Advance Booking

TOTALLY ECLIPSED

I wasn’t really prepared for the surprise this book gave me. Not in terms of plot or anything, but the fact that it was readable, sometimes bordering on enjoyable. I fully expected to lambast this instalment in the Twilight series, but as it turns out, there are a few redeemable things about it.

After all the ups and downs in Bella’s life through Twilight and New Moon, she is finally with her vampire boyfriend Edward, though her werewolf best friend Jacob vehemently opposes it. Bella is waiting to graduate so that she can become a vampire, but some events throw that plan out of the window. There have been a chain of killings in nearby Seattle, a stranger has been lurking about in her room, and her mortal enemy Victoria is on the prowl. So, as you see, Bella’s life is about to be thrown out of gear again.

Eclipse is very dialogue heavy, especially the first half of it. Bella and Edward arguing about her decision to become a vampire, Bella and Jacob fighting over her choice of boyfriend, all this makes for pages of conversation, which becomes tedious. But then Meyer redeems the book by introducing some suspense, some action. The storyline of newborn vampires wreaking havoc tied in with Victoria’s thirst for revenge was pretty neat. But what I liked best were the back stories of all the characters: how Rosalie and Jasper became vampires, how the werewolves of the Quileute tribe came into being; they made for quite interesting reading. Of course, in terms of the main characters, there is nothing path-breaking. Edward is caring but over-possessive, Jacob is pushy and overbearing. Bella is as selfish as ever: she is willing to sacrifice Edward’s family so that she and Edward can be together, she continuously whines even when everything goes perfectly for her, she toys with Jacob. Honestly, I’m quite tired of her, and I can’t, for the life of me, think of one single reason for everybody to be so concerned to keep her alive. One of the comments on my previous review said that this was a book about love and loss and romantic feelings that girls experience; I still find hardly anything like that. I guess it’s how you look at it, Bella’s voice sounds whiny and selfish to me, it may be a symbol of undying love to someone else. My verdict: if you have read the two previous books and are wondering whether to continue, I would say Yes, this book merits one read.

Have you read the Twilight saga? Do you think it merits the attention it has got?