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Book Review of Eclipse (Twilight, Bk 3)

Eclipse (Twilight, Bk 3)
Tesstarosa avatar reviewed on + 151 more book reviews


After three not-so-good books in a row, Ive gone back to reading the Twilight series. Well, that, and I borrowed this book from a friends daughter and Id like to get it back to her quickly. She obviously likes the book and has read it often the spine is broken in at least two places and there are several torn pages. (Or should I say, she likes the story she doesnt seem to care as much about the book itself.)

The third installment of the Twilight series and its Bella and Edwards senior year of high school. Most teens are excited about their senior year and happily applying for admission to college, but not our little Bella. No, shes enduring being grounded (for her little romp to Italy) and being forced to apply for many colleges -- besides the one in Alaska that she believes she and Edward should attend. Edward even gets her to apply to Ivy League schools like Dartmouth.

This sounds like a great idea to someone who doesnt know the story, but its not. Bella doesnt want to go to college no she still wants to be killed and made a vampire. Bellas only reason for going to college is so she can be away from her family for the transformation from human to vampire. Since this transition that will take some time, Bella really has no intention of actually attending college. Strangely, this makes Bellas point that attending the less expensive college in Alaska is the better choice. Of course, Edward wont do allow the transformation unless she marries him.

Plus, theres Jacob Black the werewolf that is in love with her. Of course, Bella, umph, loves Jacob, too. But Jacob being a werewolf is the mortal enemy of Edward because hes a vampire. Edward doesnt want Bella to spend any time with Jacob which annoys Bella and becomes an issue when one of the conditions for the ending of her grounding by her father is that she spend more time with other people, such as Jacob. And, of course, Jacob is going to fight to get Bella to pick him. (Why he wants the whiney twit is just beyond me.)

Then there is the serial killer, or is it killers, that are loose in Seattle. Eventually we learn that the killings are being committed by newborn vampires who are out of control and being led by Victoria who still wants to avenge the death of James by killing Bella.

This bring the Cullen vampire family to amend their pact with the Quileute werewolves and join forces to battle the newborn vampires and Victoria when they come to Forks to kill Bella.

This is the basic storyline its not a bad story, really. But by now, we know how beautiful Edward and all the other Cullens are and if we missed it one of the other 5,436 times that Ms Meyers told us in the previous books, she makes sure that we get at least 2,356 more mentions of their beauty. (I wonder what the binding on Ms Meyers looks like? Is it broken in multiple places or just by beautiful?)

The real disappointment is that the authors writing has shown absolutely no signs of improving. The story drags through an inordinate amount of dialog involve Bellas angst over her love for Jacob vs her love for Edward. And her angst over becoming a vampire. And her aversion to marrying Edward. And her desire to not attend any college except that one in Alaska. All this just delays getting to the battle at the end of the story. A good chunk of rain forest could have been saved if this book were 100-pages shorter, which it could easily have been with some decent editing.

The good news theres only one book left.