36. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

I'm going to make the glaring assumption that if you've got this far, there's something that keeps you hanging in there. A love of great writing? I doubt it. Cutting edge storytelling? Not so much. Great characterisation? Now you've got to be kidding! Nonetheless, here I am, hanging in like the rest of you as the series sucks you into the vortex that is the conclusion of the 'Twilight Saga'. I'm going to approach this fresh and dispense with any of the preconceived prejudices that 'Eclipse' left in my head. If I hadn't found 'Eclipse' so disturbing (morally and aesthetically), I wouldn't have picked up battered wife implications, anti-abortion subtexts, Christ-like analogies ... so I'm just not going there!

The writing wasn't as cringeworthy on this one. The characters were a bit better developed and Meyer kept the storyline racing. Possibly, I found it less annoying because Bella became a stronger character and no longer Edward's doormat. The story was more convoluted, relied less on adjectives pertaining to Edward's beauty. There was nothing original here, all the old Anne Rice-like influences are there, alongside a storyline snapped from the jaws of 'Underworld' and reworked in a sanitised fashion as some kind of 'coming of the Messiah' parable. The child (with the stupidest name in history, by the way) an obvious replica of Alia of the knife in Dune.

But even so, a fast and entertaining read somehow. A satisfying conclusion to the series, with enough space to extend it further if, as I suspect, Stephenie Meyer needs this guaranteed seller to keep her writing head up. It is what it is..