Thanks for posting this, it was fun to read. I loved the comments you sprinkled throughout. I definitely agree with your central premise. That Bella faces so few consequences for her decisions ultimately makes the book boring, because there’s this bland space at its center. And I definitely agree: your take on it would have made for a much more interesting story.

Slightly OT, but I agree, regarding the tension that comes from uncertainty over whether the main characters will survive. In an interview once Steven King said that he killed one of his main characters just so that people would never be able to take any character’s survival for granted ever again.