Stephenie Meyer - Breaking Dawn

Well, after two very long days, I have completed the Twilight Saga. After reading the last installment till 3am this morning and then finishing the rest in about another hour and a half when I woke up, I am officially finished with the Twilight series. Not since the Harry Potter books have I ever been this engaged in a literary universe. Sure, I adore the Discworld books (Terry Pratchett remains a firm favourite of mine) but the pull is so much different with the Twilight books - I think I may possibly love them more than the Harry Potter series. I think it's to do with the complicated supernatural love triangle - all that teenage angst and melodrama! Some have complained that Breaking Dawn is too neat and tidy, that everyone gets their happy ending and it's just too convenient. Well, what's wrong with that? I could be biased as I am a sucker for happy endings, but it's not like Stephenie Meyer just gave the characters their happily-ever-after that easily. Everyone went through incredible hardship and to me, the progression of events felt like they made sense and not contrived at all. I also really enjoyed the chapters from Jacob's perspective, which helped to break up the book a bit and provided a bit of comic relief, even with the painful moments for him at the time. As a reader, I was so attached to these characters as Meyer brought them to life and made them intensely real, and it brought me comfort that everything worked out in the end. My only complaint is the ridiculous name for Bella and Edward's baby, Renesmee - thank goodness for the nickname, Nessie, which is just soooooo much better! It wouldn't surprise me if there's a new series for Jacob and Nessie in the future; it will be interesting to see how that turns out! In the meantime, although I know the project has been put on hold indefinitely, I hope Stephenie Meyer will continue to work on Midnight Sun and publish it sometime in the future. As painful as the leaks have been for her, I think having Edward's perspective on the events in Twilight will give fans that extra insight and dimension into the world of Twilight and it wouldn't be fair to punish the fans for something that they could not control. For now, I will have to make do with the current set of books and I look forward to the movie sequels. I've had such a thrilling ride in the Twilight universe and I remain a happy and besotted fan!