Eclipse
Stephenie Meyer, 2007
★ 3.75 from 2m ratings on Goodreads
Fantasy HorrorYoung adultRomance
Bella's engagement to Edward collides with Jacob's love and a string of killings in Forks, forcing a choice she can't make cleanly. The mood is lovesick and tense, with lyrical longing, sudden dread, and a dramatic pace that slows in stretches.
Feels like longing, dread and hope. About love, death and freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you want a nostalgic YA romance with heightened emotions and a love triangle. Be aware that readers often cite slow pacing and controlling relationships with consent issues, so the drama can feel frustrating rather than romantic.
Why read it
It offers a tense, emotional return to Forks, where Bella's impossible choice and the killings keep the story charged even when the pace drags.
A page from the book
A condemned man explains why hell is really a kindness.
I tried to imagine telling my parents that I was getting married this summer. Telling Angela and Ben. I couldn’t. I couldn’t think of the words to say. It would be easier to tell them I was becoming a vampire. What readers say
Readers are split: many find it a nostalgic, entertaining guilty pleasure with romantic highs, while others are frustrated by slow pacing and angered by controlling, manipulative relationships and consent issues; some also report boredom and disappointment.
Stephenie Meyer.Meyer has said the Twilight series began with a dream of a vampire and a girl in a meadow; she drafted the first book in three months while raising small children.
Books that feel like this
More by Stephenie Meyer
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer, 2005
A girl moves to a rain-drenched town and falls for a boy whose beauty is inseparable from danger. Mood, appetite, and bad decisions.
Breaking Dawn
Stephenie Meyer, 2008
The fourth Twilight novel: Bella and Edward marry, and every supernatural faction in the Pacific Northwest has an opinion about it.
New Moon
Stephenie Meyer, 2006
A girl who has lost the person she built her life around has to learn how to keep breathing—and whether the old stories in her town are real.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Eclipse for me?
- You may like it if you want a nostalgic YA romance with heightened emotions and a love triangle. Be aware that readers often cite slow pacing and controlling relationships with consent issues, so the drama can feel frustrating rather than romantic.
- What is Eclipse like?
- The mood is lovesick and tense, with lyrical longing, sudden dread, and a dramatic pace that slows in stretches. Feels like longing, dread and hope. About love, death and freedom.
- What should I read after Eclipse?
- If you liked Eclipse, try Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J. K. Rowling), Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins) and Lightlark (Alex Aster).
A taste of the feed
How much changes when a choice stops being made for you?
It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince · J. K. Rowling
What is the cost of convincing a system it is fragile?
“I think we’ll make this whole situation a lot simpler by agreeing not to lie to each other,” he says. “What do you think?” I think my tongue has frozen and speech will be impossible, so I surprise myself by answering back in a steady voice, “Yes, I think that would save time.” “Whatever problems anyone may have with the Capitol, believe me when I say that if it released its grip on the districts for even a short time, the entire system would collapse.” [...] “It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.”
Catching Fire · Suzanne Collins
What it sounds like when someone could ruin you and chooses not to.
I could open a black hole that would swallow the beach. I could turn the sea dark as ink and kill everything inside of it. I could demolish the castle, brick by brick, from where we stand. I could take you back to Nightshade lands with me right now.” His voice was deep as dreams, dark as nightmares. “I could do all of those things.” His lips pressed against the top of her ear, for just a moment. “And I might—if I didn’t think you would hate me for it.
Lightlark · Alex Aster
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