Eclipse (Audio)

by Stephenie Meyer

read by Ilyana Kadushin

-Twilight Series, Book 3-

(New York: Listening Library, 2007)

MP3 Audiobook, 850.1 MB, 16½ Hours, Young Adult Fiction

ISBN: 9780739356166, US$57.00

ABCD Rating: DITCH

From the Cover: Edward’s soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again. This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine—like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob – knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

My Review: Oh, what can I say about the audio version of Stephenie Meyer’s Eclipse that I haven’t already said about Twilight and New Moon? That after an initial love affair with the novels, I have come to not like the audiobooks at all? Check. That Ilyana Kadushin couldn’t read her way out of a wet, bottomless paper bag? She can’t. That Edward and Bella are in an abusive, co-dependent relationship that is not at all healthy? They are.

When you get right down to it, in spite of what I may have said previously … these novels are not all that good to begin with, and they suffer miserably in their audio format … yet, so far, Eclipse is the best of the three novels (and audiobooks, for all of Kadushin’s ineptitude). What redeems Eclipse where, say, Twilight and New Moon fail is that Meyer expands the scope of her underlying mythology. It is fascinating to hear about the history of the werewolves, the origin stories of Rosalie and Jasper, more of who the Volturi are and what they do, and in all honesty, Victoria is one of the better villains out there today. Oh, she’s not on the scale of a Hannibal Lecter, Jack Torrance, Dracula or Alex from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, but, for young adult literature, she’s one of the better bad gals out there.

Unfortunately, though, deeper mythology and a good villain don’t necessarily make up for a delinquency in writing, and the novels in this series are just not that well-written. The story is handled ham-handedly and if I hear one more thing about Edward’s perfect smile or how perfect he was I felt I was going through my iPod out of my car window onto I-5. (Well, maybe I wouldn’t do that … I don’t think Alisa would let me buy a replacement.) Now, I understand that this is how a teenage romance works (I do work with middle schoolers after all) but I find the Romeo-Juliet, Tristan-Iseult thing to be rather annoying. Maybe that’s just me showing my age, and perhaps the problem with me and the entire series … it doesn’t stand up to anything more than a cursory reading, and definitely does not stand up to audiobookness. It is an unforgiving format, in my mind, because all the warts are on display.

Then there is the whole “I’m going to take apart your engine so your car doesn’t start so you can’t see your werewolf friends” that Edward does (and Alice); dominating her life, telling her who she can see … this is the Hero and Claudio, the Paris and Helen of the New Millennium? (Well, maybe Hero and Claudio isn’t the best example but they certainly are a better aspiration than Catherine and Heathcliff.) The whole relationship is very unhealthy to my mind, and I don’t know that this is something that had I a tweenage daughter, I would be comfortable with her reading. I never thought that those words would be coming out of my mouth, ever, but there you go. Parenthood changes you.

Anyway, I’ll get down off my soapbox and stop ranting and just say that while Eclipse is certainly the best of the first three novels, it is by no means a good book. It has its moments, but on the whole, give the book a wide berth … especially in its audio incarnation.