I found 3 inconsistencies that touble me.
1. pg 93 states that Carlisle was called to Esme's death bed after her suicide attempt.
But in Twilight ch 14 and Breaking Dawn ch 10 it says Esme was brought directly to the morgue.
2. pg 191 says Eleazar was born in the 1700s same as Carmen.
But in Breaking Dawn ch 31 it says Eleazar observed a pattern within the Volturi that repeated only every other century or so. That only makes sense if he stayed with the Volturi at least 500 years or so before he met Carmen.
3. Fred's story. This is the part I have the greatest trouble to accept.
According to the guide Victoria sent Riley out to fetch random people who wouldn't be missed.
And then less than two months later he randomly finds Fred on some beach near Seattle and brings him to Victoria without even realizing that he had found one of the most potent and useful gifts in battle we have seen so far.
I mean Fred's gift is like a combination of Alec's and Renata's with a lasting affect like Chelsea's. He can make himself and his allies invisible and thus immune to most gifts and physical attacks. And in battle he can confuse and even incapacitate every nearby enemy quickly at the same time, making them run with their unprotected backs turned to their enemies.
Fred's story doesn't make much sense to me for 5 simple reasons.
a) The chances of Victoria finding such a useful gift this way are simply astronomical, like winning the lottery exactly when she needs it. I find that much luck hard to believe.
I mean Maria has been doing the same thing much more selectively for over a century, and the only useful gift she ever found was Jasper. And that was already extremely lucky, given her success. And Fred's gift is much more useful in battle than Jasper's. The Volturi have been searching for such gifts for over 3000 years, with many others copying them (like Amun, Siobhan and Victoria, while she was travelling with James). And then Aro used Chelsea to steal everyone's findings. He uses the memories of the constant stream of visitors, convicts and a wide net of willing informers, to overlook the entire planet. And he also used the powerful gifts of Eleazar and Demetri to regularly comb the planet for such gifts. And even after all that he was only able to collect about a handful of gifts as powerful in battle as Fred's.
That kinda puts Victoria's luck in perspective, doesn't it?
b) Why would Victoria waste her lottery win like this, by sending him to the basement with the other Newborns?
She was risking him getting destroyed by accident or worse alienating and turning him against her or even join the Cullens.
If she was an expert manipulator and desperate for protection, why didn't she just replace Riley for Fred as her bodyguard, especially with the Cullens and Volturi hunting her? Why didn't she use Fred to kill Edward, when he came hunting for her 2 months later? Why didn't she just kill Riley and the other Newborns and started over with Fred? Fred was changed 10 months before the attack, long before the army started making the news. Fred would have been much more effective in controlling the Newborns. Even if she couldn't seduce Fred like with Riley, because of his gift and suspicion, she still should have been abel to manipulate him, to become an effective weapon and guard. I mean he still believed the lie about the sun and was dependent enough to stay with that violent crowd, thinking the outside world might be worse. At the very least she should have seperated him from the others, and given him the best treatment possible. He should have been able to feed constantly to his hearts content and given some secrets that none of the other Newborns knew, making him feel included and liked. No nerd could resist that much affection.
I can only think of two things, that could have forced Victoria to waste Fred like that.
Maybe she received a very concentrated dose of Fred's gift during the tranformation bite, making it impossible to be near him or even think much about him, without going into convulsions, which would only fade after decades.
Or perhaps she was terrified of Fred's gift, thinking he could easily destroy her in a moment of wild Newborn madness, unlike Riley and the other Newborns.
And Riley wouldn't be any use in controlling Fred either, because of his initial blunder. (like with Siobhan and Sancar)
So she simply had no choice to send Fred to that basement and keep her distance, hoping the others would be able to bring him along. Perhaps she was hoping he would follow Raoul? And that's why she had to go through that elaborate hoax with Bree in her desperate attempt to control Fred.
c) SM said she needed Fred's gift to explain Bree's survival in that basement. But that's not true.
I mean it's not that unlikely for the Cullens to find at least one of the Newborns to be a weakling who doesn't want to fight. It was only Carlisle's compassion, that made this situation so unique. Bree could have been just one of the lucky ones.
It's the reckless and boastful guys who can't control themself, who are the first to die in that basement.
Bree on the other hand looked very harmless and was very careful to stay out of trouble.
Raoul might have found it amusing to use her as a punching bag or servant to bring him food, but he wouldn't have felt the immediate need to destroy her, not with so many others around to aggravate him. Bree could have simply survived by luck, just like the others, just as Charlotte survived Maria's army.
d) From Eleazar we know, that very potent gifts like Fred's have a noticable, though nebulous, human incarnation. (like with Bella, Edward's mother, Alice, Jasper, Jane, Alec, Benjamin, Maggie,...)
Riley should have felt very uncomfortable carrying Fred to Victoria. He should have worried about Victoria's reaction for bringing her such a repulsing prey. He must have been very determined to collect Fred, as if Victoria knew about his gift and sent Riley to find him. Supernatural gifts must come from genetic quirks like the Quileute's, which is why they often manifest similarly among family members. An intense human focus can only shape a preexisting gift in a certain direction. It can't create a potent gift out of nothing, from some average human trait like being an awkward nerd who doesn't like company.
e) SM and the guide call Fred's gift physical, affecting the body directly, just like Jasper. But that doesn't make sense. Because a physical gift like Jasper's can't distinguish what someone is thinking or where he is looking at. We have seen this in Twilight ch 20 and Breaking Dawn ch 23 when Jasper felt Bella's anxiety (in human and vampire form) without knowing what's behind it. The fact that Fred's gift can distinguish when someone is thinking about him, shows it must have some access to the mind. Also the vampire body is too resilient and quickly regenerating, to allow any permanent manipulation. The fact that Fred's manipulation of Riley lasted for over 20 minutes, shows that his gift must be mental like Chelsea's, affecting the body indirectly through the mind, like Renata making a vampire body move in a different direction. His gift must work like a psychological phobia, like the fear of spiders and heights. It's like when the vampire sees, smells or tastes human blood, causing a strong instinctive reaction in the entire body, without the vampire's conscious will. These complex reactions are also controlled by the subconscious mind, and don't come directly from the nose.
Bottom line Bella should be immune to Fred's gift, just like anyone she shields.
And Fred's gift might carry through the pack mind just like Bella's shield, making all the wolves invisible and incapacitating at close range. What could the Volturi possibly have to defend against that?!
Ok, so much for my irritation.
I do have an alternative story for Fred in mind, that could explain Victoria's luck, as well as why Fred was so suspicous and well-adjusted and managed to master his gift so quickly in that chaotic situation. But I guess the guide kinda smashed that.