I've always kind of suspected (but hoped otherwise) that all the Twilight books were pure self-indulgence on Stephenie Meyer's part, and Breaking Dawn proved it. Everything CAN'T work out that perfectly, especially when it requires so many random, convenient plot twists to get to "perfection." She totally wrote off anything detrimental about the vampiric lifestyle: the newborn raging (oh, Bella isn't affected), living forever and not getting bored out of your mind (Edward's here, she can just stare at him forever), never having children and regretting it a la Rosalie (just have a kid before you turn into a vampire; also, Rosalie's position is only explored once and then totally pacified by Bella's child), etc. I found her entire insistence on becoming a vampire to be selfish and immature--I think you have a point that maybe she rejects Jacob because he basically calls her out on it, and she can't grow up.
I'm not saying that I walked around like a zombie for months at a time, but the feeling of it--that things are happening around you, but you can't muster the energy to join them--was very similar. It's like one emotional thing so fried your emotional sensors that it takes a while to get feeling back in them. I just thought the whole plot device with the blank pages was well done. Did Bella overreact to a high school love interest leaving because he's a self-centered ass? Oh, sure, totally. I also just plain don't believe that she didn't read ANYTHING or listen to ANYTHING in four months. That would just be ridiculous, and her father would have done something about it if she really behaved the way Meyer wants us to think she did. But, the basic description of the type of depression (aside from the ridiculous overreacting) resounded with me.
Oh, yes, I completely agree that Bella's lack of anger is unbelievable. Well, first, I don't get how she can HONESTLY BELIEVE the words that come out of his mouth when he leaves. They're so at odds with everything else she knows that she should be like, "WTF?" But she already has this insane inferiority complex, so instead she accepts his leaving as the natural outcome of their relationship. And then, second, when he tells her the rather obvious truth, she doesn't even get angry at all? He lied to her, and should have know it would make her upset, and he was presumptuous enough to do it "for her own good?" Really? That's when I was finally done with Bella. I took her total lack of self-esteem with a grain of salt through Twilight and most of New Moon, but when she didn't get furious at Edward for making decisions about her life that hurt her, that was my limit.
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I'm not saying that I walked around like a zombie for months at a time, but the feeling of it--that things are happening around you, but you can't muster the energy to join them--was very similar. It's like one emotional thing so fried your emotional sensors that it takes a while to get feeling back in them. I just thought the whole plot device with the blank pages was well done. Did Bella overreact to a high school love interest leaving because he's a self-centered ass? Oh, sure, totally. I also just plain don't believe that she didn't read ANYTHING or listen to ANYTHING in four months. That would just be ridiculous, and her father would have done something about it if she really behaved the way Meyer wants us to think she did. But, the basic description of the type of depression (aside from the ridiculous overreacting) resounded with me.
Oh, yes, I completely agree that Bella's lack of anger is unbelievable. Well, first, I don't get how she can HONESTLY BELIEVE the words that come out of his mouth when he leaves. They're so at odds with everything else she knows that she should be like, "WTF?" But she already has this insane inferiority complex, so instead she accepts his leaving as the natural outcome of their relationship. And then, second, when he tells her the rather obvious truth, she doesn't even get angry at all? He lied to her, and should have know it would make her upset, and he was presumptuous enough to do it "for her own good?" Really? That's when I was finally done with Bella. I took her total lack of self-esteem with a grain of salt through Twilight and most of New Moon, but when she didn't get furious at Edward for making decisions about her life that hurt her, that was my limit.