I know I've brought him up before, but of the most important philosophers in history one of them must be William of Okham. If only because you can ask a person "what's Okham's razor" and if they are even moderately read they will know what you are talking about. If they are well read they might even know that the "Okham" is a person. Either way they will know that the maxim of Okham's razor is that one should never make things more complicated than necessary. I'm not going to rag on Meyer for adding werewolves to her little world. Okham, was speaking about reality, and writing fiction doesn't apply--if only the author doesn't mess it up--no this is directed at Bella. Bella has no reason to think that Jacob is anything other than a human being.
Nothing, aside from a growth spurt, has been unusual about him. The stories about the werewolves from the mythology of his tribe he downplayed as being just mythology, something that the elders passed down. Somehow she divines werewolves from his hints, just as miraculously as she divined vampires even though she had no proof to go on.
We're now at the beach after a meaningless conversation at Jacob's house with his father. Jacob, in what always amounts to a high point for his character, is yelling at Bella for being a hypocrite. She's worried about Jacob because he's a werewolf and that bothers him, "Well, I'm so sorry that I can't be the right kind of monster for you, Bella. I guess I'm just not as great as a bloodsucker, am I?"
The mysterious voice of Edward returns to offer yet some more advice that it can't know to give.
The whole conversation is based on a misunderstanding. Bella thinks, rightfully, that Jacob and his pack (sigh) are killing the hikers. Jacob thinks Bella is upset because he turns into a wolf. It only gets settled because Jacob laughs it off and then explains that they don't kill people. That's right he laughs without explaining. It's one of the many problems in the book(s), we're set up with a genuine tense scene and then nothing becomes of it. Why not let her be mad for a couple of days forcing him or her to figure out what is really going on. Mystery would be a nice touch in a novel populated with mysterious beings. That would probably be a better book though.
The mystery with Laurent also gets settled as well, but that long ago left us because even a half assed reader could figure out what was going on with that one. It's curious that Bella gets upset because she thinks Jacob and his crew are murdering people but she was genuinely relieved when she saw Laurent who she knew murdered people, and also never really cared that Edward wanted to. Jacob explains a little more of his nature, "If I get too mad...too upset...you might get hurt."
Werewolves=The Incredible Hulk. I mean seriously, this is getting quite ridiculous. The parallels are there. Jacob is a normally decent person who refrains from getting angry, who visibly shakes when upset, but also turns into a larger than life being if it takes over? Please.
The murders are continuing, that we know. We also know why, without the explanation. That it's Victoria. Again, Meyer fired the gun too soon, this story could have been a genuinely interesting mystery about what was responsible for all the killings, but it's all been spoiled. The wolves have been hunting Victoria who has been hunting Bella. She tells Jacob this and then Jacob runs off for a second leaving a half conscious Bella alone on the beach. Alone, after finding out that a vampire has been desperately searching for her to fulfill some sort of revenge oath. Why did he run away? To communicate with the other wolves, not by howling, but by...ugh let's just have him tell it, "but we can hear thoughts...thoughts--each other's anyway--no matter how far from each other we are."
Another creature with telepathy. Is there anything that anything can't do in this story?
This is why I brought up Okham earlier. It's not that the story is getting too complex, it's just by piling on all these abilities it's getting too simplistic. How do the wolves communicate? telepathy. How do the vampires know how to prepare? Prophecy. How does Edward know Bella is in danger? telepathy. It serves to destroy any tension that could be brought to the story, at this point if anyone dies I'll just expect someone else to have a power to resurrect them. It's sad but the abusive relationship seemed to be the only thing that was actually tension worthy in the story, and you have no idea how hard it was to write that sentence out.
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