So, Eclipse. At first, I wasn't too keen on this one, as it does the exact same annoying thing as Harry Potter; Meyer, like JK Rowling, uses the same set-up over and over again. By book 3, it's a little old. The preface hints at some impending doom that Bella has no control over, but then the book starts and everything is great, there's trial in the middle until bam, some larger menace arrives and the vampires prepare for a fight. That's basically what's happened in every one, with varying specifics. Still, there's something captivating about this overarching story which probably explains why I'm already 50 pages into Breaking Dawn. (The book jacket says it's the final book in the Twilight saga. But what about Midnight Sun? I'm confused.)I also felt - and Meyer's website hints to this, though I can't find where I read that now - that Eclipse was written a little too quickly. Or maybe just not as freely; of course, Eclipse is the first Twilight book that Meyer wrote, knowing that the series' popularity, and I would imagine she felt some pressure. I saw it mostly in little mistakes, like at finals time. On page 316, Bella talks about how she's nervous for the first day of finals because she has her two hardest tests, Calculus and History; but then just a few pages later, and the same day, she says that she's relieved that finals were finished. There was also a 5-ish page section around 555 where Edward calls Bella "love" in about every other sentence. I also was able - and I don't know if this was intentional on Meyer's part - to guess everything major turn of event before it happened, and in some cases, like a hundred pages before.
So anyway, in Eclipse, Bella essentially has to choose between Edward and Jacob. I was a little surprised by the turn this took, as I never really thought that Bella saw Jacob as anything more than a brother - or a crutch. I never really thought that she was in love with him, and I'm still not totally convinced. Was Bella ever really convinced? Supposedly she's made her final choice, but I have a feeling that Jacob is going to reappear in Breaking Dawn, though I'm not exactly sure how that could play out. It will also be interesting to see where the story goes - Meyer has started to tackle some of the uncomfortable questions behind Bella's potential transformation, and I'm totally wondering how she's going to resolve it so that Bella stays herself while also staying forever with Edward.
Anyway, on a final note, Meyer earns props for including both Robert Frost and Wuthering Heights in this installment. She opens the book with "Fire and Ice," one of my favorite Frost poems. And occasionally, Bella and Edward argue over her beloved Wuthering Heights. But as you know from a past entry, I'm not a fan of that classic; Edward is of the same mind. "The characters are ghastly people who ruin each others' lives." Here, here!
And lastly, my favorite quote from Eclipse: "Then he [Edward] turned back to Jacob. 'But if you ever bring her back damaged again - and I don't care whose fault it is; I don't care if she merely trips, or if a meteor falls out of the sky and hits her in the head - if you return her to me in less than the perfect condition that I left her in, you will be running with three legs.'"
Next up? Haha, it's Breaking Dawn. And then I'll have to run through 4 more books to reach the 30. Not sure what they'll be yet. Woohoo, the goal is within reach!
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