Eclipse

Hey avid readers! So today is the last day of summer. In a weird sort of way I am ready to start school because I figure that I will be able to get my hard classes over quicker. But I am excited to start the new year as a JUNIOR! WOOOO UPPERCLASSMAN! But for the last review of the summer, I am going to do the next Stephenie Meyer novel Eclipse. Here we go!

Characters: Again I am just going to add the new characters. If you want a more complete list, check out my previous reviews of New Moon and Eclipse
Victoria: vampire that is creating a newborn army/trying to kill Bella/was James's mate
Jasper Cullen: Edward's "brother"/can control the emotions of people around him/has the most fighting experience out of all the Cullens
Jane: one of the Volturi/can make people believe they are in inexplicable pain/has a twin named Alec
*None of these characters are new, they just play a more central role in this novel*

Plot: Bella Swan has just barely survived her last run-in with the Volutri and she is not hungry for another visit. However, her next meeting may be sooner rather than later. As the vampire police force, the Volutri are responsible for keeping the vampires' secret. So when a group of vampires threaten to expose their entire existence, the Volutri act. Quickly. And with a new vampire threat from Seattle looming over the horizon, the Cullens and Bella have to figure out how to prevent a Volutri intervention before they discover Bella is still human. And with Jacob Black still vying for her heart, will Bella choose to stay with Edward, the one she truly loves, or turn to Jacob, her best friend?

What I liked: I think Eclipse had the most interesting concept of the Twilight novels written at that point. The idea of having a newborn army marching on Forks was a potentially great storyline. However, I think the potential for the novel is the extent of my praise. Meyer could have done so much more with the newborns. But she didn't. However, this is the wrong section for this: this is supposed to be what I liked. Since I can't think of anything else though, I guess I will just have to switch sections.

What I didn't like: As I previously mentioned, the idea of a newborn army is particularly intriguing. Meyer could have taken this opportunity to showcase the unruliness of newborn vampires and how seeing them in action would make Bella hesitate in her desire to become a vampire. Instead, we saw no newborn action because Bela was conveniently in another location. More on that in a moment. But Meyer could have had Volutri spies infiltrating Seattle who discover that Bella is still human in the process. There could have been dramatic show-down scenes with the Cullens and the newborns facing off. Oh right there was one. But we didn't get to read about it because Stephenie Meyer couldn't figure out how to write a battle scene. That is the only logical explanation why we didn't have a back-in-forth section in Eclipse cutting from Edward, Bella and Seth in the mountains to Jacob, the pack, and the Cullens down in the valley. If you also notice, when Meyer actually writes an account from the newborns perspective called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, you don't experience the fighting scene much there either. Bree (main character) actually ends up coming late, so you see very little of the scene. But back to Eclipse. Meyer totally dropped the ball. But moving on from that and back to Bella aka the worst heroine in existence. So Bella has the nerve to drag along both Edward and Jacob. She strings them both along saying she can't live without them and she needs them both. With Jacob, she won't let him get over her by constantly leading him on and telling him how much she cares about him. She doesn't need him because she has Edward right? And if she does need him, she shouldn't be with Edward. She doesn't have the decency to let Jacob live his own life. She just drags him back into her own. And poor Edward. He puts up with all of Bella's crap and then has to deal with her almost not picking him, making him sit out of the fight because she cannot bear to lose him. For me this was the most annoying thing in the book. You see thousands of wives whose husbands go to war, and I am sure that they cannot bear to lose them either. But they are strong and work to go on with their lives. Bella sniffles and pouts and plots and pretty much blackmails Edward into staying. "If you don't stay, I will be suicidal and put myself in danger." The reason this upsets me is because this isn't an adult novel where women who read this already know that Bella's behavior is unhealthy and unacceptable. Instead, Eclipse is directed at the teenage fan base and they don't know yet that Bella is acting completely ridiculous. If you are going to write a teen novel, you have the duty to create a heroine that is a good example for teen girls, or if you want to create a bad heroine, LET THE AUDIENCE KNOW THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO ACT. Instead, Meyers says again and again how unselfish and brave Bella is. Newsflash. If she was unselfish she would let Jacob go and move on. And if she was brave she would have been in the valley in order to ensure that the Cullens won the battle. Bella is the worst heroine in existence and if you look at a character like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, even if you don't like the novel, there is really no comparison in terms of strength, bravery, character, unselfishness, and beauty. Bella may be prettier, but Hermione Granger is a beautiful person while Bella is a shallow, self-absorbed creature. Lastly, nothing happened in the over 600 pages. The only real action was the last fifty or so pages but this has become a reoccurring trend in Meyer's novel. No interest until the very end. A lot of buildup, but no results.

Overall: Dull 3 out of 10. I don't have anything else to say about this except I am just glad that the world of Bella Swan consists of only four novels.

The Choice

Hello blogosphere! Well today I am going to review my first Nicholas Sparks novel, The Choice. I wanted to read some Nicholas Spark's novels because he is a North Carolina writer and he is a New York Times Bestselling author. So I was pretty excited to read the book and I had pretty high expectations. But without further ado, here is my review of The Choice.

Characters: Travis Parker: veterinarian/extreme sports enthusiast/the only one of his friends to not be married
Gabby Holland: PA at a pediatricians office/dating long-time boyfriend Kevin/has a pregnant dog
Stephanie Parker: Travis's sister/Travis's best friend/is studying biochemistry at UNC Chapel Hill
Joe, Laird, and Matt: Travis's best friends since kindergarten/worried about Travis never getting married/all married with kids

The Plot: Travis Parker's life is falling apart. With no hope, he looks to the past for answers, and for comfort in a time when he was happy. Go back eleven years and you would find Travis Parker, the happily single veterinarian. A lover of extreme sports and good times, he used to feel that a girlfriend would only complicate his life. Enter Gabby Holland, a PA at a pediatricians office with a boyfriend with series commitment issues. Together they discover that what they thought love was, wasn't love at all. But when Gabby gets into a car accident and falls into a coma for three months, Travis has to make a choice. Keep Gabby alive, or respect her wishes that he take out her feeding tube if she was still in a coma after three months? Terrified with no one to turn to, Travis must search his soul and ask himself the question that is the theme of this book "how far will you go to keep the hope of love alive?"

What I liked: Well there was a lot of good in this novel. Because I have started reading another Nicholas Sparks novel since finishing The Choice, I have come to see that the sort of flashbacks to the past while dealing with a problem in the present are sort of a trademark for him. To be honest, I really enjoy how he writes his novels in this way. I think that too often romance stories are just the time it takes for the couple to get married and then it is the end. But with Nicholas Spark's novels, you see the couple's whole life and how their whole story played out, not just the beginning. He doesn't write a naive romance novel where love is shown as always perfect and happy, the couples in these books get into arguments just like the rest of us. And they aren't artificial, fake arguments used to cause tension and a climax. Like in The Choice, Travis must decide to honor the vow and living will his wife made, or he must keep her alive at the detriment to his family (Travis and Gabby met another family where the mother went into a coma and the whole family fell apart because the wife became a burden on the family that prevented them from moving forward. This prompted Gabby to make the living will). I also liked *Major Spoilers Ahead* Travis's decision. If I had a family member in a coma, I would also keep them here as long as possible in the hope that one day I could have them with me again. I can't go against people who make the other decision because I also understand why but I know I couldn't let my hopes of being with them die. Lastly, I loved when Stephenie and Travis were talking and Travis asked Stephenie why she said no again when her boyfriend asked her to marry him for the third time and she said because she was waiting to make sure that he loved her as much as Travis and Gabby loved each other because she didn't want anything less. I thought that was beautiful and that it expressed so simply how people look for love. I know I want someone who loves me as much as my parents love each other so I can honestly relate to that.

What I didn't like: There honestly wasn't anything I can think of off the top off my head. Thinking through the novel, I honestly enjoyed every part of it.

Overall: 9.5 out of 10. I truly beautiful novel.

New Moon

Hey avid readers! So today I am reviewing Stephenie Meyer's second book, New Moon. For this review I am going to do the same thing I did with the Ally Carter reviews, meaning I am only going to list new characters. Here we go :)

Characters: Jacob Black: Bella's childhood friend/changes into a werewolf/is in love with Bella
Victoria: is hunting Bella after Edward killed James/cannot get to Bella because she is being guarded by werewolves/sent Laurent ahead of her to do her dirty work
Sam, Embry, Quil, Jared, and Paul: all members of the wolf pack in La Push/ live to kill vampires/cannot kill Victoria even though she is attacking hikers
The Volturi: the secret police men of the vampire world/work to keep vampires a secret/have a small army of vampires who all have extraordinary powers
*Can we just make a note of how sad my descriptions are? We will go back to this in a moment*

The Plot: Bella Swan is still recovering from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life at the end of last year. Now more than ever, she realizes just how much she needs Edward around. Too bad that Edward doesn't seem to feel the same way. Edward leaves Forks after telling Bella he doesn't care about her and he doesn't want to be a part of her life anymore. The news completely destroys her. Sinking into a four month depression, Bella cuts herself off from all aspects of life and only reemerges with the help of childhood friend Jacob Black. But when Jacob says he can't be friends with Bella any longer, she is determined to not lose him too. But with danger lurking around every corner, and a secret as old as the Cullens itself, will Bella be able to handle the news and move on from Edward, or will his memory continue to haunt her forever?

What I liked: Jacob Black. That is pretty much it. But Jacob was just so great. He was a person who was honestly there for Bella even when she didn't deserve him (which was the entire book). He has a developed sense of right and wrong and he was willing to put up with all of Bella's crap because he cared about her. Jacob is the one that Bella should have chosen. He is human and he represents the normal life that she could have had if she had left things as they were. But no. More on that in a moment. But Jacob was one of the truest characters in the book, one of the few that wasn't one dimensional and my personal favorite.

What I didn't like: This book is a disaster. Lets start from Stephenie Meyer's end before we actually get into this ridiculous plot. For a New York Times Bestseller, New Moon has the most atrocious writing I have ever seen. Here are the most common phrases in New Moon: I bit my lip, he grimaced, ugh, oh, arg, jeez, he glittered and more ridiculous phrases. This horrendous writing adds to the poor novel, making it impossible to take seriously. A page in New Moon wouldn't be complete without Bella biting her lip or saying ugh. Or falling. Seriously, Bella is such a caricature it makes my mad. So lets just take a break from the terrible writing and focus on Bella, the worst heroine in existence. So her boyfriend leaves and for four months Bella becomes completely dead. She has no personality, (well I would argue she didn't have one to start with but whatever) she just mopes around and does homework. She avoids everything having to do with Edward. GET A FREAKING GRIP. Gahhhh (another Stephenie Meyer word). Bella cannot get over herself and see past her patheticness to get a grip. She doesn't see how she is hurting Charlie, her friends and herself. For someone who is described repeatedly as a "remarkably unselfish person" all I see is layer upon layer of selfishness. She uses Jacob and when Edward comes back, "its a huge party cause like my sparkly hot boyfriend is back". Awesome. But honestly, I would expect nothing less of a girl who has no interests. She likes to cook and clean so she is pretty much a maid in her house with no life. But back to New Moon specifically. This book was extraordinarily dull. Nothing happened until the last five chapters but by then I was so bored it seemed rather anti-climatic. The dynamic between the wolves and the Cullens had the potential to be interesting but was instead dumb. So the La Push wolves don't like vampires because they kill humans: I agree. But the La Push wolves don't like the Cullens because why? They don't kill people. I am confused. Just these little details bug me. Also, why is every female in this story just a glorified housemaid. Esme is so flat and dull it's saddening, and Emily (the girl Sam imprinted on) is only shown cooking. And Alice likes clothes and Rosalie likes being pretty. DO NONE OF THE FEMALE CHARACTERS HAVE A HOBBY OR A LIFE? Nope. So this book drove me nuts. Lastly, if a guy as imperfect as Edward leaves you with no explanation, completely hurting you, you don't take him back in an instant. You just don't.

Overall: Blahtastic. 2 out of 10. Poor writing, poor plot and poor characters make this book an all around snooze. The only bright light? Jacob Black, Bella's personal sun and while I was reading New Moon, Jacob was my sun too.

Twilight

Hello blogosphere! Today I am doing a book you may not have heard of...it's called "Twilight". Apparently, there have been some movies made out of the series and it's really popular with teenage girls and it's a global bestseller. Just kidding. If you haven't heard of Twilight, you might have been living under a rock for the past five years. But just in case you have, here is my official review of Twilight. However, it comes with a slight disclaimer: I am no longer a Twihard. I have recovered from the Twilight addiction and am now able to look past the superficial story line and dig into something deeper. So for the next few days I am going to review the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and be warned: I am about to make millions of teenage girls a little mad.

Characters: Bella Swan: recently moved to Forks/is crazy clumsy/wants to know Edward Cullen's secret
Edward Cullen: has a secret he wants to keep from everyone around him/has a very low body temperature/he is a vampire
Charlie Swan: Bella's father/chief of police in Forks/really good friends with Billy Black
Mike Newton: likes Bella/cannot stand Edward/one of Bella's new friends at her high school
Alice Cullen: another vampire/has the ability to see the future/one of the only members of Edward's family that actually likes Bella

The Plot: Bella Swan hates everything about her new hometown of Forks. It's cold, rainy and is a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. But when Bella meets Edward Cullen, her whole life changes. After a hostile encounter in Biology class, Bella assumes Edward hates her, but when he repeatedly saves her life in a series of mysterious events, Bella has to reexamine what she thought about Edward Cullen in the first place. As she delves deeper into the mystery, Bella begins to realize that Edward Cullen isn't human. He is something else entirely. He is a vampire. A vampire that could kill her at any moment whenever she is with him.

What I liked: The first time I read Twilight, I finished it in about two days. I flew through it. I cannot explain the hold this book has on people, myself included, but for some reason I was completely hooked the entire novel. Smarter people than me have tried and failed to understand the power Twilight has over the mind as soon as you read the book. If I had to guess what it was though, I would have to guess that the deciding factor here is Edward Cullen. At one point, and I am ashamed to admit it, I was on Team Edward too (book three reference sorry). Edward is pretty much the "ideal" guy for a teen girl: brooding, good looking and mysterious... he is a teen dream. I was able to realize while reading he is not the ideal boyfriend (not even close) but teen girls all over America compare every guy they meet to Edward Cullen. Basically I was one of a million teen girls who was high on Twilight. And you cannot deny that Stephenie Meyer can create an addicting book, just how she did it boggles the mind.

What I didn't like: This is why Twilight baffles me. Twilight is so addicting but if you stop reading the romance and look at the book as Twilight and not A Diary of How Edward Cullen Is Totally Awesome, the cracks in Stephenie Meyer's beloved novel begin to show. To be fair though, the cracks aren't as pronounced as in later books. So if I am going to focus just on this book, we should focus on the characters - stalker Edward and super dependent Bella. Hello my name is stalker Edward let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am an undead vampire. I am like totally in love with this girl I just met at my school. In case you didn't know, I cannot sleep at night so I decided to spy on this girl while she sleeps in order to learn more about her. Don't worry I promise I'm not a stalker and she is totally okay with it. Hey I'm super dependent Bella and I am like totally in love with Edward. He's so hot like I feel the need to describe how hot and good looking he is and how inferior I am compared to him every ten seconds. Did I mention he is hot? This is literally Bella and Edward's relationship. In Twilight, it is not as disturbing but their relationship becomes more and more unhealthy as the books go on. So I guess you could say that I find it upsetting that our main characters are a girl with no hobbies, interests, or redeeming qualities and a stalker, vampire boyfriend. Sweet.

Overall: 6 out of 10. While I cannot explain it, Twilight is a compelling read that makes you ignore all the other glaring defects. However, as you will see in my next review, the cracks become fissures that split open Meyer's other novels. Her poor writing, limited vocabulary, and one-dimensional characters turn her novels into a mess of a series that resorts to playing with teenage emotions in a last ditch effort to save a dying series.