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THE FAMILY BOOKSHELF - 09/24/2008
(by Rich Gawel - Staff Writer - October 02, 2008)
Breaking Dawn And Beyond
With fanfare equal to any multiplex blockbuster, Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn appeared in bookstores this summer with midnight sales and long lines of eager fans. The fourth book in the Twilight series promised a resolution to the saga’s love triangle between a teenage girl, her vampire boyfriend, and her werewolf best friend. So, did it live up to the hype? And if you’re done reading it, what should you read next?
No, it didn’t meet those frenzied expectations. The first book in the series, Twilight, was a humble yet engaging supernatural romance as teenage Bella meets immortal Edward and falls in love. It was short on action, considering its superhuman cast of characters. But the romantic tension between the protagonists complicated by the “will she or won’t she” question of whether Bella would become a vampire herself kept readers turning the pages.
The second and third books in the series, Eclipse and New Moon, turned this tension into tedium. The events of these two books could easily have been condensed into a single novel, as Meyer dropped artificial roadblocks along Bella’s quest to join the undead. The suspense is dragged out, and the climaxes are, well, anticlimactic. Somehow, though, fans fell deeper into the saga as they debated who Bella should choose.
True, Breaking Dawn offers more twists and turns than its predecessors. But Meyer places her characters on such pedestals, it’s difficult to care. Edward is a handsome, brave genius. Jacob, the werewolf best friend, is fiercely compassionate and loyal. Bella’s father is the most understanding dad in the world, considering all the surrounding strangeness. And then there’s Renesme, a precocious child introduced in the novel, who inspires utter devotion in everyone who meets her.
Yes, the characters may have preternatural abilities. But they still need natural personalities. All this perfection is especially striking against Bella’s own self-absorption. Yes, she faces some pretty big changes in her life. But those changes are spread over 750 pages filled with too much navel gazing and moping about the challenges she’s facing. Many fans may compared the novel to fan fiction, which generally can be too light on plot and too heavy on character, and they wouldn’t be wrong.
What’s Next?
Whether you and your readers loved it or hated it, it’s time to move on to something else. So what should you pick? The success of the series opened the doors for lots of young adult novels featuring teenage girls encountering the supernatural and falling in love. Some of these could be called knockoffs, while others improve on Twilight’s formula. For example, take a look at Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr.
In Wicked Lovely, Aislinn is a teenager who can see fairies, who surround us but are invisible to ordinary human beings. She tries hard to ignore them and avoid their attention, until Keenan, the king of the Summer Court, realizes that she should be the queen he has been seeking for centuries. Aislinn wrestles the temptations offered by Keenan and by her friend Seth in a very convincing love triangle. Despite their powers, these characters are far from perfect and engage the reader.
And while Meyer takes many liberties with traditional vampire and werewolf mythology, Marr’s work is steeped in folklore, and that research pays off in a very well rounded, immersive world. The complications of fairy politics get murky at times, but there’s lots of action and a real scary sense of danger. Resolutions don’t come easy at all. Perhaps that’s why instead of following Aislinn’s story, Ink Exchange focuses on some of the minor characters of Wicked Lovely and plunges deeper into this dark world.
Of course, you could always dig a little deeper on the bookshelves and try just about anything by Tamora Pierce. She’s written dozens of fantasy novels about girls who, in her own words, kick butt. There’s plenty of magic and romance to be found, especially in her novels set in the medieval realm of Tortall. Perhaps the best place to begin would be the quartet of books known as The Song of the Lioness.
Alanna is the daughter of a noble, but she wants to become a knight — even though girls aren’t allowed to be warriors. But by dressing as a boy, she becomes a page and then a squire, training in weapons and magic. During her path to knighthood, she faces all the joys and heartbreaks of adolescence, like first love and family betrayals, as well as duels with evil mages, journeys into the wilderness, associations with criminals, and battles to preserve the crown.
But really, the story is much more than Tolkien-esque adventure. It’s about growing up, as we see Alanna begin as barely a tween and grow into a woman who has earned her self-confidence through her mistakes and triumphs alike and stared deeply into her own soul. While she may be a damsel in distress, and the men in her life may provide the occasional rescue, she spends as much time (if not more) rescuing them. Most importantly, she doesn’t need these male characters to define her. She defines herself. With a bookshelf full of plucky heroines, Alanna is a true role model and worth checking out.
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