Here are my thoughts on all things Breaking Dawn.

THE MOVIE: Wow.  Prepare to be spoiled if you haven’t seen it yet (are there still people who haven’t seen it?). I can’t stop thinking about the movie.  It went above and beyond my expectations.  The wedding was cute (Edward’s toast – Awwwww), the honeymoon was funny and sweet.  I especially liked Bella getting ready and having a minor melt down.  I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY PLAYED CHESS ON THEIR HONEYMOON.  That one had me laughing my head off.  Bill Condon, the director, is a genius for incorporating the book cover into the movie that way.  The vampire speed was the best yet.  The part I can’t stop thinking about is how Edward reacted to her pregnancy.  In the book, Edward just gives Bella whatever she wants.  But in the movie, they act like real newlyweds when they encounter their first fight that they just don’t know how to work out.  The part where Bella is crying when she says her and Edward are different and Edward realizes he’s left her alone just gets to me.  However, I hated the scene with the werewolves talking to each other in their heads. EVEN THE RUNNING IN THE FIRST MOVIE WAS NOT AS BAD AS THAT SCENE.  My cousin, Miriam, and I laughed our heads off at it because of the pure melodrama and the weird echoing voices (we may or may not have been the only ones laughing in the theater).  The rest of the movie was sooo good, though, that I’ll forgive Bill Condon for it and just fast forward through that scene when I get it on DVD.  They pulled off the imprinting well which I didn’t think they would be able to do.  The birth scene was disturbing but I couldn’t look away. Miriam says to me, “You have two kids!  Why does this bother you?” Me: “I didn’t WATCH!”  It was just the right amount of gory and I think they pulled it off.  I want to go see it again right now.  And I loved the actress they got for Renesmee. Speaking of acting, the acting got so much better in this movie.  We lost the mumbling Edward and the stuttering Bella and got some real emotions instead and I loved it.

My family’s thoughts on THE MOVIE: I went to the movie with my mom, my dad, my sister Kristen, my cousin Miriam, her boyfriend Shaun, and my husband Justin.  Right after the movie my dad came up to me and said, “So does that make Jacob Resnesmee’s Dogfather?” *badum BING*  Then my dad said, “I think they’re going to have a movie about Renesmee and Jake and they’ll call it ‘Renesmee’s Baby.’”  HAHAHAHA I liked that one (I liked the other one too, Dad.  Don’t get your feelings hurt.)

Then Justin says that he thinks Renesmee will have a combination of her parents’ gifts.  I was impressed until he said that he thought Renesmee would be able to read everyone else’s thoughts but her own.  I was hysterical over that one.  ”So she’s going to be mentally retarded then?”  *Justin thinking.* “I didn’t think about it that way.”

The Book: I mourned the loss of Bella not going to college.  Why couldn’t she go to college…?  Edward would have loved it.  I am not a Jacob fan, but I couldn’t help but like him all through part 2 of the book.  The sarcasm was awesome.  I want to be that sarcastic when I grow up.  Jake’s best line – “Of course, die for the monster spawn.  It was so Bella.”  Another great Jacob line – “The girl was a classic martyr…She should have lived back when she could have gotten herself fed to some lions for a good cause.”  If you watch for it in part 3, everyone is afraid to call Renesmee “Nessie” after Bella loses it.  Totally made me laugh.  And then I gagged when Edward calls Jacob “son.”  But other than that, the book was great.  I liked it better reading it the second time around.

The Playlist: “Congratulations” is the best song on there.  It fits so well and it’s a gorgeous song.  The Beach Boys song was so funny in the context of the book and it reminded me that Stephenie Meyer is not as dramatic as you would think.  ”The Sharpest Lives” by My Chemical Romance has the word “vampires” in it and was surprisingly fitting for the book.  In fact, all of the songs were good except for “I’m Too Sexy.”  That was painful to listen to.

The Soundtrack: I’m going to go buy it right now.  They’ve done it again.  Great music that goes so well in the movie. “Turning Page” melts my heart.  I love how much piano is featured in the soundtrack (I’m a pianist – I’m a little biased  If you listen carefully, “My Love” by Sia from the Eclipse soundtrack is played at the wedding very briefly.  That’s my favorite song from Eclipse.  In fact, I heard lots of little snippets of songs from other movies, but I couldn’t tell you the exact songs.

Well, this event was fun.  I had a blast re-reading some of my favorite books and listening to the music that went along with it.  Here are all the posts I wrote during this event.

Twilight Playlist | Twilight Thoughts | Twilight Book Review

New Moon Playlist | New Moon Alt. Playlist | New Moon Thoughts |     New Moon Book Review

Eclipse Playlist | Eclipse Thoughts | Eclipse Book Review

Breaking Dawn Playlist | Breaking Dawn Book Review

Welcome!  I’m so excited to re-read the Twilight Series to get ready for the Breaking Dawn: Part 1 movie release.  I decided to add something new to my re-reading experience.  I got The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide this year and I really wanted to listen to the playlists that were in there while I was reading the books, so I thought “Why not make an event out of it?”  And here we are.  Plus you can read along with me, if you like.  This week I am reading:

I’ve also made a bookmark for you to download that has a reading schedule on it so you can finish all four books before the movie comes out on November 18.

Below is the playlist for Breaking Dawn. I’ve picked official videos where I can so I’m sorry about the commercials.  I’ve also listed the chapter that each song goes with.  Happy reading!

Book 1

1. “White Wedding” Billy Idol (Chapter 1)

2. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” The Beach Boys (Chapter 1)

3. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” Muse (Chapter 4)

4. “Congratulations” Blue October (Chapter 4 – Jacob’s perspective)

5. “Take Me Away” Plain White T’s (Chapter 4 – Jacob’s perspective)

6. “Dark Blue” Jack’s Mannequin (Chapter 5 – Edward’s perspective)

7. “No More Keeping My Feet On The Ground” Coldplay (Chapter 5)

8. “Hemorrhage” Fuel (Chapter 7 – Edward’s perspective)

Book 2 – Jacob’s perspective

9. “Down In It” Nine Inch Nails (Chapter 8 )

10. “What It Takes” Aerosmith (Chapter 9)

11. “Earth To Bella (Part 1)” Incubus (Chapter 10)

12. “No I In Threesome” Interpol (Chapter 10)

13. “Twisted Transistor” Korn (Chapter 12 – Leah’s perspective)

14. “The Sharpest Lives” My Chemical Romance (Chapter 15)

15. “Point of Extinction” Motion City Soundtrack (Chapter 15)

16. “Wolf Like Me” TV On The Radio (Chapter 16)

17. “Accelerate” R.E.M. (Chapter 16)

18. “Someone To Die For” Jimmy Gnecco featuring Brian May (Chapter 18)

Book 3

19. “Today” Smashing Pumpkins (Chapter 20)

20. “I’m Too Sexy” Right Said Fred (Chapter 20)

21. “Sweet Disposition” The Temper Trap (Chapter 27)

22. “PTS. Of Athrty” Linkin Park (Chapter 28)

23. “Duck And Run” 3 Doors Down (Chapter 29)

24. “Hazy Shade of Winter” Simon and Garfunkel (Chapter 33)

25.  ”I Will Follow You Into The Dark” Death Cab For Cutie (Chapter 35)

26. “Intro (Absolution)” Muse (Chapter 35)

27. “Take A Bow” Muse (Chapter 36)

28. “Assassin” Muse (Chapter 37 – Garrett’s perspective)

29. “Invincible” Ok Go (Chapter 38)

30. “Safe” Travis (Chapter 38)

31. “One Day Like This” Elbow (Chapter 39)

Here are my spoilery thoughts on all things Eclipse.

The Book: I could just read over and over the part where Edward proposes. It’s so thoroughly sweet and romantic.This book needs more romance and less love-triangle. I could have done without the last chapter of her crying over Jacob while Edward is there. I’m so glad they glossed over that in the movie. I feel bad for Bella (kind-of, not really), but she needs to get over it. I like mature Edward. I don’t like immature Jacob.

The Playlist: The playlist seemed to be made up of a lot of songs from Jacob’s perspective. I think the tagline for the book should be, “Let’s Feel Sorry for Jacob.”  The best song on the playlist is “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers. I think it portrays jealousy perfectly and it made me really feel Edward’s jealousy. (Jake is jealous, too. Don’t care.)

The Movie: I love the angry Edward scene after Jacob kisses Bella without her permission (this is the main reason Jacob bugs me).  To quote many tween twi-hards, “Angry Edward is HOT!!” The calm scene in the book is so anti-climatic.  The horror scenes seem funny to me where the newborn army are eating people in a parking lot.  They don’t quite make it into the scary realm.  Jessica’s speech IS epic.  I loved it. It was funny and not cliché at all. I love the pacing of this movie. I noticed that a lot of the scenes from the book are combined in the movie and that a lot of lines are straight from the book. I love how Bella saves Edward’s life. The movies seem to portray her as more brave and independent than she comes across as in the books.

The Soundtrack: I love the soundtrack. The songs are awesome but they don’t feature much in the movie. The score is more prevalent. The exception to this is the song “My Love” by Sia. It’s so beautiful and romantic and it fits perfectly in the movie. I could listen to that song for hours. It’s one of the few songs on the soundtrack that reminds me of the movie.

My Family’s thoughts: I’m in Texas right now with my family and I didn’t get to watch Eclipse with my husband.  I got to watch it instead with my sister, Andrea, her husband, Scott and my mom and dad.  Hilarity ensues.

DAD-Reviewing the characters before the movie starts (he was confused about who Charlie was through New Moon).  My dad also points out that Bella has powers of her own. He has a conspiracy theory that Bella has something in her family line that links her to vampires. “I wonder why Bella’s dad likes to live there in Forks…” my dad says in a mysterious voice.

(First scene of the movie) DAD- “Oh! It’s raining!”

(We see Riley) MOM- “That looks like Matt.” (Matt is my other sister’s boyfriend)

(We rewind the movie because we can’t hear it and watch Riley walk out of the bar again) DAD-”He does have a purse!”

ANDREA-”It’s a man bag.”

(Bella and Edward talking in the meadow about “Marry me” and “Change me”) DAD- “I thought we had this discussion.”

(We see Mike Newton for the first time) DAD- “That’s the puker, right?”

(When Bella hops on the motorcycle with Jake) DAD-  ”I don’t think I’d want to be two-timing on a vampire.” He hears me typing furiously so I can transcribe what he says and then mockingly says, “Type type type type!”

(Bella hugs Jake when Edward drops him off) DAD- “Is she gonna kiss him, too? Oh my gosh!”

(Billy telling the tribe story about shape-shifters) MOM- “Transformers.”

(Jake says in the movie, “Love is feeling something for somebody.”) SCOTT- “No kidding.  That was profound.”

(We come to the love scene) DAD-”This was written by a member of the Relief Society?”

ME-”It wasn’t this detailed in the book.”

SCOTT- “Are you sure? It doesn’t take like 200 pages to go through this?” (It’s an inside joke because last night I mentioned that the hospital scene in Twilight took an entire chapter.)

(When Bella isn’t wearing her wedding ring) MOM- “She thinks the ring is ugly, too.”

(When Bella is shivering in the tent) DAD- “I think Jacob’s gonna have to sleep with her….”

(Bella says in the movie, “No Jake! Stay!”) Laughter from everyone.  We have to pause the movie while we catch our breath.

DAD-”Sit!”

ME-”Rollover!”

MOM-The Cullens just standing there before the fight cracks me up “They’re all like…”

ANDREA-”Like Frankenstein.”