In Which Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Bella wakes up...
OK, you know what? Drinking game gets "wake up at the start of chapter" as a shot. Suck it up, people.
I get that it's an effective break in chronology to have someone fall asleep at the end of a chapter. The day is over, drop the curtain. But you don't have to wake up to start the next one every single time! Yeah, it's a minor quibble, and doesn't rise to the statuary or eye-emoting of the last book, but it's getting repetitive and I wanted to rant.
So the short of it is that Edward has gone super-distant after the party. Bella feels like change is in the air, so she starts photographing everything to try and lock things in place: Edward, Charlie, group photos, her room. She even passes it around at school. It's not a bad idea, story wise, although I'm amazed that Bella has a film camera rather than a digital one. This sort-of plays a role shortly, but the differences inherent to a digital camera could have been written around easily and wouldn't have dated this chapter in the twentieth century. Whatever, it's still a good psychological insight moment when Bella uses photography in what she knows is a futile effort to make the present permanent, so points.
The upswing is that Edward is leaving. He avoids her at night and doesn't really do much with her during the day and finally takes her way out in the woods and breaks up with her. Why out in the hinterland? No idea. He tells her that the entire Cullen clan is leaving (then updates that with "already gone") and she's not invited along. Buh-bye.
"I don't want you to come with me" he says. He's "not human" and he "won't bother her again".
It's not nearly as awful as I'd thought it might be when I realized the chapter direction. Edward is detached and inhuman and Meyer describes his reactions to Bella's shock effectively enough. I'd love to make fun of the BAW factor, but for a break-up scene in a melodrama, I'm not given a lot of ammunition. Bella sort-of promises not to do anything reckless (plot point) or stupid. It's sad, she's crushed, she's confused. Edward gives you enough clues that he doesn't really mean any of this stuff (so we can have the big reunion later) and boom, she's alone. In the woods. Good job leaving clumserella out in the woods and getting her all hysterical, dummy. Did you also annoy a few bears in the vicinity to really seal the deal?
Bella wanders in a daze and gets lost. Much later she's finally rescued by somebody named Sam (who will disappear for a few chapters), who takes her back to Charlie. Charlie takes her home. Bella tells her dad she got lost and a new doctor looks her over and tells her/everyone/us that Dr. Cullen took a job in LA and has already moved. Charlie reveals that he got Bella's note (that Edward forged). Bella goes upstairs and finds that Edward has taken all of the pictures and the CD he gave her and falls asleep.
We also find out the Werewolves are happy the Cullens are gone.
Which I'm sure means something.
SumUp B-
On the one hand, it's melodramatic and the "leaving her for her own good" angle is straight out of Romance Novel Plots 101 and clearly won't work. Something will draw up the tension/plot and Edward will come save the day or (given the prologue) Bella will go save Edward and we'll get a big kiss at the end.
On the other, it's all written capably and I'm holding on to that like a drowning man. The last book started well, too and If this novel follows the same path downriver we're now perilously close to a quality waterfall that I don't want to go over.. Further, this looks shockingly like the end of the first act! We're only 3 chapters in and we might actually have a second act? I might be imagining things for my own sanity...
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