Book #24

Eclipse
by Stephanie Meyer

I put it off long enough, so I went for Eclipse, the third Stephanie Meyer book. It's hard to believe I've read all three of these this year -- and all within the last two months! It seems like I've been reading them along with all of my other paranormal series, Butcher and Harrison and Harris. Well, at least I'll be waiting eagerly for the fourth and final book to come out this summer -- and also for the movie version of Twilight to come out, since not only is it one of those things I'll have to see out of morbid curiosity about how badly Hollywood will mangle a book I've enjoyed -- but this particular set of manglers are filming in St. Helens! At my high school! Gee willikers, I wish I could get in as an extra! Actually, I think they're just doing second-unit exteriors and environmental scenes, but it's still pretty cool that they're using my high school.

Oh, right -- the book.

This one was pretty good, though I got really annoyed with Jacob before the end of it, which was too bad. I like Jacob. But he goes after Bella, and he does it aggressively, trying to force her to admit she loves him and speaking badly of Edward (after a day spent with teenagers -- and discussing drama, even, which means something else to them than it does to me -- I wanted to write "talking crap" there) and just coming off like an arrogant tough guy. I know he is now a tough guy, but I liked his sweet sensitive side; I could relate to that Jacob. In this book I found myself relating much more to the sweet and sensitive Edward, especially when he deals with Jacob's crap so maturely, certainly more like an adult that I could be if someone was trying to make out with my sweetie. There'd be pouting like you wouldn't believe!

But it was great to see that Meyer thought of the ways that vampires would take advantage of their abilities in their wars with each other; I really liked the idea of the newborn horde. I also liked Jasper's origins, and how the Cullens handled the attack -- and I'm very glad to see the whole Bella-hunting subplot resolved. Though I'd love to know how the ultimate puzzle, the Bella-becoming-immortal-or-not storyline, will finally wrap up. I guess I can wait a few months.

Overall, these just strike me as fun, sweet books with some really nice writing and mainly good ideas.