NOTES/THOUGHTS/REACTIONS:
You know, I was kind of hopeful about the Florida trip? I thought "wow, maybe there'll be great insight to Renee's character and we'll start seeing why Bella is the way she is." Plus I was interested in seeing how Edward would have handled the sun aspect of Florida. Instead, we get NOTHING. Seriously, Meyer skips the whole damn trip! This chapter starts off when they are landing in Washington FROM COMING BACK and we get a wee little flashback with Renee which only serves to say "Edward and Bella BELONG together! If you can't see that, you're an idiot!". That's it. The end. Can we say COP OUT? A better author would have written the trip out and used it as character developement, but no. Meyer can't be bothered with that and thus I'm left wondering why she even bothered having this plot device at all if she wasn't going to freaking write it in! Oh, and what is this:
Phil was busy-the high school baseball team he coached was in the playoffs-
From Eclipse, Chapter 3
Um...what? I thought Phil was a professional baseball player? He went to Florida because he got signed to a team? What happened to that? He suddenly changed careers? I'm sensing author goof or there was a story there that Meyer forgot to put into New Moon that she thought she had covered, aka PLOTHOLE. Or it was covered in New Moon, I just missed it because I was too busy banging my head at Bella's stupidity. Plothole seems more likely though.
As for the Bella and Edward belong together!moment, that is in the conversation that Bella remembers with her mother. Renee expresses legit concern about how close Bella and Edward are. Now, she does it in the wrong way, she should have said "honey, you have no LIFE except for this one guy! He controls practically every move you make!" But we can't have that in here, because that would imply there is actually something wrong in this relationship! So Meyer writes Renee's concerns wrongly to make it sound like she's being silly and Bella acts accordingly and basically tells her mother she's being stupid. Have I mentioned I hate the way Bella treats her parents?
Back to the present, Bella and Edward say hi to Charlie (who is of course rude to Edward in Bella's opinion simply because he doesn't kiss the ground Edward walks on like she does) and it turns out Jacob has been calling.
He just happens to call when they get home and basically the conversation goes "what do you want? You back? Okay then, bye." Meyer, queen of pointless scenes in her books which is why these things are so damn long. Bella wonders what that pointless conversation was about (I did too) and since she is the only one who knows Jacob so well (excuse me while I laugh) she ponders his motives and comes to the conclusion he was making sure she was still human and is horrified. Um...why? We already covered this situation in New Moon. She KNOWS the minute she gets bitten the treaty is over, WE know it. The only possible reason this whole pointless scene is to make Jacob look like more of an ass to have an aww moment for Bella/Edward fans. Ugh.
Cut to next day at school and Jacob is there! Edward tries to make Bella stay in the car (cue sexist moment), she refuses, and then Edward and Jacob have what I call a "my dick is bigger than yours" moment. There are a lot of these moments in Twilight, I've noticed. This is also yet another sexist moment because why these two are machoing out, poor wittle defenseless Bella is between them and hopelessly torn and close to tears. God, excuse me while I YACK. Never mind that the actual teenage girl going to high school nowadays would not being doing this. She would either a) Smack both of them and stalk off (I had a few friends in school who would have called them morons before hand), b) Enjoyed the heck out of it because in high school, boys fighting over you tends to up your coolness factor (though it also comes with the added occasional whispered "ho"), c) Would have been embarressed about the whole thing and just walked off. But close to tears in helplessness and frozen in the middle of the whole thing? I don't think so. Seriously, Meyer is fairly young, right? She would have gone to school in the eighties/nineties? I would think she would have witnessed a few boys fighting over a girl to know what actual reactions a girl would have to the situation. Enough to know that this scenario is completely sexist and downright stupid.
Anyway, during the "my dick is bigger than yours" moment, we learn that Victoria was in town and Edward was keeping it from her, that's why he was so keen on her going to Florida. Okay. But she still could have gone to Florida on her own or with Alice. Instead of getting pissed at Edward like a normal girl would have, Bella cries and goes into near hysterics. Seriously, Meyer, what the hell? Girls pre-feminism era would have more of a backbone then this. Plus, what happened to that "wanting to be equals thing?" that I've noticed has not been mentioned once in this book. If she wants to be equals, Bella wouldn't burst into tears at the merest hint of danger. She'd put on her big girl panties and deal with it(and if Edward wanted them to be equals, which I don't he does, he would have told her what was going on).
I love Jacob for pointing out that Edward is a controlling ass. Edward and Bella don't like this very much of course (the truth hurts) and after a timely intervention by the principal, Jacob leaves (only after we learn Jacob still has her bike, cue foreshadow to how they'll start talking again). Then we have Bella and Edward passing notes in class (using standard font) where Bella demands to know what happened. She is then horrified by the knowledge (Alice has to FIGHT! How horrible! She's a GIRL!) then there's talk about trip where Edward all but says Bella is completely helpless without him. Um...can we say abuse flag? I'm pretty sure most experts on abuse would raise their eyebrows at this and start muttering about verbal abuse and looking more closely at the relationship. Just...good God. This is the relationship being hailed as True Love? Oh, and then there's some rot on the guys taking bets on who would win in a fight, Edward or Jacob (Mike is for Jacob because you know he's a jerk, and loveable Ben is for Edward). I meanwhile am still reeling from the blatant sexism and obvious controlling boyfriend tendencies.
WORD LIST: none for this chapter. Go Meyer!
GENERAL ANNOYANCES: After the long flight-chasing the sun westward so that it seemed unmoving in the sky- a)Why are we getting a paragraph devoted to weather? B) What?
She wanted to show off the beauties of her new home.-Renee has been living there for about three years now. It's not a new home.
She still looked at Phil with goo-goo eyes-Yes, Bella, way to make your Mom's romance with her HUSBAND seem juvenile compared to your own completely mature romance with the guy you want to have sex with but don't want to marry because of how it would look to other people.
I love how Bella is insisting she and Edward belong together, yet she still takes time to check out Jacob (but only does so because other people in the school are doing it, not her, no siree)
The blatant sexism.
Bella in tears AGAIN.
Bella in general. Edward in general. Kind of half and half on Jacob.
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