New Moon and Eclipse

One of my students has been racing me to finish Stephanie Meyer’s vampire trilogy. I’m afraid that she will be sorely disappointed with the fact that I finished book three, Eclipse, on Saturday morning—after spending almost 5 hours reading Friday night. I honestly didn’t mean to read quite that much. I do enjoy drawing out the final chapters of a good series, but a la Harry Potter, it was a lost cause. I found myself rocketing through New Moon and then Eclipse, simply because Meyer’s has really done something right. She’s given us compelling and complicated relationships, thrown in some danger, and then left us torn about whom to love.
New Moon opens with what feels like will be happiness. Bella and Edward are together; they’re in love, and all of the trouble from James and his mate Victoria seems to be gone. Unfortunately, this calm does not last. As suddenly as everything seems to be going right, it goes wrong. The Cullen’s leave Forks, and Bella is heartbroken. It is here where Meyer’s truly gives us a portrait of adolescent despair. Rather than spending three or four chapters watching Bella morn, she gives us nothing. We flip through pages titled October, November, December, January, waiting for something to happen, and then a paragraph long chapter called Waking Up. Bella slowly shifts from catatonic to remotely alive, seeking comfort from the only person that makes her feel warmth: Jacob Black. (And so the triangle completes…)
This friendship/potential romance is what coaxes Bella out of herself and back into the world. Her recovery, though far from complete, finally allows her to take risks—occasionally leading to injury—and finally let someone new into her life. While Bella convinces herself that she is not in love with Jacob, we see over and over how much he loves her, and we wait for some sign of impending doom. It arrives about halfway through the book: Jacob is not just any boy from the reservation. He is a werewolf. Bella is now faced with an even more difficult choice. Werewolves hunt vampires, and though the Quileute and the Cullens have a peace treaty in place, the two hate each other. The rivalry tears Bella apart until we find ourselves racing through the scariest ending of all three books. Though everyone is reunited we quickly see that the past cannot be undone.
Meyer’s moves us into the final installment with a much darker edge. Suddenly Bella is torn between the family that she wants to become a part of and her feelings for Jacob. Within each novel the risk of love is emotional, physical, and often boarders on manic. Meyer never lets us forget that love is the most dangerous adventure that two people can partake in, and in that danger is the weight of choice. Will Bella stay with Edward? Will she admit that she loves Jacob? Will she leave her world behind, and never experience the joys of aging and human life? These are the questions that haunt Eclipse, and along with it the kind of danger that we have been dreading for two books now. I fear that I will give too much away, but I will leave you with this. The ending is heartbreakingly perfect, and that I am so sad to let these characters go. Meyer has truly challenged her characters to work through some of life’s most complex emotions and dilemmas, each time connecting classic pieces of literature, historical archetypes, and fantastical monsters. Suddenly beauty has new meanings, love can be eternal, and time is both our best and worst friend.
Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book wont be released until August, so I guess that gives us all time to read these three again and again!