Book Review: Eclipse

Book: Eclipse (Twilight book #3) by Stephenie Meyer

Edition: Paperback

Description:

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob - knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

It's Bella Swan's senior year of high school but instead of worrying about the next phase of her life (such as attending college, etc.) the only thing on her mind was becoming a vampire and having an eternal life with Edward Cullen and his family (Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie).

Something that's always bothered me about Bella was that the minute she found out what Edward and his family were, she was determined to become a vampire. I've read a lot of books but Bella is one of the first characters that I have seen that was so extremely eager to become a supernatural creature. It was as if she had only two obsessions: Edward and becoming a vampire. And throughout the first three books, it has not changed. Which is why it was interesting to see her reaction when it finally dawned on her that her human life was truly nearing an end. It caught her by surprise but even with that somber realization she wasn't going to change her mind.

But there were a few things that were putting a slight halt to the happiness of her impending plan. The first was Edward's stipulation which included them getting married before her transformation. The second was her friend Jacob Black, a werewolf whose affections have grown way past friendship and the last was Victoria, a vampire who was still continuing her revenge (from the second book) against Edward by targeting Bella.

However, unlike the previous attempt, Victoria's plan was a lot more thought out to the point that not even Alice was able to see it with her visions. But once they started to piece together her plan, the situation was worst than they could have imagined. There was no way that the Cullens stood a chance against a horde of newly created (i.e. extremely strong) vampires that were headed to Forks. Only an alliance with the werewolves (something that has never been done before) will give them a fighting chance.

Because this story is told from Bella's point of view, the big fight scenes between the werewolves and the Cullens versus the other vampires were revealed in other ways. But the author didn't leave the reader completely out of the loop because Bella might not have been near the other fight but she was front and center at the most important one with Victoria.

This story had Edward starting off as extremely possessive and controlling towards Bella while Jacob wasn't any better because he had become extremely intrusive and too forward with his feelings for her. They both did things that were unbelievably controlling and didn't seem to know when to back off. However, Bella had a little hand in continuing to stir things up, because she was sending out mix signals whether she meant to or not. Which only made the revelation about her feelings for Jacob (which probably would have been more helpful had it happened earlier in the story) to bring about even more drama. Bella was torn because of her feelings for both but ultimately Edward is who she loves. Jacob finally understood even if it was begrudgingly.

As for Edward's one condition of them getting married, to Bella it felt like a ridiculous small town cliché of someone getting married right after graduating from high school. But somewhere along the way, she stopped fighting the thought of marriage. It no longer felt like a cliché as she saw her new future awaiting her and could not wait to start living it. Plus, she did not have to worry about any of the wedding planning since Alice was taking care of everything.

Despite there being things that made me mad about this story such as Edward and Jacob's behaviors towards Bella, the writing has a way of capturing your attention. I was completely engrossed the entire time I was reading it. But as much as I enjoyed this, I did have a problem with the word retarded being used (albeit one time). I really have an issue with how that word is still so casually used when another word could have been used.

It was interesting to finally find out more about Rosalie through her backstory which was rather bittersweet and tragic. But it makes you understand why she has been so hostile towards Bella and disapproved of Bella's decision to become a vampire. But I was disappointed after finding out through Jasper's backstory that he had once been a confederate soldier. It makes me wonder why the author would have written that for him. Especially since there were southerners who had opposed slavery and was willing to help the North, it would have been nice if that had been a part of his backstory. Even with this new information, I still find him to be an interesting character but I would like to believe that over the years he no longer believed in those things he had fought to uphold.

So, that now leaves me with one last book in this series which I'm really looking forward to reading because I want to know how this will end.