In Which Bella grows a tiny bit of Spine.
So the plan goes into action. Why this needed a chapter break is beyond me. Emmett and Alice go scouting the terrain while Bella bursts into the house and pretends to angrily break up with Edward to convince Charlie that she wants the hell out of Forks and to hopefully convince an eavesdropping James that she's going elsewhere. This plays quite well (both in story and in presentation) and we're back in the Jeep in no time with Edward racing Bella back to Wahmpire Manor for protective custody. As with the last chapter, this is all exciting, well scripted and readable, especially Bella's mean-spirited attack on Forks to convince Charlie she means business for his own good. It's very cold and she knows it and regrets it. She does what's necessary in the situation, so gold star.
As we race away Emmett and Alice rejoin the party and let everyone know that James is in hot pursuit. Bella takes the opportunity to find out how to kill a Vampire (chop up and burn, ew) which I'm going to pretend means she's filing it away for killing OTHER vampires besides James.
When they arrive, they meet Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, and Rosalie for the Cullens plus Laurent, who reveals that he's not actually the leader of the trio. He's heading for higher ground rather than get squashed between the clans. Exit stage right, guess we'll never see him again. The plan is to send Bella with Jasper and Alice while Esme and Rosalie take her truck as bait. Edward, Carlisle and Emmett will then hunt down and kill James and Victoria.
SumUp: B+
The frantic planning reads very well and there some minor characterization with Rosalie (who doesn't want to participate). There's even a moment when Jasper is nice to Bella.
The main problem is that Bella is still just a passenger on this boat. She's doing almost nothing to move the plot forward or resolve it. She helped some in the car in the last chapter and it's unrealistic to think she could have much to do in this particular superhuman situation, but it's a long pattern of Bella the endangered girl in an environment where Meyer has robbed her of any potential useful input. The break-up charade has been exactly the only time she's shown any initiative or backbone outside the now long-forgotten high school drama and love triangle, and it was written extremely convincingly.
Also, why are these chapters so short?
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