ECLIPSE
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown for Young Readers
Horror/Romance
ISBN-10: 0316160202
ISBN-13: 9780316160209
640 pages

• Read an Excerpt

It's just a few weeks before high school graduation, and although most girls Bella Swan's age would be focused on what to wear to the big dance or how to pass Calculus, Bella has a few more important things on her mind. Now that she's been reunited with her vampire boyfriend Edward, Bella must decide whether --- and when --- to join him and his coven, to forsake her mortality (and her friends and family) to live, like Edward, forever.

Bella has grown up a lot since readers first met her in Stephenie Meyer's first novel, TWILIGHT. Back then she was naive, impetuous and easily swayed by Edward's dazzlingly good looks and effortlessly romantic charms. Now, though, in the third book in this series, Bella is finally thinking a little about the implications of her decision to become a vampire and even standing up to Edward's dominating, overprotective tendencies.

Edward is an old-fashioned guy. He won't turn Bella into a vampire unless she marries him first, and the idea of telling him she's getting married at 18 is more terrifying than admitting to her future transformation. Bella would also have to move far away from her beloved father during their dangerous "newborn" vampire period, when she would be unable to control her bloodthirsty urges. And then there's Jake, the werewolf who finally pledges his love to Bella. Is she really ready to leave him behind?

Bella does feel some urgency for this decision, though. She has made some enemies who would be more than happy to harm her while they still can. What's more, there's a newborn vampire on the loose in Seattle, terrorizing humans and threatening either the Cullen family or Bella herself. Clearly, time is running out while Bella hesitates.

Readers who devoured TWILIGHT and NEW MOON will ingest ECLIPSE just as hungrily. Diehard fans may grow weary at the amount of exposition near the novel's beginning, although they may be intrigued to learn more of the vampires' and werewolves' backstories. Since Meyer's books have always been more of a love story than a vampire series, however, many readers will appreciate ECLIPSE's more firm grounding in reality, largely focusing on character realization rather than on melodramatic, metaphysical conflicts.

The further development of the Jake-Bella-Edward love triangle, in particular, will almost certainly appeal to romance fans, and will divide readers according to whom --- the coldly beautiful Edward or the hot-headed Jake --- they think Bella should choose. One thing fans will agree on, though: Bella's fate is far from over, which means readers eventually will be able to savor even more of her story.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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