In Which I Read Twilight: Chapter 19 -- Goodbyes · 4:05pm Feb 7th, 2018
Bella enters her house and begins packing as best she can, all while screaming out the door about how she hates Edward. Charlie keeps trying to ask what’s going on, but Bella’s nearly incoherent, yelling that she hates Forks and wants to go back to Phoenix. Then Charlie drops a bombshell: her mother, Renee, might be back in Phoenix at the end of the week, as Renee’s husband is having trouble finding a job in Florida (he’s a minor league baseball player, in case you’ve forgotten), but an Arizona team might have an opening. If he can’t find a job soon, he’ll be back in Phoenix in a week with Renee, so Charlie wants Bella to at least stay a week. (Why didn’t Bella know this? Isn’t she keeping in touch her own mother?) But Bella, committed to her plan, forces it off:
“Just let me go, Charlie.” I repeated my mother’s last words as she’d walked out this same door so many years ago. I said them as angrily as I could manage, and I threw the door open. “It didn’t work out, okay? I really, really hate Forks!”
Two things.
First, how does Bella know what her mother said when they left? Did Renee spend time giving blow-by-blow, word-by-word accounts of when she left Charlie? Why? We see later in the book that they’re pretty amicable towards each other, so she’s not the vindictive type who’d tell Bella how awesome it was when she left Charlie. And Bella can’t remember what was said, as the first chapter mentions she was only a few months old when it all happened.
Second, Renee divorced Charlie because she didn’t like where they were living? That’s probably something that should’ve come up before the marriage. Or the birth of the baby. And a pretty minor reason to end a marriage. Although now I can see where Bella got her shallowness and impulsiveness from.
Bella leaves her father behind, drives a bit, and meet with Edward. As he drives her to his house, he says James took the bait and is following them. I still say they should beat the crap out of him. Their talk turns to the coming days and Bella’s current panic over being stalked by a vampire.
“Bella, it’s going to be all right.”
“But it won’t be all right when I’m not with you,” I whispered.
“I’m being hunted by a crazed monster out for my blood, but not being with you is the thing I care about!” Honestly, Bella’s separation anxiety has been brought up so many times I can’t say anything else about it.
Bella asks why James is obsessed with her, specifically. Edward says her smell was enough, but when the Cullens and Hales — all skilled fighters (supposedly) — moved to protect her, it added a level of challenge to James’ hunt, and now he can’t turn away from her.
“I don’t think I have any choice but to kill him now,” he muttered. “Carlisle won’t like it.”
That was my first suggestion! And you know where he is: following your car! And Alice and Emmett are also following you! Stop driving and kill him now!
They arrive at the Cullens’ house, where James won’t try to attack tonight. Laurent is also waiting there. He warns them, saying James is “absolutely lethal” and there’s nothing that can stop him. I say they should fight him anyway. Seven-to-three odds aren’t bad, right? No, wait. Laurent says he won’t get involved; he’s ditching James to head to Alaska. It’s seven-to-two odds. Oh, and Edward’s mind reading can track James from miles away, so they can get the drop on him more easily. And Edward can examine James’ thoughts to see if he notices anything while they’re stalking him. Seriously, jump him now. (In fact, Edward says they’ll hunt him as soon as Bella’s gone. Why not do it now?)
Their plan: most of the vampires will try to lead James and Victoria (who, for some reason, is only referred to as “the female”) away, while Alice and Jasper take Bella to Phoenix. Why Phoenix, when she’d already given James the bait that she was going there? Supposedly, it’d be the last place anyone would look for her, precisely because she said she was going there. The world’s a big place, Bella. It’s not like a room, where you can search it in a few hours. If James heard Phoenix, he has a named place to start looking. And if he’s a good hunter (like Laurent claimed he was), he’ll be too smart to fall for something like that. But narrative fiat, I guess. With the plan agreed upon, Bella, Alice, and Jasper leave the Cullens’.
You're the only monster I want out for my blood!
Seriously, I'm beginning to suspect that Meyer may have... appropriated some of the ideas other than the romance. The disproportionate level of thought that goes into some of them versus the potential they present makes me wonder how many started in her head.
I can’t think of any word for this book except “bad”
And that bothers me...
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Bloated, shallow, disorganized, boring, soulless, bland...
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And then you read The Host and you're like where was this level of writing