Eclipse (The Twilight Saga)

Review

Rating: 8

From TwilightGuy.com :

I am not the usual reader of the Twilight Saga: not only because I am a guy, but because I take my time reading each book, instead of devouring the entire novel in one sitting. Even in a fast-paced novel like Eclipse, the third in the series, I found myself taking months to read the story, as I tried to understand the motives behind each character: Edward Cullen, who let his girlfriend go out with another guy (no less than his archenemy); Jacob Black, who manipulated Edward’s girlfriend and yet says he loves her; and Bella Swan, who says she loves Edward and yet can’t bring herself to stay with only him. How is it that these three have entered into such a fragile triangle that binds them together, and yet causes each of them so much pain?

The real question raised by Eclipse has to do with love: what is real love, and how does anyone know if they’ve found it? Bella Swan finds herself trapped between loving two people: Jacob, a werewolf, and Edward, a vampire. She says she loves Edward, but can’t stop seeing Jacob. She tells Jacob she loves him, but she can’t leave Edward. What is the right choice when you love two people just as much, but in different ways? How can you force your heart to decide to give one up and keep the other, when you simply can’t bring yourself to make that choice?

Perhaps there really is no easy answer. As Bella said herself in the final chapter:

“…it just got to the point where I had to choose… Sometimes, there isn’t any way to compromise.”

Sometimes there is no best way — no happy ending that works out for everyone. Sometimes, the only thing is to choose one, even when choosing is the hardest part. And though Bella makes mistakes, these make her human. The hardest struggle for Bella was to grow up, and realize that she was to blame, and it was her turn to be strong and make the choice:

“It had not been Edward and Jacob that I’d been trying to force together, it was the two parts of myself, Edward’s Bella and Jacob’s Bella. But they could not exist together, and I never should have tried.”

In the end, she would have to be strong, and love only one. When Bella made the choice, it felt as if she had finally grown up. And though his heart was broken, I feel that this is not the last we will see of Jacob Black.