Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

If by some chance you have not already read Twilight and New Moon, the first two installments in the Twilight saga, you best go back and study up a bit, at the minimum. Author Stephenie Meyer, in Eclipse, the third book, doesn’t “catch you up” on the ongoing storyline. Without some background, you will be thinking “What?” if you read this vampire novel first.

That said, and assuming you have read the first two novels, here goes my take on Eclipse. Ok, Edward and the Cullens are back in Forks, Bella’s high school graduation is coming up, Bella is planning on becoming a vampire after graduation, Jacob is now a werewolf, Edward loves Bella, Bella loves Edward, Jacob loves Bella, Bella loves Jacob as a brother (much to Jacob’s chagrin), the vampires hate the werewolves, the werewolves hate the vampires and well, you get the idea. Oh yes, there are now bloodthirsty vampires running amok in nearby Seattle, with a rising toll in violent human deaths.

A large portion of the book follows the tumultuous triangle of relationships between Bella, Edward and Jacob. Bella wants to be changed into a vampire after graduation, even though it will mean a self-imposed quarantine from all human contact for, uh, years. If a new vampire wants to become “vegetarian” they must get over their lust for human blood, we are told. Well, as you can imagine, Jacob is going berserk over Bella’s desire, and Edward’s insistence that Bella marry him before she is changed adds fuel to Jacob’s fire. Suffice to say that the emotions run high, and are dealt with in agonizing detail by the author. Keep in mind that this series was written with a teen/young adult target audience.

Remember the mob of vampires running amok in Seattle? You guessed it; here they come to Forks, driven by a vampire out for revenge, with Bella as the target. Can it be that the Jacob and his family of werewolves and Edward and his family of vampires can become uneasy allies in a battle of supernatural proportions?

Eclipse is both a romantic novel, bordering on soap opera, and vampire/werewolf adventure novel. You will want to read the final book after you are done with Eclipse. You won’t be able to help yourself.