One point on which Cleolinda and I differ is the porn factor of these books. For her it’s mushy vampire romance, which she both loves and laughs her ass off at. For me it’s Jacob Black running around shirtless and getting naked at any opportunity…granted, it’s so that he can turn into a wolf, but the mental picture remains. He’s so much more my type than Edward, though he’s at least a foot taller than I’d like.

The thing is, he’s more Bella’s type too, in that they actually have some ordinary human chemistry, a solid relationship based on how much they enjoy spending time together, in sharp contrast to “we’re just in love, okay? don’t question it” Bella + Edward. The vampire twit was out of the picture for most of the novel, which was great, except that Bella moped about him for most of the novel, which wasn’t. I wasn’t keen on the creation of a love triangle, but it could have been interesting if we’d been able to believe for one moment that Bella might have second thoughts about being with Edward. Unfortunately she’s not allowed to, so there’s no real conflict or suspense.

This novel also introduces Meyer’s vampire elders, the Volturi. They’re pretty corny. The conceit that they could exterminate an entire tour group without anyone noticing is hilarious.

This was the point in the series where I was surprised to find that, after many years of being into vampires, I suddenly started to find werewolves a lot more appealing.