Eclipse - Twilight saga - by Stephenie Meyer

New Moon - The above

"Suddenly, a spark leap of intuition in that silence and fitted all the details. Something Edward did not want me to know. Something I had not hidden Jacob. Something that had the Cullens and the werewolves anduvieran together for forests.

Something, however, had expected. Something that I knew would happen, but wish with all my might not be the case.

Do not you ever ever going to end?"

Summary

"BELLA?"

Edward's soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.

This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine—like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

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?

Development, inspirations and influences

Meyer finished the rough draft of Eclipse before the release of Twilight in October 2005; however, she said that the final manuscript did not differ much from the rough draft. Originally, the book had a different ending when Eclipse was intended to be the final book in the series, as Meyer was signed to a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company. Meyer stated that the events of Eclipse are centered on Bella's choice to become a vampire and fully comprehending the price she has to pay to undergo the transformation, which she didn't understand in Twilight and New Moon. She said that "every aspect of the novel revolves around this point, every back story, every relationship, every moment of action."
According to Meyer, the book was inspired and influenced by Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, although she does not like the book. She said that characters of the book fascinate her and she enjoys reading certain parts, but does not enjoy the book as a whole because she finds it very depressing—an opinion expressed through Edward's tongue in Eclipse. When comparing Edward and Jacob to Heathcliff and Edgar Linton of Wuthering Heights, she said, "You could look at Edward and Jacob from one perspective and say: Okay, this one is Heathcliff and this one is Edgar. And someone else might say: No, wait a second. Because of this reason and that reason, that one is Heathcliff and the other one is Edgar...I like that confusion, because that's how life is." In August 2009, The Telegraph reported that HarperCollins' Wuthering Heights edition—which has a "gothic" cover similar to the Twilight covers—has sold more than 10,000 copies since May of that year, more than twice as many as the traditional Penguin Classics edition, and topped the newspaper's classic books chart for the first time due to Meyer referencing the novel.

The Review

"Eclipse is the third novel in Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight series.  You really want to have read Twilight and New Moon (in that order) first before reading Eclipse, because the author doesn’t spend too much time expounding the story-lines of the previous novels but rather drops the reader straight in to the story.  You also want to read Twilight and New Moon because they are both excellent novels and, trust me, you are missing out if you haven’t read them.

Eclipse carries on not long after New Moon left off.  Bella’s high school graduation is approaching and she will soon be leaving Forks forever, ostensibly to go to college - but in reality she is planning to join her boyfriend in his vampire existence and will therefore be unable to return home, due to being dead and possessed by a terrible blood lust for the first few years.  Not that the reader is actually taken that far in this story, we make it through graduation but then the dangerous vampires from Seattle come to Forks and dealing with them dominates the rest of the novel. 

This is only one part of the story though.  Eclipse is primarily a romantic saga, so Bella and Edward’s relationship is the primary focus of the novel.  Or as I should say Bella, Edward and Jacob’s relationship - because there is a love triangle in the plot of this novel. 

Bella and Jacob have always been friends, at least they were - right up until Jacob became a werewolf.  Then the enmity between vampires and werewolves put a huge strain on their friendship.  Besides which, Jacob is in love with Bella, who is in love with Edward so this is going to make things awkward between them.

At this point, Eclipse descends into soap opera territory – Bella has found her soul mate in Edward but Jacob is the soul mate she should have / could have / would have had if Edward didn’t exist.  She loves him too but not as much as Edward.  Why she loves Jacob is beyond me – he knows that she loves Edward but Jacob still tries to make her feel guilty that she can’t
love him like he wants her too.  Blatant emotional blackmail is unattractive whatever way you serve it up and it detracted from his otherwise fine character.  Worse, it lead to a large proportion of this book being devoted to teenage angst and with this book being 628 pages long that a substantial amount of angst!

To be fair, Eclipse is written for the young adult market so I really shouldn’t complain about the teen angst and the drama but for me it meant that this book lacked the magical quality that made Twilight stand out from the crowd of vampire romances available in bookstores today.  Don’t misunderstand me - Eclipse is still a really good read.  The book didn’t feel like it was over 600 pages long, I literally flew through the pages and had to make a conscious effort to slow down my reading so I didn’t finish the whole book in a couple of sittings.

For teens already hooked on the series, Eclipse is another solid instalment of Forks goodness.  Adult readers may be put off by the teenage relationship angst in this novel but if you have already enjoyed the author’s previous offerings I think there is still plenty here to entertain.

It will be intriguing to see where Stephenie Meyer takes the ideas and characters in this series next.  Writing for the Young Adult market always means that there is some expectation for the author to set a good example for impressionable young minds yet criticisms that Bella’s character is too dependent and needs to set a better example for young women seem unfair.  This is romantic fantasy – enjoy it!"

*Breaking Dawn - The next and last of the series

*Twilight - The first of the series