Twilight of Bookmonkey: Day Eight

For the last two and a half books (I’m working my way through Eclipse now), I’ve been pretty concerned that this horror series wouldn’t have anything, you know, horrific in it. Thankfully I was wrong.

In the twenty-first chapter of New Moon, something scary actually happens! Vampires actually eat a tour group of people, and although it is not described in gory detail (Bella had left the room it happened in) she could still hear the screams! Horray, the Horror series I’ve dedicated the month of October to reading actually had something scary in it!

In the end I was less than enthused with New Moon, as I said back on Wednesday, the majority of the book went nowhere and as much as I like young Jacob (I guess I’m on Team Jacob) for attempting to be best friends with a girl he’d like to be dating, the fact that Bella knowingly uses his affection to make herself feel better just made me wonder why exactly anyone likes her character.

So far Eclipse is a little better – stuff is happening, and a significant body count in nearby Seattle seems to be heading towards some sort of payoff. I do find it funny that Bella hasn’t once considered that after she becomes a vampire, she won’t want to be around Jacob at all (for the record this dynamic was handled much more effectively in Canadian author Tanya Huff’s Victoria Nelson series). Also it’s funny that after Edward sees how upset Jacob is, he tells Bella not to feel bad as she didn’t do anything wrong (making him either ignorant, insane or without morals – oh wait, maybe Bella is simply lying to him about her behaviour in the previous book)

Anyway, the third book is better than the second, which wasn’t as good as the first.

This weekend – the first movie.

Twilight of Bookmonkey: Day Four

330 pages. So far it kind of feels like the beginning of a marathon - right now I'm feeling pretty good, the series doesn't feel as bad (or as amazing) as some people say, and I'm thinking, "Sure I can do this - no problem!"

Impressions so far - the book is just kind of okay. I've read a lot of Young Adult (YA) books over the years and although this isn't the best (see Harry Potter or Percy Jackson) it is definitely not one of the worst. I'd plunk it down in the middle. Right now Edward has just introduced Bella to his family and has told her how old both he and his creator actually are (105 and 375 respectively).

There is no Team Edward vs. Team Jacob yet (although Jacob is in the book he is described as a little kid), but I suppose there could be a Team Edward vs. Team Mike Newton, as Mike is a nice guy who Bella describes as the friendliest person she's met in this new town and he seems to like her a lot.

So far I give the book a "Pretty Good" rating. It's not the best, but if you're looking for YA books about vampires, it seems okay.

Later this week - the first movie and then on to New Moon!