“Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I'm only falling apart
There's nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart…”
While reading Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer’s YA supernatural romance/mystery, and the third installment of the “Twilight” vampire series, I was struck by its similarities to the 80’s song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler.
Like the song, this novel broods over romantic attachments verging on codependence, laments the destructive progression of time, and acknowledges the inevitability of heartbreak. Bella, the protagonist of the series, is a human teenager in love with Edward, a ‘vegetarian’ vampire who only hunts animals.
She scarcely gets to enjoy the company of her immortal boyfriend, though, because she misses her best friend Jacob, who is a werewolf (wouldn’t you know!). Jacob hates vampires and also hates the idea that Bella will soon be transformed into a vampire so that she can be with Edward forever. Bella displays a fierce determination to escape Edward’s protective custody and spend time with Jacob, but balances this behavior with the equally fierce insistence that she only thinks of Jacob as a friend. Hmmm.
Guy trouble isn’t Bella’s only problem in the mythical world—in fact, the sheer number of non-humans who take a keen interest is Bella is staggering. Apart from her super-powered love interests, she is also being hunted by a vengeful vampire named Victoria, and the powerful Volturi vampires want to see Bella either dead or transformed into an immortal, whichever comes first. A string of messy homicides in a nearby city implies that several young vampires are going on a killing spree, and Jacob’s werewolf pack seems to be on the verge of breaking their unstable treaty with Edward’s family. What’s a mortal girl to do?
Eclipse is definitely a three-quel that delivers. Though clearly aimed at young women, it contains enough mystery and violence to entertain any male readers willing to brave the uncharted waters of a ‘girl’ book, and its popularity with readers of both genders knocked Harry Potter 7 from its number one bestselling status last August.
Eclipse is also similar to Harry Potter in its 600-page length, but it’s an extremely fast read.
This is not a romance novel, but it does focus on romantic subject matter. Owing to the (apparently) innate sexiness of vampires and werewolves, the story heats up a bit, but never strays beyond the carefully patrolled borders of PG-13-Land.
It’s basically a guilty pleasure, sans guilt—a well-written novel with a tightly constructed plot that can’t resist periodic lapses into melodrama. Like the similarly-named 80’s song, you have to recognize it for what it is: long, loud, dramatic and monstrously enjoyable.
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1 comment:
It's interesting you mention Bonnie Tyler in relation to Eclipse, because I was watching the music video for Total Eclipse of the Heart and at one point there is a red cloth flying through the air, much like the cover of the book...
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