In Which we finally have a chapter with BLOOD in the title
Bella is, of course, walking on sunshine now that her plan to avoid Edward has crashed headlong into her plan to avoid the dance via a fake trip to Seattle. No one has said the word VAMPIRE, so let's put some fuel into that theory, shall we?
Ed is mysterious. Again. His list of things to now give up include "trying to be good" and him "not being a good friend". We the readers know it's because he's a vampire struggling with his need to rip her still-beating heart out and eat it (or similar) held back only by his slight infatuation and some good-guy mantle he's adopted. So that's like, all dramatic tension.
Actually, for once Edward is actually speaking sense. He really is dangerous (well, by definition of "vampire") and Bella really should stay away. However, he's presenting this useful information entirely via cryptic statements, riddles and mysterious suggestions. Which Bella isn't getting because she has no reason to and because it would be a boring book if she caught on and ran like hell. At least he didn't ask her to the dance.
Now on page 90, Bella reveals that she's justifiably annoyed by all this non-communication and tosses out some superhero theories to asplain Edward's powers. Considering what she thinks she knows, they're silly but at least possible. Edward laughs them off and tells her to try again, ignoring the still glaringly obvious "tell her it's all in her head" + head trauma + I'm not a vampire plan of attack. Why? WHY? W?H?Y? Do Twilight vampires really lack any self-preservation? Why are you hinting that she's on the scent but off course? Why are you encouraging her exploration of your already-revealed super powers? Is there really any possible good outcome you're envisioning? The only answer, of course, is that the author is using this to let Bella ferret out Edward's true nature and fall in love and so forth DESPITE the fact that this is an entirely illogical course for Edward to take. But Bella needs to discover the vampire, get through the angst and fear and fall in love with his perfectly sculpted chest and if it doesn't make sense HOW she does it, oh well.
Biology = blood, which gives us some more "Edward is a vampire" moments & some Mike is a nice guy moments. Sorry, Mike! Maybe if you were a ghoul or poltergeist or something. It also introduces the fact that Bella faints at the sight of blood. She's going to date a vampire (sorry to ruin that for you) probably BE a vampire (a la the prologue) and she faints at the sight of blood. Ye gods. And Edward finds out about this. Wowsers.
Hey, it's Lee! Who? Don't know, doesn't matter apparently, he's off to the nurse with blood issues, too. Bye, Lee! You were the best character in this chapter.
Blood blood blood. Mike vs. Edward. Blood Blood aaaand boom, were in the Vampire Volvo sharing musical tastes and revealing Edward's foster parents are named Carlisle and Esme McHotDoctor. Plus we learn that he can teleport trucks (or something), which is a handy for having lots of conversation-filled car rides with Bella.
Really a tremendous amount of not much going on here.
SumUp C+-
The plot is taking a silly turn that no countersteer can seem to correct. We're veering off into Silly Romance Novel and Tween Novel like a sled on lard. Edward is ever more mysterious, even in what should be obvious. Bella is angsty and troubled and focused solely on her Edward project. Everything is just railroading us into a Bella-Edward date car-ride that establishes the relationship so they can struggle with the unfair universe or we wouldn't have much else for plot.
In contrast, this chapter wasn't hard to read and I rather enjoyed the Biology sequence. It was trite and having Bella + blood = fainting is downright silly in a vampire book, but I can't deny enjoying SM's descriptive style in every area that doesn't involve plot.. In fact, the only thing that keeps this from being a B chapter is Edward's ongoing mystery and I can only dock points for that for so long. Clearly he's unable to evade Bella's masterful interrogation skills.
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