his easy acceptance of people who by rights he should loathe as much as the rest of his kind do, simply because they’ve proven themselves to be decent people, is very endearing. His enthusiasm and upbeat attitude is also somewhat irresistible.

Then there’s Leah, the only female werewolf, who, along with her brother Seth, joins the new pack that Jacob forms by breaking off to help the Cullens. She’s quite a different story than Seth. She’s bitter and heartbroken, due to being snubbed by Sam, the pack leader, when he imprinted on her cousin. She’s not a terribly nice person and so far has done nothing but make the other wolves’ lives miserable whenever possible, thanks to their mental connection. But her reason for joining Jacob is obvious enough that I knew it before she confirmed it, so one can hardly blame her. She does, at least, try to be a bit nicer to Jacob, knowing he doesn’t have to accept her, and even given that she still hates the vampires they’re helping. I can’t say I’d be particularly interested in reading too much more about her, or at least about her without the context of the others, but she makes an interesting addition to the mix, and listening to her and Jacob verbally spar is pretty entertaining.

There’s also a nice scene with Quil and Claire, the little girl he imprinted on.  It’s terribly sweet and helps to show that the imprinting isn’t really creepy at all, because while he doesn’t even see other girls any more (despite his earlier ladies man tendencies), he certainly doesn’t act in any inappropriate way toward the toddler.  This information is also important to keep in mind for the future, as it foreshadows Jacob’s fate.

Then, of course, there’s the Cullens. It was very nice to get so much of them. Even if there wasn’t quite as much Jasper and Emmett as I would have liked (they seemed to be gone much of the time), there was some nice stuff with the rest of them. Carlisle’s intellectual curiosity began to show through when he admitted that he tested Jake’s blood without his knowledge. I love that the vampire took someone’s blood without their knowledge… to test it, because he was curious. And Rosalie managed to be both cruel and caring at the same time. She was Bella’s main defender in keeping the others from hurting the baby (sometimes I got the impression she might literally rip someone’s arm off if they tried), though it was clear she cared only for the baby and not at all for Bella. Though, from Bella’s point of view, that technicality wouldn’t make much difference. They both wanted the same thing: for the baby to live. Rosalie was just sort of hoping, perhaps, that Bella wouldn’t survive so that she could have the baby for herself. It’s a bit disturbing, really, but entirely Rosalie.

The scenes between Alice and Jacob were very amusing. Where there was once nothing but animosity, there seemed to be growing a sort of grudging, teasing friendship. Mostly due to the fact that Jacob was too tired to fight her and Alice found the way that he blinded her visions peaceful (when compared the fuzzy vision she got around the unborn baby). But still, more evidence of Jacob’s growing comfort with the Cullens. After so much overt hostility and prejudice, it was very nice to see.

And sweet Esme, always trying to make the wolves feel at home, since they’d effectively been rendered homeless by turning against the other pack. Another great example of an atypical vampire. I felt rather insulted on her behalf when Leah dumped the food and clothes she’d sent into the river.

One thing that did bother me was the logic involved in having Jacob be the one to accidentally figure out what the baby wanted.  You’ve got a half-vampire, half-human baby, and it’s not letting Bella eat human food, so they’re both starving to death.  Gee, I wonder what it could want.  Let’s ask this house full of vampires that are caring for her.  Any ideas, guys?  No?  How about you, vampire doctor with centuries of experience?  Nothing?  Hey, 16-year-old werewolf, what do you think?  That’s right.  Blood.  Good doggy.  Now, I suppose if you wanted to give the author the benefit of the doubt, you could point out that sometimes the most obvious solutions are overlooked, especially when one becomes desperate.  It’s also possible that these vampires have become so civilized by not drinking human blood that the possibility of making a human drink human blood wouldn’t even occur to them.  Because I’d like to keep my stress level at a minimum, I’ll go with that.  But still… it’s a bit of a stretch.

Then there’s the birth scene.  That was just about the most gruesome, gory birth I could imagine without anyone involved being evil.  Really, it’s rather shocking for a teen book.  They absolutely could not film this scene with any amount of detail whatsoever without it being R-rated.  For one, there’s the nudity.  Bella’s clothes are quickly cut away for easier access (leading Jacob to remember how many times he’d pictured her naked and being revolted that this was how he finally saw her).  Then there’s the fact that she’s in excruciating pain the entire time, and with good reason.  She’s basically got a diamond-hard baby-pouch rolling around in her abdomen that has to be gotten out ASAP before the baby suffocates, which happens to hold a baby so strong that it cracked a couple ribs before Bella even went into labor.  And since it’s dying, there’s no time for anesthesia.  Then Rosalie slices her open with a scalpel, getting so distracted by the flow of blood that she has to be tackled and shuffled out of the room, pretty much leaving Edward and Jacob to deliver the baby and keep Bella alive as long as possible because, oh yeah, the doctor was inconveniently away at the time.
Then the baby breaks Bella’s spine and… well, it’s just really not a pretty picture.  Needless to say, the baby is delivered and taken away and Jacob leaves the room thinking that the woman he loves is dead.  So, naturally, he sets his mind on killing the thing that killed her, knowing full well that it will also result in his death and the deaths of probably at least a few of the Cullens… and that’s not even counting how the other wolves would respond.

So really, it’s a terribly good thing that Jacob takes one look at Bella’s baby daughter and suddenly his life revolves around her and he would do anything to keep her safe.  Because while this werewolf imprinting thing may be a nuisance in cases like Leah and Sam, it can occasionally be quite helpful.

The third book in the Twilight series is broken down into three “books”.  As the novel is about 750 pages long, I thought I’d review it by book, starting with the first and shortest.  There will, of course, be spoilers here.

The first book centers around Bella and Edward’s wedding and honeymoon.  It begins by showing us Bella’s new car that Edward got her, a ridiculously expensive, ridiculously hard to get car.  It embarrasses her.  Again, Bella seems really silly.  I couldn’t help thinking, “Yeah, you’ve got an inhumanly rich and handsome fiance who wants to give you the world.  That’s gotta suck.”  It is a bit sad not having her old truck there, though.  It was practically a character itself.

At least we got to see the reactions of her parents to the news of their engagement.  The way the last book ended, I was a bit worried that had been skipped over.  Charlie’s initial assumption that she was pregnant, while totally predictable, was also kinda funny.  What teenagers sit there and calmly tell the girl’s dad that she’s pregnant by beginning with, “We have good news”?

Jasper and Emmett showing up to drag Edward off to his bachelor party, which apparently was going to involve more mountain lions and grizzly bears than strippers, was rather amusing.  Actually, I’d kind of like to read about that little trip.  The idea of them sitting him down after killing some large predators and giving him what was at least in part a sex talk… is pretty funny.  Also, when Jasper peeked in Bella’s window, reassured her and winked before he left reminded me of that part of Midnight Sun where he initially wanted to find and kill her, which was the whole reason Edward started coming to her at night in the first place.  Oh, how things might have been different.

The story of the immortal children was interesting, and actually made perfect sense.  This idea of vampires freezing not only physically, but mentally, developmentally, at the age they’re at when they’re changed (a term I like far better than the overused ‘turned’) seems to be somewhat new.  In this world, with these rules, it seems totally natural that vampire children would be outlawed.

The wedding chapters involved a great deal of description of getting ready and the frills of the wedding than a lot of other people would have written.  Again, it’s indulgent.  But maybe that’s the draw of these books.  It’s fun to read about Alice dragging Bella off to get her ready, about all the hubbub about the day.  It’s a girly thing, I guess.  I thought it was terribly sweet that Carlisle was Edward’s best man, especially since that avoided the problem of which one of his brothers would he pick.  And if he’d had both Jasper and Emmett as his best men, given Alice being Bella’s maid of honor, it would kinda suck for Rosalie, being the one really blatantly left out.  It was also really sweet that Seth was there, that at least one of the werewolves wasn’t prejudiced against them and could be friends with the vampires.  That’s nice to see.  The description of Edward dancing with Esme afterward made me think, what would Edward’s human mother have thought if she’d known it would be another woman dancing the mother/son dance with her son on his wedding day?  Seems like that would hurt a little.  On the other hand, she’d probably have been thrilled just to know he’d get a wedding day, that she’d done the right thing in asking Carlisle to save him, even if it meant that Edward didn’t really even remember her.

Once again, we’re reminded that the Cullens are probably the richest people on the planet, and I think my suspension of disbelief on that matter is being stretched to the limit.  Not only do they have their own private island, which they seem to spend very little time in, but it’s got a cleaning staff and a really nice house with a plasma TV and more DVDs than a rental store.  Seriously, there’s just no explanation for that kind of excess.

Now, I don’t want to sound pervy, but… Meyer’s been pretty dang descriptive so far when it comes to Bella and Edward’s physical relationship.  She’s never shied away from giving us details, as evidenced by the 2-3 pages she spent describing a single kiss in the last book (although that was with Jacob, but still).  So why is it that when it finally gets down to them having sex, we’re given one of those scenes like in old movies where all you see is the guy sweeping the girl off her feet and carrying her to the bedroom?  There’s not even a reaction of any kind when he sees her naked for the first time.  I mean, come on, the story’s been building to this since some time in the first book and now Meyer’s decided to be coy?  Naturally, this is a book for teens, not adults, so it’s not like she could be completely detailed, but a bit more of what they thought and how they reacted in the moment would have been nice, and would have been more in keeping with how she’s handled things so far.

That said, Edward’s rather violent tendencies are pretty dang funny, even if all we get to see is the aftermath.  The whole pillow-biting and headboard-destroying is just… well, funny.  And the poor negligee… hehe… the term ‘bodice ripper’ comes to mind.  I do have to question Bella’s sense, though, being so willing to risk him slipping up rather than waiting the couple years after she’s changed for her mind to settle down back to normal.

Edward’s going into complete shock when he realized she was pregant was pretty funny, and I do wonder what was going through his head then.  I think a lot of people take issue with Edward’s immediate desire to abort the baby, but I have to say, it doesn’t bother me.  I mean, he knows far better than Bella how dangerous the baby is, that it’s not like a normal baby.  I’m not sure how he knows at this point.  It’s obviously not common knowledge that it’s possible for a vampire and a human to have a child, or he would have taken some precaution to make sure it didn’t happen.  I imagine there may have been some legends, some horrible stories of such a thing happening, about a woman getting pregnant by a vampire and then suffering a horrible, gruesome death.  Stories that no one really believed until it was too late.  And it’s been pretty well established that the most important thing to Edward is to keep Bella safe.  I’m not surprised that he doesn’t have the same instinctive reaction to protect the baby that Bella does.  After all, he can’t feel it moving inside him.  It’s not all that uncommon, as I understand it, for some men to not really feel connected to their children until they actually see them, and for someone as single-minded as Edward, it’s not surprising at all that he’s one of them.  For that matter, I can’t imagine it would be easy for any man to have to choose between the woman he loves and a baby he’s never even seen.  Though I have to think they didn’t exactly have a family meeting before deciding to go ahead with Edward’s plan.  I mean, Carlisle’s reaction makes sense.  He knows probably better than anyone how deadly giving birth to a vampire child would be for Bella.  And given the fact that he knows Edward would kill himself if she died, it pretty much comes down to an unfortunate matter of one life or two.  Besides that, I think he’d respect Edward’s wishes in this matter, knowing that it’s probably the only thing that would save Bella, that he couldn’t offer any other alternative.  He wouldn’t be happy about, though, and I imagine he’d still try to come up with some other option.  However, while he would go along with the necessity of it, I have to think Esme wouldn’t be all that thrilled with her son for deciding to kill his child, or with her husband for doing it, considering that she tried to commit suicide after losing her own baby.  And Rosalie, of course, would probably be infuriated that such a thing could happen in her own house (particularly since she’d likely care more about the child than Bella)–Bella was smart (for once) in calling her for help.  Jasper, practical guy that he is, would almost certainly support Edward’s decision, unless he thought for some reason that saving the baby was more worthwhile than saving Bella.  Of course, if he could sense emotions coming from the baby (and given the rate of development, that seems like a possibility), that would probably affect his view on the matter, as well.  I’m not sure how Emmett and Alice would react.  Alice would probably see the outcome, or possible outcomes, and that would affect which way she’d feel about it.  Emmett would probably also go along with Edward’s decision, but I think he’d be really depressed about it, because he seems like the kind of guy who would love to have a little kid around the house to play with and be a bad influence on.  That’s what I’m guessing, anyway.  Let’s see if I’m right…

(Warning: This post contains spoilers… as usual.)

Saturday I finished the third book of the Twilight series.  I didn’t have as many reactions while reading it as I did with New Moon, which I think is because it’s generally a less ridiculously silly book.  I believe I liked it better, though at the same time, the plot of it is less concrete in my mind.  New Moon is about Edward leaving and Bella falling in love with Jacob, but also about the birth of the werewolf pack and the threat posed by constant attacks from Victoria and Laurent.  With Eclipse, the action of the plot, the threat of the newborn vampires, was not quite as major as I might have preferred, and the drama surrounding the Edward/Bella/Jacob triangle seemed somehow than either her finding Edward in Twilight or her losing Edward in New Moon.  Maybe I feel this way because it seems like it’s been building to some kind of confrontation between Edward and Jacob, and old-fashioned vampire/werewolf throw-down, if you will, and it never came to that.  Of course, it’s a good thing that it never did, because it’s better that they get along, and one or both of them probably would have at least gotten hurt, if not killed.  It feels a bit like a gun that’s loaded, cocked, pointed, then set aside.  I suppose it could still come to that in the last book, but since they’re no longer fighting for Bella’s love, it wouldn’t have the same weight.

We do get a vampire/werewolf fight, though.  Even if it’s two minor characters.  We also get a vampire/vampire fight, though it moves so quickly that the POV character can’t actually see what’s going on to tell us.  But I was very disappointed we didn’t get to see the big fight that was going on away from Bella.  That would have been much more interesting.  For one, I wanted to see some of the other vamps fight.  At least we get that little training scene and get to see Emmett, Edward, Jasper and Alice spar.  However, it’s not that hard for me to imagine Emmett, Jasper, and Edward fighting, and I could guess that Jasper would fight a lot like Edward, so no real insights or surprises there.  It was very nice to see how Alice fights, but I’m equally curious to see Esme, Carlisle, and Rosalie fight.  That’s who I would much rather have seen, and why I kind of wish for once that Bella had been stupid and gone down to where they were fighting, so we could see what’s going on.

The stuff between the werewolves and the Cullens was always interesting, and I wish we could have gotten more of it.  After all, that was kind of the major tension for this book.  Usually when we did see it, it was mostly just Edward and Jacob.  I wanted to see the rest of the people interact.  I wanted to see some stuff between Esme and Emily, Quil and Emmett, and all the rest.  That’s one of the most annoying things about these books: everything revolves around Edward and Bella, when there are so many other (more) interesting characters to explore.  Actually, I have similar feelings about the Harry Potter books.

There are three issures I have with Meyer’s writing style which, while perhaps present in the other books, really stuck out to me in this one.  One is the fact that too many revelations rely on characters just suddenly having an epiphany, with no real logic in how they came to that conclusion.  Not only does that not make sense, but it’s kind of a cheat to have a character gain knowledge without earning it (from the character’s perspective, or in the sense of the story earning it).  Like when Edward is suddenly nice to Jacob because, for apparently no good reason, he just decided that would be easier on Bella.  Or when he just suddenly isn’t tempted by her blood any more, because he knows what it’s like to live thinking she’s dead.  For something that was such a central, critical conflict in the first story, to just dismiss it out of hand and not even tell us about it until months after he’s gotten over it is incredibly unsatisfying.

Another thing that bothers me is Bella’s reaction to Edward wanting to marry her.  It just doesn’t make sense.  She’s totally averse to the idea of marriage, and yet what is she afraid of?  She’s absolutely certain that she wants Edward forever, so I really don’t know why she’d have anything less then pure enthusiasm for his wanting to marry her.  This seems like just a plot device to draw out the story.

The third thing that bugged me was the way the issue of sex was dealt with.  First Bella tells her dad that she’s a virgin and doesn’t plan to change that soon, then not too long after, she’s practically begging Edward to do her while they make out on his bed.  Then Edward is adamant that they not because he’s afraid that he’d hurt her, then adds that he’s also concerned about breaking the rules and that doing so would hurt her chances of getting into heaven (basically saying that he doesn’t want to hurt either her body or her soul), and insists they be married before they “try”.  Then later he just goes, “Aw, screw it,” and wants to take her in the meadow… but then she stops him because apparently she likes the idea of getting married first now.  Now, Meyer is a Mormon, and as such probably has strong beliefs about premarital sex.  So I can totally understand and appreciate her desire for her characters to be married before having sex.  However… it seems as if she’s so afraid of giving her characters any sort of real moral beliefs that she sacrifices logical characterization.  If she wants her characters to have her morals, then she should give them her morals–but if they don’t, then she should allow them to act as their characterization dictates and not try to force something that doesn’t make sense.  Again, I’m glad that she has them wait, but I’d much rather they didn’t get so near the edge, and that they waited for the right reasons: because they wanted to, not just because the story necessitated they do so.

One other thing that bugs me, though not as much, is her tendency for characters to be way more verbally forthcoming with their feelings than people really are.  This happens a lot with Edward and Bella, but what really struck me was a conversation that Edward and Jacob had in which they’re talking very openly about their feelings and their love for the same girl.  It’s just not realistic.  People, particularly guys, just don’t talk that way.  And they especially don’t talk that way with another guy who is their rival not only in love, but in pretty much everything about them.

There was a lot of good entertainment, though.  The stuff between Edward and Jacob when they’re getting at each other, especially when they were being particularly vicious, was quite interesting.  The beginning of the chapter with their silly talk, where Edward has to sit by and watch Jacob snuggle with Bella in a sleeping bag because he’s the only one who can keep her warm, was actually very amusing.  The backstories from Rosalie and Jasper, as well as the Quileute legends, were all very enlightening and helped to make the world seem like a bigger place, and giving more focus to the other Cullens is something I’m always for.  Kinda makes me wish that Meyer would write a book about the Cullen family, starting from when Carlisle was human and going through his change, his suicide attempts and discovery of a lifestyle he could live with, his time with the Volturi, finding Edward, more about Esme and how they got together, the three of them meeting Rosalie while she’s still human, dealing with Emmett as a newborn, meeting the Quileute wolves the first time and making the treaty, integrating Alice and Jasper into their family, and everything else.  For that matter, I’d like to see more about what happened to them during New Moon, as well.  I have the strange desire to read New Moon from Jasper’s point of view: perhaps dealing with guilt over his almost killing Bella and basically being the reason they had to leave, him attending Cornell, how he felt while Alice was in Italy… could be quite interesting.

I hope Meyer gets over this hissy fit about Midnight Sun and gets back to writing about the Cullens soon.