There was no reason for me to read this book after the horror that was New Moon. I detest Bella with every fiber of my being. Is it even possible to have a main character that is more weak and pathetic? I was treated to the pleasure of 600 pages of watching her ignore the many warnings from friends and family that her relationship with Edward was not healthy. Nothing else matters in the entire world to this girl because she loves some guy. No one could possibly understand their love, so all those warnings are just ignorant. Seriously? I could possibly understand if Edward showed one ounce of emotion toward her that wasn't a possessiveness that borders on dangerous. The Twilight series is sending an absolutely horrendous message to teenage girls. Becoming obsessed with the first boy who ever pays attention to you, dating that boy even though he's got "future wife-beater" stamped on his forehead and ultimately agreeing to forgo college and your living, breathing life just so you can marry him right out of high school (even though you don't really want to) and become a vampire (because you're going to be 19 soon and that's like ancient) are all things to strive for? And, my god, what was with all the begging for sex?

Crappy love story aside, Eclipse was oddly compelling. The werewolf-vampire interaction was decent and the vampire back stories were more interesting that expected. I have this strange need to read the next book even though I want to strangle Bella, Edward and Jacob for being so damned annoying. If Stephenie Meyer could focus her novels more on supernatural story lines and less on her bizarre ideas of what constitutes a good relationship, the books could quite possibly live up to all of the current undeserved hype. ( )

Full review at:

http://readingthroughlife.blog.com/20...

Snippet:

Seriously? A virgin vampire around 110 years old is willing to turn his (also virgin) 18-year old girlfriend into a vampire, despite all of his moral objections about her losing her soul, and all she has to do is marry him?

Too much Jacob, too little Edward. Nevertheless, still fabulous! ( )

I really got into it, and almost cried near the end. It's nice to hold on to some hope though! ( )

[close] This wasn't as awful as New Moon (I think). It was still pretty bad, though. At least it didn't take me three months to try to slog through like that last one.

These books are so annoying. All of the romance talk is so corny that I can't help but roll my eyes at it. I had the urge to set the book to write some of them out to repeat them at parties for entertainment. People actually buy this stuff?

Along with the romance talk is the way the characters speak. Edward's about three hundred years old so I guess I can let it slide for him, but Bella does it, too. It's like the author's read so many classic romance novels that she can't help but pepper in some old dialogue. I compare it to annoying weeaboos who try to put some Japanese in every one of their sentences.

Bella makes a lot of stupid decisions. In this, I compare her to Cathy from Petals on the Wind. When she kisses Jacob (a wrong choice...like something Cathy would do), she realizes, oh! She loved him all along (this is something Cathy would always do; realize when it's too late that she "loved" a guy all along). What?! Following their whole relationship, I can see if she loved him as a friend, but I don't think there was any romance there on her side whatsoever. He was more like a good friend or brother (though I don't even see believability in that...Bella just seemed to cling to him for something to do in the last book, and I didn't see anything more than that to it). So when she "realized" this I was not buying it for a second. I also didn't buy her whole disgust to marriage. It doesn't seem to fit, if she loves Edward so much.

Edward's still boringly perfect, Jacob's turned into an annoying smartass, and Bella's more stupid than ever. I chalked up the last books yawn factor due to Bella being all depressed and Edward not being there, but this book is as boring as the last and there's no excuse for that.

Also, doesn't it freak anyone else out how Bella's so sex-starved? She's almost maniacal about it. ( )