A Trilogy always works. The author figures out the mistakes she made from the sequel and that understanding returns her to the core of the plot that she originally conceived when writing the first book. The core of the Twilight Series rests in conflicts in a teenager’s life, conflicts that every teenager goes through, but only in Bella’s life does it get magnified into epic, scary & fantastic levels.
While New Moon disappointed (like all sequels do), Eclipse doesn’t & delivers against the reason why the Twilight series works.
And so, Eclipse comes back with a bang, giving a new angle to the conflicts in Bella’s life. If in Twilight the main conflict was her un-deniable passion for Edward vs. the sanity of self-preservation from a vampire, in Eclipse the conflict is simpler - her all-consuming love for Edward vs. her soul-mate love for Jacob. This becomes the main theme of the story, with the background of yet another (engrossing) bunch of vampires coming to kill her. In fact, Stephenie Meyer goes out of her way to lay out the contrasts between Edward & Jacob. They couldn’t be more different and their un-likeness plays to every regular love-triangle story. One is rich, the other is poor. One is cold, the other hot. One is in-human, the other too human. One is sophisticated & suave, the other raw & earthy. One is a vampire, the other a werewolf. In fact, at points the author over-does it, till the point you are reading and saying to yourself “okay, okay, I get it!”
There is also the ‘eye-to-Hollywood-screenplay’ moments in the book where you ‘roll your eyes’, like this exchange between Jacob & Bella:
“What’s up Bella?” he asked with a big grin
I rolled my eyes. “Same old, same old”
“Yeah” he agreed. “Bunch of vampires trying to kill you. The usual”
“The usual”
But, even with some of these flaws, the book works. Stephenie Meyer has managed to pin down this style of writing well. Bella’s growing love for both men in her lives is as believably irritating as is possible. Jake’s emotions and his immature reactions & uncontrollable emotional outbursts feel real & endearing. Edward’s reluctant & helpless tolerance to Bella’s in-decisive & self-destructive ways, feels again both authentic & coming from genuine love. The story is told well and Meyer again does a masterful job of flow, conversations & visualization. You can see the book happening in front of you, which is the author’s biggest win. The impending danger of vampire attacks moving from distant Seattle to Forks, looms large throughout the story and the dread for Victoria returning keeps you turning the pages to see if the orange head does finally arrive, after dancing around the entire time (& never showing up) in New Moon. Also, the inevitable reality (or is it?) of Bella finally turning into a vampire, keeps teasing you throughout the book... Will she, won’t she?
You can feel the entire story building up to a grand climax and it doesn’t disappoint. The climax is there and the story has an end. In many ways, Eclipse is the end of the story that started in Twilight. The Victoria chapter comes to an end. The two loves of her life are real and out there for Bella (and the audience) to acknowledge... no more denial, no more confusion. She finishes graduation. And the decision for her to finally turn into a vampire is sealed. Eclipse ends with clear choices in Bella’s life & if you would ask Alice at the end of the book, she would tell you exactly the life that Bella is going to lead, as a vampire.
But, Alice will also tell you that the future she sees is only as clear as the choices made at that point in time, and if the choices change, then the future changes too. So, until it happens, it’s still “a” future & unpredictable. Therefore, after the shadow cast upon the world by an Eclipse clears, what we have is a soon approaching Breaking Dawn...
