Lost in a Good Book

Published: 7th August 2007 (print)/4th May 2009 (audio)
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company/Bolinda Publishing
Pages: 629/16 hrs and 25 mins
Narrator: Ilyana Kadushin
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★  – 2 Stars

This book should not have been 16 hours long. This story didn’t need 629 pages.

I wanted to claw my eyes out for 95% of this book and for the other 5% I’m furious because there’s actually good story hidden amongst this which we could have had. There is a unique and interesting narrative buried in here but you would never know, you have to break through the hours and hours of nothing before you come across decent parts of the story and by then you’re so apathetic and drained emotionally that these little moments only offer short lived joy.

Because I refuse to entirely dump on this series I will highlight the positives. There is decent foreshadowing that I recognise for events in the next book, but of the very limited details I know it isn’t a deterrent. I can see Meyer trying to build up suspense and history without doing it in an obvious way.

This is the story where we get a lot more backstory about the vampire and werewolf legends. There are long stories about origins and histories, about past events and fights. It’s not uninteresting, but it’s a lot. There’s the usual Bella/Jacob/Edward fiasco, eventually after half the book of the bickering we’ve seen before there is a truce of some kind. I swear the name Bella is said more times than any other word in this book, and doing this as an audio reminded me constantly of The Magic School Bus episode when Wanda lost her bullfrog and 90% of the episode was here yelling Bella all over the place. That was this. Just Bella repeated over and over by Jacob, by Edward and by Jacob again.

Even though I’ve only read three so far, I’ve worked out you could break the Twilight books down in three main sections: Bella having conversations with Edward/Jacob about not dissing the other, Bella doing housework because Charlie is apparently an invalid who can only watch TV or work, heavens knows how he survived without her before now it’s nothing short of a miracle, and the third part is the long talks about either the vampire/werewolf way of life. Sprinkled in there you have school stuff, Bella yearning to be immortal after having her first love that totally will last forever, and let’s not forget the mortal danger she is always in but that never takes up nearly enough time.

The best thing Bella ever does in this entire 600 page endurance is she punches Jacob for kissing her when she doesn’t want it. For those few moments Bella was a great character, and Charlie becomes grosser by congratulating Jacob for kissing her and not taking her side when she explains why she punched him. For a brief moment Bella was a strong character who fought against things she didn’t like, but soon she was reduced once more to her whining self that is veiled thinly into presenting as her being strong and getting her way.

The fight scene that this whole book (and the previous) has probably, poorly been leading up to was actually quite good. It didn’t quite make up for the previous 14 hours but it was interesting, well presented, vivid and full of emotion. Where this writing was when the rest of the book was happening I do not know. This is part of the 5%. These small gems of writing makes me so sad this series isn’t presented better. It could have been a new, unique retelling of the vampire/werewolf myth and seeing what Meyer is actually capable of in some scenes makes me mourn for the other utter nonsense we have to endure.

Kadushin again narrates us and I’m used to her tone and manner in reading these characters. There isn’t a huge range in her voices but you pick it up after a while. As I go into the final book I hope I will be able to sum this story up into a short summary because once you break through the angst and the yearning to the plot underneath it might sound like a decent read.

You can purchase Eclipse via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible