Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)
Book Review: These Books Keep Getting Progressively Worse
Summary: 2 Stars
This is the perfect example of a book (and a series, come to think of it) that had a lot of potential, but squandered most of it by its poorly developed, flat characters.
Some of plotlines are indeed intersting, and Meyer's writing shines in a few areas. But after three books and 1500 pages, I would like to see REAL characters who, like human beings, grow and learn and develop. This just does not happen for Meyer's creations, and as a result, I am sick of them. Edward and Bella are eternally locked in their own bizarre insecurities. Neither one seems to understand how they can be lovable and they spend the majority of their romance (normally a HAPPY thing) wallowing in self-doubt, angst, and insecurity. That's always healthy.
And then there's Jacob, who I do believe is Meyer's most realistically rounded and developed character. She totally ruins him in this book with the sexual assault ploy. It's almost like Meyer herself was starting to fall in love with Jacob after reading New Moon, so she had to make him do something awful to break his hold on her--and Bella.
Edward, who I actually liked and found interesting in the first book, has become totally and completely boring by this, the third novel. His angst, his beauty, his "I will do anything to save Bella" is all too predictable. His nobility and virtue are way over the top. He is not a realistic character at all, and I cannot relate to him. The only time I remotely liked him in the book was when he admitted to Jacob that he was jealous. It was the only time he wasn't a stone-cold emotionless rock who takes himself WAY too seriously.
In theory, the fire and ice concept, and using Jacob and Edward as foils, works from a literary standpoint. The right elements were there, but the characters lacked the DEPTH necessary to make it believable. Instead of the characters making decisions and maturing and moving on, they remain locked in their same little world full of witty dialogue, indecision, and utlimately, no resolution. By the end of book three, Bella is emotionally in the EXACT same place she was at the end of book two. She loves two different people, she hates herself, and she can't let go of either one. It feels like a soap opera.
As for Bella, I think she is a completely morose, pessimistic, selfish girl. She hates everything that normal people enjoy: parties, presents, marriage, college, diamonds, money...she whines about it all. She only loves Edward and Jacob and she makes all of her decisions like a child. It's all centered around her and anytime someone she cares about is hurt, it's somehow HER fault, because she is the center of the universe. It's NOT noble and it's not her being compassionate. It's her inability to make adult decisions and realize that--GASP--sometimes you HAVE to hurt people by making the right decision. It's called being a grown up. She just plain refuses to grow up.
Personally, I would have been more satisfied with this book if Bella had genuinely sucked it up at the end and realized that you can't string people along forever. She DOES kind of have this realization, but then she is unable to follow through with it and we end up back at square one. Jacob's character ends ups being the one who "grows up" and makes the decision to be happy with being just friends. That's convenient. And TOTALLY unrealistic.
In real life, a guy who loves you as 'more than friends' isn't going to just wait-in-wings for you FOREVER. I know it's supposed to be sweet that Jacob tells her he will 'be good' in the end and then Edward sends him a wedding invitation like they can all be one happy family. That's NOT the way it works in real life. It would have been more satisfying if the ending was messy and painful, because that's the way it really is in these types of situations. Meyer takes the easy way out, and I think it cheats us as readers.
Book Review: Solar v. Lunar Eclipse
Summary: 5 Stars
The third installment in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3), does not disappoint with even more action and drama than the last two over an even greater length of pages--629 in the volume I picked up at Borders. I tried to slow down and take in the entire book, but found the pages flying by as I grew more eager to discover what choice Bella would ultimately make between her werewolf and her vampire.
***Spoiler Alert****
Vampire clans in Italy are an imminent threat to Bella and Edward if she is not changed, while other vampires closer to home are on a rampage on their way to kill her for revenge. Meanwhile, Bella's love for Edward continues to be the center of her night sky. I think what irked me about this book is how dense Bella seemed. It wasn't until page 327 that she realized Jacob was in love with her. Could she possibly be that obtuse? She had glimmers of intelligence throughout the book when it came to deducing which vampire clan was after her and which were not, but she had no idea that her "friend" loved her. Granted she is a teenage character, and she may not be that perceptive, but I would have given Bella more credit than that.
One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Jacob takes it upon himself to kiss Bella to prove that she feels the same way, and she hits him in the jaw, only to have her own hand broken in several places. The teenage unpredictability is endearing in her because she is so emotional and where's her heart on her sleeve. Despite her inability to control her emotional outbursts with regard to Jacob's advances and Edward's caution, she is still unaware of her own feelings for Jacob for about another 200 pages. This bit of ignorance on her part, however, is believable because they are teenagers and many times I remember confusing friendship for something more or pretending that there wasn't more in favor of mere friendship.
The choice is inevitable for Bella in the end, but I still wonder if there is not more to her choice. Perhaps she does not need to choose the path Alice sees for her. Perhaps there are alternatives despite her love for both men in her life. I can tell you if I were caught in between I would have a tough time choosing, though I think I would have walked away from both of them at some point to clear my head and figure out the best choice for myself rather than plunge into a decision head first, blindly. However, that is probably why these characters are teenages, minus the few hundred years Edward has spent as a 17-year-old vampire.
***End Spoiler Alert****
Despite my passion about Edward Cullen, Bella Swan, and Jacob Black, my favorite character is Edward's sister, Alice. She is such a giddy schoolgirl when it comes to human events and coming of age incidents. Bella always reprimands her for going overboard about proms, dances, graduation, and birthdays, among other parties. She wants a sister she can dress up and "play" with it seems, and she has found that with Bella. What I enjoy most about this character is the interplay she has with her brother, Edward. She sees the future to a certain extent and he can read minds, it makes for an interesting dynamic. Who will win their little tet-e-tets? It's a fun bunch of dialogue, and the dialogue between Edward and Jacob in the latter portion of the book is equally amusing.
As for the Solar and Lunar Eclipse title of this post, it alludes to the eclipse of Bella, her true self by both sides of the coin, the moon (Edward) and the sun (Jacob). I feel as though she has lost herself in the midst of this struggle between her two loves and herself.
I had a great time reading these books and can't wait for the next installment, tentatively titled Breaking Dawn. It is expected to come out in Fall 2008.
Book Review: I hope this is just a temporary setback for the series...
Summary: 2 Stars
*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. If you haven't finished the book, don't read this.*
Where to begin? First of all, let me start by saying that I have read "Twilight" and "New Moon" and enjoyed them quite a bit. I was looking forward to "Eclipse". But I'm disappointed.
This is the third book in the series, a couple of years have passed, and yet Bella hasn't changed very much. She's still the helpless damsel in distress who needs to be saved from herself as much as from a group of bloodthirsty newborn vampires. She's also quite possibly the most selfish heroine I've come across lately. Sure, she worries about the feelings of the two "men" in her life. But that's about all she worries about. In this book, we have a group of 20 or so vampires created to track Bella down, and then they all end up being slaughtered. Vampires don't appear out of thin air, do they? Weren't they once people with families, lives, and loves of their own? Bella doesn't seem to care. It appears that, once a person is a vampire, they're evil and expendable. I hope Bella remembers that when her time comes. (Perhaps if Victoria had "recruited" one of Bella's high school friends for her army of the undead, Bella might've been a little less indifferent.)
I was also extremely put off by Jacob Black in this book. I can't figure out why Bella should have any feelings at all for this sexually harassing moron. I guess he's never heard that no means no. Even more distressing is Bella's father's reaction to Jacob's kiss. Never mind, for a moment, the fact that he doesn't seem to mind that his daughter was kissed (almost violently) against her will. He's supposed to be the sheriff, for goodness sake! Are we honestly supposed to believe that he finds this kind of behaviour acceptable?
And then there was the whole "virtue" angle. Come on. Edward just tore apart a vampire (who was once a human being, let's not forget), and Bella's more concerned about his soul from the standpoint of pre-marital sex?
I suppose I've missed something somewhere along the way. Why does Bella want to be a vampire again? She assumes she's going to go around killing people in her bloodlust... and yet she's worried about Edward's soul rather than her own? Something seems amiss, and I can't quite figure out what it is. Maybe the author has too many threads going on that are starting to get tangled...
My main complaint, though, was the lack of... well, anything interesting. Okay, so we've established that werewolves heal very quickly. We've established that vampires are pretty much indestructible (unless you rip off body parts and burn them in a bonfire). And this book is filled with Jacob and Edward's reassurances that they will let nothing happen to Bella. So where's the suspense? I think one of the reasons I liked "Twilight" as much as I did was that scene at the end where Bella nearly bit the dust and Edward had to save her life. But I didn't really feel that she was in any real danger in "Eclipse". She was never really allowed to do anything stupid to put her life in danger; she was watched like a hawk. When the Volturi showed up, I thought that maybe things would get interesting: more mind-torture for Edward, perhaps. But, no. They might as well have shown up just to say hello. Boring.
Of course, now that I've read all three of these books, I'll have to read the fourth (and hopefully last). However, if the fourth turns out not to be the last one, I'm probably going to abandon the whole series. This book had little enough plot as it was. I don't like reading things that just seem like placeholders.
There were also some spelling/grammar errors (though not as many as in some other books I've read lately). Please, editors... make sure you proofread carefully. It drives us grammar freaks nuts to find such obvious mistakes.
Book Review: Wonderful! SPOILER ALERT!
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, I only started reading the Twilight series AFTER I'd seen the movie, then I actually read Stephanie Meyer's Midnight Sun on her website before entering into the series. Perhaps it's because I came at this from a different order, but I feel that reading Edward's perspective of the love story between Bella and himself put some of the missing puzzles together. To be quite honest, I enjoyed reading from Edward's perspective much more than Bella's and I sincerely hope that she will finish Midnight Sun someday. But back to the critique...
I think Stephanie Meyer did a fantastic job capturing the internal struggles that Bella faced with the decision of choosing Edward vs. Jacob. Although she loved Jacob, he would never fulfill her heart the way that Edward would. He was her soulmate, her reason for existence, she could not live without him. And although she loved Jacob and could envision the life (the normal life) that she might have had with Jacob, if she had chosen him, she would always been left wanting for more. Although she was heartbroken and in pain after she'd told Jacob her final decision, that pain was miles away in comparison to the months and months of torment that Edward's disappearance had done to her. She would be sad, hurt, but that type of pain that leaving Jacob would cause her is not the type that would leave her in a lifeless state. She understood herself and that is why she KNEW that being without Edward was unbearable, but being without Jacob would be hard, but she could endure. It's like when the first love ended, even though you find love again and could be happy, that first love will always hold a special place for you. For Bella, Edward was her first and one true love. The one that she knew she could not live without. It was a pure, innocent love that only a first love could be. With Jacob, her love was more of an "adult love." Not as fervent, not as crazed, it was a practical and realistic love, but it wasn't the life or death type of love she shared with Edward. It could be something that eventually made her happy, but it would be a type of happiness that would leave yearnings.
I'd read many reviews before I borrowed this book to read. I found that many readers found the way that Edward seemed to have lost his "cockiness, arrogance, and edge" to be repulsive and was one of the many critiques that were thrown at Meyer's writing skill. I believe if the readers got a chance to read Midnight Sun and understand Edward's perspective (even though that work is far from complete and certainly doesn't even cover contents of Twilight entirely), it would make much more sense as to why Edward would act the way he does, putting up with everything that Bella would throw at him and allowing her find out how she felt about Jacob. Edward never felt he could deserve her, even from the very beginning when he realized he loved her. Just as she never felt good enough for him, he never felt good enough for her. I do not agree that Meyer seemed to be pitting Bella's 2 loves against each other in this battle of who loves Bella more. Both men are willing to do step back and accept whomever she chooses, in that way they are both honorable. But I did not feel that Bella was going back and forth trying to figure out who loved her more, she knew they both loved her unselfishly, to the extent that she did not deserve, but it was only at the end that Bella realized she did love Jacob as well, but not in the way that she would always love Edward. She had closed herself off to that possibility because Jacob represented everything that she would give up when she decided to join Edward and if she allowed herself to understand that, she could feel hesitant in her decision. Since she cannot live without Edward, the love of her entire existence, giving up Jacob was something that she knew she could and had to live with.
Book Review: A weak book. Very little plot
Summary: 1 Stars
I read the first two books of the "Twilight" series because they were campy romance. I expcected more of the same for "Eclipse" and was sorely disappointed.
The plot, if you can call it that, is a continuation of the events in "New Moon." Evil vampire Victoria is still after Bella. In addition to that, Bella has to deal with high school graduation, her impending decision to become a vampire, and choosing between her werewolf pal Jacob and her vampire boyfriend Edward. Through it all, the characters argue, declare undying love and have long conversations with no real plot exposition or meaning.
With the exception of the last few pages, the book is narrated entirely from Bella's viewpoint, which is the least exciting viewpoint possible. Bella mopes and broods a lot. She complains about everything. In the first two books, she showed no excitement for junior prom or her birthday. Here, she continues the theme by acting with absolute indifference to a graduation party and her own wedding. I think Bella's attitude problem is supposed to make her a quirky, interesting character. Which would make sense if Bella were quirky or interesting. In "New Moon," she at least learned a little bit about motorcycles. Here, her only hobby seems to be reading the same battered copy of "Wuthering Heights" and drawing comparisons to her own life.
In the previous books, Bella managed to find some shred of backbone. Here, she allows herself to be treated like an infant. I've lost count of the number of times a male character has physically picked her up and carried her. Eventually, I wondered why I was bothering to read about a character who couldn't walk on her own power.
Edward doesn't help Bella's independence. He's presented as a caring boyfriend, but he comes off as controlling and abusive. I shudder to think that young readers romanticize this character.
To her credit, Meyer tries to offer some backstory on the Cullens, Edward's "family" of non-people-eating vampires here. We finally learn Rosalie's tragic history and Jasper's. But, rather than staying with these interesting characters, we always switch back to Bella's point of view, which is banal. After Rosalie shares the chilling story of her murder and death, Bella offers no insight other than jealousy of Rosalie's perfect blond looks.
Of course, Bella and Edward are still declaring their love for each other on a constant basis. When Jacob Black shows up as a rival for Edward, it's hard to take him seriously. It's been clear from the first book that this is Bella and Edward's story. So, the love triangle subplot seems pointless and superfluous.
The abstinence subtext becomes text in "Eclipse" when Edward buys a bed and refuses to share it with Bella until they're married. I don't know if Meyer is trying to turn that into a message for the young teens reading this novel. If she is, it's a misdirected message. Bella is way too young to get married and Edward is much too immature. I cringed when he proposed and rolled my eyes as they were making wedding plans.
I could have forgiven all of this if the climactic battle scene between the werewolves and vampires had shown any hint of suspense or action. This was the perfect time in the book for Meyer to pull out all the stops and treat us to a supernatural showdown. Instead, the reader is trapped on a hilltop watching Bella vacilate between Edward and Jacob, while the battle rages below.
The first two books were over-the-top, but I couldn't wait until this one was over and done with. I'll probably stick around for Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) just to see how this all turns out. But I have the feeling that I'll be relieved when its over.