Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (2008)

I really did not like the third book in this series, so I was not going to read this fourth one, but now that the last movie has come out, I wanted to read the book before I saw it, and was pleasantly surprised. I am not fond of vampire literature, so I don’t know the variations out there, but it sounded like this was a pretty interesting take on what it feels like becoming a vampire and a bit about intimate relationships between a vampire and human before Bella becomes a vampire. (She told us she will do this in the previous book.) I enjoyed her slow awareness of all her new powers - her strength, her speed, her superior hearing. Then of course there is their child - again, everyone who has seen any of the trailers knows there is a child. How does one imagine a half human, half vampire child? Lot of it goes way beyond feasible, but then again, the whole premise is fantasy.

There are a lot of interesting characters surrounding Bella and Edward. I like Alice, Edward's sister, who keeps trying to dress Bella up, especially for her wedding to Edward. I was wondering how they were going to keep Jake in the story, now that Bella is married, but of course there was a way that made him very tied to their family. He too was growing up in this story. And then we were introduced to vampires from around the world - each with their own idiosyncrasies, the power hungry Volturi or the South American faction, but each still part of the vampire world imagined by the author.

Bella did not grate on my nerves as she did in the last book, as so much was happening to her, but I am still left with the question of how she plans to fill eternity. This time her library had expanded, but still mainly with just classics. She will have the child to raise, but that is not a job for eternity, and it sounded like parenting for this one will not be as time consuming or intense as it normally is, plus she has a lot of help. Carlisle, the head of the family at least is a doctor, and that could keep anyone busy forever, but for the rest? I wish her well in that forever being 18 and with the one she loves. I also don't get wanting to be with someone 24/7, but that is just me. Looking forward to the movie.