T.03.27 Needs AND T.03.28 Epiloge - Choice

T.03.27 In Which We're Nearly Done

Bella leaves La Push and breaks down crying, so Edward drives her home. Charlie is worried, Bella tells him she dumped ol' Jake and heads upstairs. She has a good long girly cry and looks back on her wretched, miserable existence and ... I don't know, reconciles with herself or something.

So that settled, they go see Bella's wedding gown. Alice is all atwitter with wedding plans. They head out to the meadow to discuss the wedding (August 13th, if you care) and they figure out the details and invites.

Edward offers to give her what she wants (the sex) but she backs down. Which is a first, I think. She wants to do things in the "right order", so we don't get any of that naughty premarital stuff.

Then they head off to tell Charlie about the wedding.

SumUp: C

The best part is Bella almost taking responsibility for her horrible life. Baby steps, I guess. The rest is just fluff and the premarital dodge is just annoying, Meyer is changing her character's goals to satisfy her conservative agenda or not offend someone. Lovely.


T.03.27 In Which We Change POV

For the first time in 77 chapters we get to see someone else's point of view. It's still first person (Jacob, this time) and still straightforward narrative. I didn't know what the heck was happening at first, I've become stuck in Bella's brain for so long.

Jacob gets Bella's wedding invitation (actually, Edward sends it) and is quite annoyed. Being a werewolf, he's stuck in the pack mind and has to listen to everybody else if he wants to run as a wolf. It's annoying for him and me. The worst is Leah, who's been torturing the pack with her lovesick adoration of Sam.

There's a nice touch where Sam orders everyone to go human so Jacob can be alone in his misery as a wolf. If I liked Sam or Jacob, that'd have helped, but I'll take what I can get.

SumUp: B

It's good stuff. It's too short. It's Jacob, who I don't really like anymore and it's a new POV. There's all the same flaws as before, and switching first person POVs in a book is rarely a good idea. As an Epilogue, though, I'll let it slide and take it for what it is. The cynic in me wants to say that Meyer couldn't figure out a way to do this without cheating, so she took the only other option. I hope I'm just jaded, though.

I also hope the next book tries something new. I doubt it will, but I'm really tired of seeing the world through Bella's eyes.