Rating: 
(985 reviews)
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Alfaguara
Product Description
Readers captivated by Twilight and New Moon will eagerly devour Eclipse, the much anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer’s riveting vampire love saga. 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?
5 Comments
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Eclipse Special Edition (The Twilight Saga)Eclipse lives up to all of my expectations and then some!
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I haven’t written a review in a long time. In fact, it’s been so long that I had to use my husband’s account. I’m almost 40, married, and an avid reader - reading upwards to 100 novels a year. This year was rather disappointing and I found very little to cheer about. Weaving through suspense, mystery, chick lit, english literature, romance, real crime, etc., it was plain sad to see that there were just too few novels which intrigued me. Many of my book friends recommended this series by S. Meyer. Of course, I was very skeptical because I have read Anne Rice, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and even a J. R. Ward. However, none of them every came close to drawing me in as much as Stephanie Meyer has. For someone who absolutely does not like anything paranormal, especially anything about vampires and werewolves, the Twilight Saga, is something that I have grown to like deeply. You cannot help but want, need to find out what happens. I seriously cannot explain my own fascination.n
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I must admit that I haven’t finished all the books but none of them have disappointed me in the least though they are far from perfect stories because the characters are not perfect people. So much has been written about why people love it. It’s obvious that they are interesting, fascinating, intriguing, suspenseful. The writing style makes you devour each sentence. You want to finish these stories in one sitting and you want to read the next book before you even finish the one you are currently reading. It’s so interesting. You cannot help but be drawn in, it’s like an addiction.n
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I would like to point out some of the things that might be annoying and irritating. There is of course, the heroine, Isabella, who is at times so ungrateful, stupid, baffling, inconsiderate, insufferable that you want to “smack” her. She is her own worse enemy and far more dangerous than the vampires or the werewolves depicted in these stories. With the return of Edward at the end of book two, I thought that she had put his departure behind her. I thought she could work through her inner struggles and learn to accept her impending changes as well as the concept of matrimony. Instead in this 3rd installment, we see poor judgment and a girl gone wild in her actions. She is far too fickle and her moods are irritating. Clinging at times, overly impulsive, then irrationally insecure, overly moody. She’s written rather inconsistenly. Obviously she is not as mature as I had hoped. This part does bother me because I thought she had this aura of maturity and wisdom in book one which for some reason has vaporized. What happened to the girl who could take care of her family, be the strength for her mother, and who wasn’t afraid, etc. ??? There was some intelligence behind her insecure facade in the beginning. It is her insecurities and roller coaster emotions that drive me crazy yet I see that this is what the writer wants us to feel. n
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As the books have progressed, I am not sure if I like Bella anymore. Where in the beginning you like her feisty, brave, determined quality. I find that she is ever more “whiny” especially where it concerns accepting gifts and help, living real teenage human experiences and being treated like a teenager from her parents, i.e. Alice - throwing her a party, Edward - giving her a ring, The Cullens - giving her presents, Charlie- showing fatherly concern, etc, etc, etc. Enough already, Ms. Meyer, we get it. Move on. I think we get that you want us to see Bella as someone who doesn’t need material things, sentimental normal memories. I get that Bella isn’t your average teenager who wants to go to prom, a top notch college, lovely clothes, a marriage proposal, etc. It’s obvious that Bella doesn’t like to be the center of attention, she is so far from being vain, and she hates anything that has status written all over it…yet I find her behavior so appalling. It’s cruel how she hates things that I think are not soo bad. Bella’s ungrateful nature does make me dislike her a bit especially when it is given with such sincerity and love. Doesn’t she realize that Alice wants so much to be normal, to be able to have a party, to have some fun in a life that isn’t filled with friends and frolicing? Doesn’t she see that Edward would like to experience marriage because it makes him a bit more human? Whatever the case, I hope that Bella will be humbled in book four. n
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And it’s not just Bella though she has the most inconsistent behaviors, but many characters in the third installment are just acting way too out of character. One that I especially do not like is her father, Charlie. He is just too happy to dislike Edward. And when Jacob kisses her, his reaction is just DUMB. It’s laughable. He should be more developed as should Carlisle who seems to be the wisest person around. I could go on and on about who is acting strange but you should just read it and make your own judgment.n
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Due to Bella’s fickleness, my only other issue is this obvious plot device that centers around the love triangle. The obvious problem with Eclipse which is my 2nd favorite to Twilight(the first book is) is that I cannot imagine why or how Bella can be in love with two people at once(or in this case a vampire and a werewolf). I can understand loving many people. I can even accept attraction to several people at once. I’m not a prude. As an adult you can physically have two lovers, I get that. I can see that people jump from one relationship to another. No big deal. I can even see if you had more than two lovers. I can even accept if you are in a relationship with one person and yearn for another. All doable in my book but to be intensely, utterly, profoundly “in love” with two people at the same time is a bit unrealistic for a teenage girl with her lack of experience and depth. One love has to be greater, no? If not, how then can Bella be “in love” with Jacob if she wants to die for Edward? Because she is seriously torn, I have some real doubts. It leads me to see that she is either not really in love with Edward or she doesn’t know what being “in love” really is? Or possibly, she is just too selfish to realize that you cannot love and be with two people at once and make it all happy and good. It’s very immature. n
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To me, I cannot reconcile that Bella could be so obsessively in love with the stoic, compassionate Edward and yet have a passionate, fiery love for the unpredictable Jacob. How is this going to resolve itself? This love triangle is something I love and yet hate. It keeps me awake at night. n
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I hear that there are people who love Jacob and those who love Edward. I see both sides and yet I find myself pulling for Edward and Bella to have this happy ending though I think if SM were smart, she wouldn’t do that. It is clear that the closer that Bella gets to getting her wish to change into a vampire the more she sees that in this life there is more than just “obsession” or “intense romanctic feelings”. There are things of this world that is worth staying around for. This struggle between what she must do to keep Edward and what it might feel like to miss out on human experiences is interesting. n
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Overall, I do like the book and even it’s inconsistency because you become so in love with it’s story. You want to care for these characters even if they have huge flaws. You want to see what happens to this insecure girl who seems rather undeserving of all the attentin. You want to find out what happens to the Cullen’s who are all very fascinating. And you want to hope. Yes, hope that in some unrealistic way that SM can resolve Bella’s future in a way that’s earth shattering. You want so much for these characters and that’s why it’s a great story, not just a great love story.n
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The Twilight Saga almost ruined my life. It sucked me in with such intensity that I couldn’t sleep, study, or even eat because I had to know what happened next. n
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That said, this book is a nice, fluffy, interlude between the soul crushing emo-ness of “New Moon” and the twisted new realities of “Breaking Dawn”. n
The cover art fits. All of her relationships are fraying dangerously. n
I enjoyed it.
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I have read this book so many times and love it more and more each time I read it.
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It’s Book Three of the Twilight series, and our protagonist - the insipid Bella Swann - is still a spectator in her own story.n
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Firstly I must mention the four points in this book that have made it impossible to have any respect either for the book or for its author, Stephenie Meyer.n
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1. Jacob sexually assaults Bella. He forces himself on her, and when she fights back he takes it as encouragement. She hits him and breaks her hand. And instead of being furious (as any parent should be), Bella’s father finds the whole thing hilarious, more or less congratulating Jacob on the assault.n
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2. Edward bribes his sister to kidnap Bella, holding her against her will at his house. And then instead of being angry about it Bella just melts into her `romantic hero’s’ arms when he returns.n
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3. Edward disables Bella’s car so that she cannot go anywhere, and so that she can only see the people he approves of. And she doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with that either.n
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4. Meyer intended the series to be a great romance, but in Eclipse Bella decides she’s madly in love with both Edward and Jacob. So she just picks the one she likes a little bit more. This is selfish and disgusting behaviour.n
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Everybody forgot to tell Stephenie Meyer that if you write a book in the first person, that featured character actually has to do something. Bella does not do a single thing. The book leads up to a barely talked about battle towards the end (as always with Meyer’s work, this book is about four times as long as it should have been). But instead of provided any kind of use in the climax of the story, Bella simply stands there and watches. She does not do a single useful thing from start to finish of the story, nor does she provide any worthwhile entertainment on the side.n
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As always this book is filled with sickeningly flowery dialogue - endless declarations of love and overuse of descriptions of characters’ perfection. There are too many adjectives, too many adverbs. In short it reads as a preteen’s work of fan fiction.n
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However the stand out fault with Meyer’s writing is that reaching the end of the book I found myself wondering why the plot was missing.n
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