(I should have done this for Acito...)
I am melancholy that Twilight is over, but excited that my experience with this series is only just beginning. The chapter of New Moon at the end of this book was a short teaser, but it told me enough--this would be a similarly gripping story. I'm first on the hold list for it, thanks be to god.
I was beginning to worry, at the baseball game (oh, and was the ball really invisible? or just really fast?), that the tone of the book was turning and I wouldn't like it. The whole reason this book has surprised and delighted me was for its slow, torturous pace, its placement of the extraordinary creature of Edward into Bella's every-day life. The very reason I so easily understood Harry's world, and even the lives of the X-Men kids. I don't like when fantasies /magical stories begin within the supernatural context, like in Bag-End (well, I would have liked it better, I suppose, if we'd been able to stay with the hobbits for longer) or the Narnia sequels. The exception to this preference is the world of The Uglies, which I probably would have given up on had I not known the premise and wanted to know what would happen to Tally. But, strangely, though I was loving the ordinary atmosphere of Bella's "human" life, I grew impatient with her interactions with Jessica, Mike, etc waiting on tenterhooks to see when she'd encounter Edward next--in other words, I now preferred the supernatural presences to the mundane.
Still, when James & co. showed up, I thought "Oh man. Here we go, no more delicious days for Edward & Bella to endure biology class, resist the impulse to make out, watch Bella as she stammers out her deepest thoughts without actually saying the words, leaving the exact phrase for us to figure out....it's all going to be ruined." Here comes the action/adventure part, I knew. It's not that I don't like a good exciting part in a book, but I could have read about Bella and Edward in that meadow for a thousand pages, and I didn't like my peaceful, immense pleasure taken away.
The next phase was fast-moving and fun, and I liked that Bella was still tortured by Edward. The pages still flew by. For the first time since HP 7 (Okay, that wasn't long ago, but that was a rarity as well), I honestly couldn't predict how the book would end. Of course Edward Zani (different Edward!) would find a way to go to Juilliard....of course Tally would save New Pretty Town from Dr. Cable's evil ways...of course Betta will find a way through her grief by the end of Berg's Year of Pleasures. But here--don't you want Bella to be a vampire? Won't that ultimately be the end of the series, leaving the possibility for sequels and spin-offs, as the Uglies books have done? I certainly don't want a stupid Tuck Everlasting ending, that's for god damned sure. So, even though I was pretty sure Bella would be rescued...it wouldn't be awful if she wasn't. Just like when Harry sacrificed himself to get rid of Voldemort. It seemed wrong, but it was also heartbreakingly right. And as a bonus, forever-times with Eddie! (Oh, he's so not an Eddie. Sorry.)
Okay, this is ridiculous:
(and, I suppose, just what I deserved for trying to find a good image for this post)
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