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A review by aslowreader
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
3.0
*usual disclaimer that we know this series is flawed af*
okay so jacob lost ANY points he earned in new moon during this book.. i'd forgotten that he literally assaults bella, causing her to punch him and break her hand, then acts like it's no big deal???? also fucking CHARLIE giving jacob a pat on the back after the fact, despite bella's injury and obvious distress at the situation???? um, no thanks.
edward, conversely, becomes weirdly reasonable in this book and i actually kind of like him by this point? he's still flawed, obviously, but he is so gentle and tolerant with jacob even after the assault because he knows it's what bella would want...... idk, he loses a lot of his annoying qualities in this book, it seems
as for bella, i either didn't remember eclipse as well as i thought, or my adult interpretation of jacob's manipulation changed how i viewed everything, but????? i remember her feelings for jacob and edward being a lot more even- and love-triangle-feeling than they actually are? like there's virtually no indication that she loves jacob past platonic, familial love, but then jacob threatens to kill himself if she doesn't let him kiss her (!?!?!wtf?!?!?) and suddenly she's conflicted about her feelings for him too?? turning his second assault into this overly romanticized come-to-jesus moment?????? i don't think so. this definitely feels like meyer had a dynamic mapped out for them, heard that fans were shipping bellaxjacob anyway and decided OH SHIT WE GOTTA DO SOMETHIN TO PLEASE THE FANS. very disingenuous and, frankly, gross and disturbing. listening to the audio for the assaults was difficult to say the very least.
finally, i enjoyed the history explored in this book - we learn more about rosalie, jasper, and the quileute, about which i had mostly forgotten and was happy to view from an adult's perspective. rosalie is not at all the cold bitch i remember believing her to be as a teenager, and jasper's military experience makes so much sense for his character! i appreciated the tribe's stories much more now than i did as a child, too. i remember feeling like they dragged on too long before, but i was impressed by the amount of detail and the perspective it gave bella about billy and the rest of the tribal elders. definitely think that the tribe could have remembered the name of the "third wife," though, since she was like the most heroic and important part of their big story....... but women aren't super relevant to history so whatever, right?
overall, i enjoyed this book more than the first, less than the second. i'm really eager to get into breaking dawn because i hardly remember anything from that book lol
okay so jacob lost ANY points he earned in new moon during this book.. i'd forgotten that he literally assaults bella, causing her to punch him and break her hand, then acts like it's no big deal???? also fucking CHARLIE giving jacob a pat on the back after the fact, despite bella's injury and obvious distress at the situation???? um, no thanks.
edward, conversely, becomes weirdly reasonable in this book and i actually kind of like him by this point? he's still flawed, obviously, but he is so gentle and tolerant with jacob even after the assault because he knows it's what bella would want...... idk, he loses a lot of his annoying qualities in this book, it seems
as for bella, i either didn't remember eclipse as well as i thought, or my adult interpretation of jacob's manipulation changed how i viewed everything, but????? i remember her feelings for jacob and edward being a lot more even- and love-triangle-feeling than they actually are? like there's virtually no indication that she loves jacob past platonic, familial love, but then jacob threatens to kill himself if she doesn't let him kiss her (!?!?!wtf?!?!?) and suddenly she's conflicted about her feelings for him too?? turning his second assault into this overly romanticized come-to-jesus moment?????? i don't think so. this definitely feels like meyer had a dynamic mapped out for them, heard that fans were shipping bellaxjacob anyway and decided OH SHIT WE GOTTA DO SOMETHIN TO PLEASE THE FANS. very disingenuous and, frankly, gross and disturbing. listening to the audio for the assaults was difficult to say the very least.
finally, i enjoyed the history explored in this book - we learn more about rosalie, jasper, and the quileute, about which i had mostly forgotten and was happy to view from an adult's perspective. rosalie is not at all the cold bitch i remember believing her to be as a teenager, and jasper's military experience makes so much sense for his character! i appreciated the tribe's stories much more now than i did as a child, too. i remember feeling like they dragged on too long before, but i was impressed by the amount of detail and the perspective it gave bella about billy and the rest of the tribal elders. definitely think that the tribe could have remembered the name of the "third wife," though, since she was like the most heroic and important part of their big story....... but women aren't super relevant to history so whatever, right?
overall, i enjoyed this book more than the first, less than the second. i'm really eager to get into breaking dawn because i hardly remember anything from that book lol