BOOK REVIEW OF BREAKING DAWN BYSTEPHENIE MEYER

"Don't be confused by comparisons with Harry Potter in the media coverage of this book and make the mistake of buying it for a 10-year-old. It is about sexual desire: specifically, sex with a vampire. This has certain disadvantages. Vampires have to hold back when they make love to humans, or they hurt them; the book's consummations entail ravaged bedheads, chewed pillows and scraps of black lace. The act is not explicit, but the before and after are knowing.

The couplings unite 18-year-old Bella Swan and her bronze-haired, golden-eyed new vampire husband, Edward Cullen, 100 years old, but frozen at a supremely buff 17. Earlier volumes in this series, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, set up Bella's dilemma: now she has decided to marry Edward and be with him for ever, which means giving up her humanity to become a vampire. Also: being childless, and tempted for a while to drink the blood of old friends and family, not at first feeling sexual desire (a bad one) and, worst of all, forgoing the relationship many fans were hoping for with Edward's rival Jake, a swarthy werewolf, Heathcliff to Bella's Cathy."