New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Okay, so I wrote here about how I kind of got trapped into reading the first book of the Twilight Saga.  And, as annoying as I thought the first book was I also must give the author credit because I did get hooked and then I just had to read the other ones.  Probably a really good skill to have if you're into writing and selling..

Right, so New Moon sees us catching up with the young odd couple of Bella the whiny irritating human and Edward the sensible and handsome vampire.  Edward has somewhat of an epiphany when he realises that he is constantly exposing Bella to dangerous vampire habits and makes the big decision to walk away and leave her forever.  Does she kill herself in misery?  No, damn it.  At least if she'd put herself in a coma we would have been saved this particular offering of the story which is so full of this huge hole in Bella's chest which stops her breathing that I was surprised my nauseated stomach handled it so well.  This character is way too melodramatic fo a normal human and I still just want to slap her!

At least Edward suddenly seems normal and rational to me and I'm liking him more and more for leaving her.  But he doesn't come back and so we are left with her Quileute mate Jacob helping her over the 'hole' and emptiness while laying down the foundations for his fortuitous attempt at stealing her heart.  Oh dear.

The writing style is a lot more grown-up than the first book thankfully but the first half of the book is just a million different ways to describe the ache in Bella's chest and it is way too many times.  Finally we get some action as Jacob turns into a werewolf creature and joins a new pack of brothers, and Alice returns with visions of sugar plums in her head, or maybe of Edward trying to kill himself by dancing with death and some mafia style vampires... Yep, the ending is actually pretty good in this one and all through the last part of the book I was thinking to myself, this would make one hell of a movie and I think it probably did - am planning on seeing it next week and will let you all know.

Moving on to Eclipse and we see the odd love-struck couple going through the motions of Bella finishing high school and choosing colleges which is the cover story for when the time comes to change her into a vampire.  Again the first half of the book is taken up with these silly little worries, we also have Bella's father being really surly with Edward (whom he no longer trusts after the last book), and then there is Jacob playing as many guilt trips on poor Bella as he can squeeze into any given week - to try to make her understand how much he loves her and how she should really be with him and not Edward.

And so it happens.  Because of Jacob being a douche-bag I am finally warming up to the silliness that is Bella's character.  Wonders will never cease.

Once more, most of the action is in the second part of this book but what I really enjoyed more was the back stories of some of the other characters, in particular Rosalie and Jaspar.  Exploring why these characters behave they way they do adds another dimension to this previously light tale and I appreciate any nods to a more adult approach to writing.

But to the ending, we have the female vixen vamp from book one who is seeking revenge for her partner's rather violent death at the hands of the Cullen family.  She has amassed an army and they move on the sleepy town of Forks.  The vampy mafia make another small appearance which I also enjoyed as they are fantasticly evil and well written characters and that is enough for now.  Another strong ending here.

 Finally we arrive at Breaking Dawn which is a behemoth of a book compared to the rest but no less addicitive.  Bella and Edward are a solid unit that Jacob thankfully has no chance at ruining and they get married and go on honeymoon like any normal young couple in love do.  The twist is what happens after and again the author has an uncanny knack of dragging out the trivial stuff and then squeezing all the action into the last few pages.

How much do I say of this plotline I wonder?  The twist, what happens because of the twist and then the frustrating wait for the real action to happen and tie up the end of the book will really give too much away I feel.  Let me just say that the wonderful Vampire Mafia make a stunning return (yay) and are even more evil and self-absorbed than ever; Jacobs character gives Bella a break but becomes annoying in a different way; and Bella finally comes into her own and throws off that whiny outer shell to emerge quite a cool character in the end.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the series, not the characters so much but the actual vampire base story is quite a good one.  Stephenie Meyer loves sweating the small stuff and cramming the good stuff in at the end which was frustrating but I still left the books with a good feeling and am very much looking forward to the rest of the movies.  This is the kind of series that translates better on the big screen and I do recommend the films at least, even if the books hold no allure for you.