**spoiler alert** I'm having a really hard time deciding what I actually think about this book. I guess it would help me to know what Megan McCafferty**spoiler alert** I'm having a really hard time deciding what I actually think about this book. I guess it would help me to know what Megan McCafferty actually thinks about this book. The series, though, as I realized when I finished the last book, is collectively the novel I have always wanted to read but never found anywhere else. I would have such a hard time defining this as "chick lit" because it's always been so smart, so much more intelligent than your average chick lit. But this last book, to me, could be read as a snarky satire of itself...blatant chick lit but acknowledging the fact enough to make it NOT chick lit...this is what troubles me.
Why did McCafferty decide to write this in the third person? I was put off by this decision. In books 1-4, Jessica told us her story, and the voice was so snarky, so real that I believed Jessica existed. Throughout these last two years of reading the books, Jessica has become a close friend. So to open the fifth book and be reading the words of some random narrator about Jessica just broke my heart. McCafferty tries to incorporate the snarky voice we all know and love, but unless it comes from Jessica's mouth, it's not the same. It's false, and suddenly I saw through the story. HOWEVER, I did wonder if McCafferty intended us to empathize more with Marcus in this book...
We have always heard of Marcus in the third person, but from Jessica's point of view, so there was never a time where we heard "Marcus thinks..." Writing the fifth book this way brings us closer to Marcus, but away from Jessica. I think that's what Megan was going for, but the consequence was that we end up feeling like Marcus because Jessica has shut us out of her life as well. I knew Marcus in this book. Jessica seemed as strange and distant to me as she was to Marcus when he was watching her sleep. So this was both good and bad.
The majority of the book was one continuous conversation. No dialogue tags. No description. This was where the old Jessica started to show through. Stylistically, I have never seen anything like this before, so I was intrigued. Megan did a fantastic job with this conversation. Most conversations we read are flashes in the midst of a scene or little blurbs between thought/interpretation by the narrator. Never two characters just talking for this length of time. I thought this was fantastic. However, when they leave Starbucks and Marcus has to wait for Jessica, Megan just inserts "[waiting. waiting. waiting.:]" It just seemed so...halfassed to me. Like "Blah blah blah...okay on with the story". I then started to look at the book as a book she was forced to write, not one she wanted to write. Then I began to see things differently.
So, on one hand, Perfect Fifths could be just that - all we needed to tie up the loose strands of Jessica and Marcus. The conversation, the chapter written in nothing but back and forth Haikus are classic Jessica and Marcus, and that's what makes this book unique. Do we appreciate that? Or do we look at how this book, which spans 18 hours, could have been written in just that amount of time. It's the shortest of all the books. Many parts seemed to be just filler to get on with the rest of the story. Jessica's realization of her true feelings for Marcus are solidified after a few little dreams and an over-the-top display of cheesiness in their Barry Manilow duet. So many obvious connections. Such a chick-lit ending for a series that seems to be so against chick-lit. I imagine Megan wanting to end the series ambiguously at book 4, but being forced into writing book 5 because of the stereotypical expectation of a happy ending for Jessica and Marcus. It seems like she was secretly making fun of this book as she wrote it and hurled it at her publishers, a way of saying "here, this is what YOU wanted (but not what I wanted)."
I think the book was good, but it could have been better. ...more
**spoiler alert** Breaking Dawn just might be one of the worst books I have ever read. Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse can stand together as a fairly **spoiler alert** Breaking Dawn just might be one of the worst books I have ever read. Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse can stand together as a fairly pleasing, lovable trio. Breaking Dawn seems almost unrelated to the series, like some crazed, over-the-top fan fiction. In the first three books, Stephenie Meyer creates this world of seemingly realistic magic � realistic because it is bound by explainable rules, and the characters within the world have retainable qualities from book to book. Though New Moon shows how utterly weak and pathetic Bella is sans Edward, it seems a natural progression of her needy personality that was introduced during the development of their relationship in Twilight. It seems as if in Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer ran out of ideas for her characters or else decided to completely remake them and ignore the logistics she created for these magical creatures. It might as well have been named Breaking Rules.
First let’s start off with Bella’s personality. Though her aversion to the wedding ceremony is over-done and her self-deprecating attitude by this point is impossibly trite, it seems like the classic Bella. By the time she finishes her honeymoon with Edward, she has gone from being this average teenager who is in love enough to marry her boyfriend but doesn’t want to jump into a marriage for fear of being thought of as “small-town�, to a married, pregnant eighteen year old who is so intent upon keeping her incubus child that she is willing to die so that the thing can live. Oh, and she has also become somewhat reminiscent of a crazed sex-addict. She is annoyed that Edward wants to go out and explore the island with her, snorkeling and hiking and doing fun activities. She would rather just stay in the house and have sex all day, every day, for weeks at a time. That’s disgusting. Also defying any sort of logic is the fact that once she realizes she might be pregnant, it is confirmed by the fact that her stomach has a little bulge and she feels the baby kick. The five-day-old embryo. Right. It’s almost like Stephenie Meyer wanted to stuff five years of normal life into Edward and Bella’s magical existence for the sake of not having to write a fifth book. Although Bella’s pregnancy was a surprise to the vampire world, the event seemed utterly contrived. By the time I finished reading the honeymoon scene, I was having to shut the book to collect myself. I felt my mind had been violated, like Stephenie Meyer had just mind-raped me through nearly 100 pages. I had to force myself to continue reading. It only got worse.
I was annoyed that Stephenie decided to use a whole third of the book for Jacob’s perspective. What sort of structure is that? It’s just a lame excuse to develop the plot from an easier angle. It’s a total cop-out. Why even write a version of Twilight from Edward’s perspective if you can just throw in alternate perspectives wherever it makes things easier? Once Bella becomes pregnant, she ceases to be Bella. We see most of the pregnancy through Jacob’s eyes, and Bella’s stubbornness is annoying. I didn’t even feel compassion or sympathy for her. Edward speaks of it as a “thing�, Carlisle is afraid of it, they say it’s an incubus and not even a real infant, that it eats its way out of its mother’s womb, and yet Bella wants it, is willing to die for it. What? Since when did Bella want to be a mom? Since when did she not care about the whole “small town� image? She doesn’t seem to see how this child could complicate her life, much less end it. Plus, the thing grows at an alarming rate. Within a week or two, Bella’s stomach is large enough that she “cradles it� in her arms. This image disgusted me. First of all, I would rather not imagine a pregnant 18 year old, married or not. Second of all, the logistics of it bother me. Like oh, of course she gets through 9 months of pregnancy in roughly four weeks. Way to go Stephenie, it’s obvious you’re not anxious to speed the plot along or anything. Plus, with Bella’s personality it seems like she would have a hard time wrapping her head around the idea of impending motherhood, let alone be absolutely ready for it in four weeks� time.
Then the birth � grotesque, disgusting. Edward biting open Bella’s womb to free the child. Um, sick? I can only hope the movie version of this saga ends with Twilight. I can't imagine them trying to dilute the honeymoon scene, let alone the birthing scene. I can just picture the awkward energy radiating in the theatre during a movie like this. I wouldn't be surprised if there were nothing but crickets at the end, moviegoers awkwardly shuffling out of the theatre, avoiding eye contact with those they came with. But moving on, how about the lovely celebrity-coupleish name they burden her with? Renesmee. Gag me. I wonder what Stephenie Meyer was even thinking. And to further her perverted, illogical tirade, Stephenie has Jacob imprint on the infant Renesmee. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. Of course, how perfect for Bella. She can have Jacob in her life AND have him be happy. Wow. Applause. Great solution. Not. I would rather he imprinted on Leah. That would have made much more sense.
Once Bella becomes a vampire, she continues to remain the exception to every rule while being utterly oblivious to the fact. Bella! You’re so under control! Really? I am? What? Bella! You are unusually graceful! Really? Was that jump good? Bella! Your mind can block everything out, you have super powers! And oh, you can conveniently use them to protect the ones you love! Really? Is that good? Am I being modest enough? Gag me. How convenient to the plot that Bella can skip over all the newborn vampire nonsense and just be herself. How convenient that her passions for Edward only intensify. Who needs human experiences? How convenient that Charlie gets to know the Cullens are not human. How convenient that he happily accepts that two months after giving his daughter away, he already has a grandchild the size of a 3 year old. Right. Because infant Renesmee is not nearly as interesting or cute as talking toddler Renesmee who appears to be a baby Einstein that prefers to “show� her thoughts rather than speak them. And suddenly Bella has the mental maturity of a 30 year old mother though she’s still an 18 year old who got pregnant four months ago and has a daughter who is progressing at least 5 times as fast as a normal infant. The whole plot line reminded me of a child who got bored playing the same old story with her Barbies and suddenly decided that Barbie and Ken were going to have a baby, and that baby was born and became a functioning member of the family within two minutes of play time.
I was a little hopeful when the Volturi arrived for what seemed to be an inevitable war. I recalled back to when Bella mentioned something about not being able to imagine the Cullens without their head, Carlisle. I thought for sure Carlisle would make some ultimate sacrifice to save Edward and Bella. At least one major casualty would have breathed some feeling into this book other than “everything is perfect because Bella and Edward defy every bit of logic.� But no. In true predictable fashion, Alice returns and saves the day. Bella grows some balls and radiates her “shield� over everyone. Pathetic Bella, the damsel in distress, the one who always had to be protected and saved, now the one protecting and saving everyone else. How convenient. No fighting occurs, Renesmee is assured a life of immortality and will conveniently grow up extra fast for Jacob. Bella and Edward live to have more sex. Everyone lives happily ever after.
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