At the end of the last book, I felt that only two characters were really worth being interested in. That is if they were two characters in a different story. One was Jacob, he seemed nice and genuinely caring toward Bella. So far, that has been maintained here but now he's pretty much a doormat for the narcissistic Bella. The other character was Alice. I liked Alice because she represented an interesting paradox, she was someone that could see the future and yet wasn't crippled by the boredom that knowing what was going to happen always did. She remained cheerful despite the crushing knowledge that the fate of her family was essentially in her hands. Now, because Meyer has run out of ways to use the primary and secondary characters that have occupied most of this book (I can't use the word "plot") she comes back to us.
Is this a good thing? Well, I'm torn here. Alice is waiting for Bella in her house. It's strange though because upon reading it was her I was filled with dread. One thing I have learned about this series, and this writer, is that the more we spend time with a character the more they will become less likeable. Bella, of course is ecstatic that Alice has returned, she no longer has to go slumming with the wolves on the reservation. They almost make out because Alice has forgotten to eat before she came over. And we're starting to lose Alice now...
Alice, who can see the future forgot to grab a little snack before hanging out with the delicious human. Seems like an odd omission for her. Alice however serves another purpose, and that is to move the plot along lest we become inflicted with twenty pages of Bella's groveling. She gets to the point, "Speaking of which, would you like to explain to me how you're still alive?"
For you grammar sticklers out there, yes Meyer is wrong. The question mark is incorrect. Question marks are to be used at the end of sentences that would be considered questions or requests. Not at the end of an imperative sentence in which one person tells another to explain something. Alice was being nice in her wording but that wasn't a request.
She is of course referring to the cliff diving earlier. The dive that she should have in no way survived. The fall yes, but the water no. A fishing trawler should have picked her up in their nets six months from now. Alice is angry, she yells at Bella for jumping off of the cliff, although she tends to view it as a suicide attempt. She gets some points in my book for yelling at her. It seems someone finally gets to call Bella out for her selfishness. Bella denies this, but can she honestly do so? During her free fall she was happy, during her under the sea moment she told everyone who matters (re: Eddie) goodbye. Alice is right to be angry with her although Alice didn't see the complete event. Her prescience missed the fact that Jacob pulled her out of the water, probably because Alice's foresight can only work on things that are possible and not plot contrivances.
"Someone pulled you out?"
"Yes. Jacob saved me?"
Alice sniffs her for some reason. In my version of this story Alice is self aware that she's in a story (because of the future) and remarks, "the god of this world is so stupid."
In the actual story though, Alice detects a bad smell. Now Bella is left with a decision, does she spill the beans on Jacob and the pack for being...well, an actual pack or should she clam up? She's dealing with the prescient Alice, so the odds are that she knows what Jacob and the rest of them are. But she doesn't know whether Alice knows. So she ought to just follow the moral of the story in the MAD TV short "Ragin' Rudolph"--to "always keep your fucking mouth shut."
She doesn't and her reasoning, "It was too hard to keep secrets, I decided. Jacob knew everything, why not Alice too?"
I've had this conversation with various people I know. It's not hard to keep a secret, you just don't say anything. That's it. It's not like a secret is pressure that needs to be released. There are only two reasons that people reveal secrets: the first is to feel important, to brag that they know something that no one else knew before they said it. This reason is hilarious when everyone already knew. The second is to kiss up to the person you are telling the secret to. As if to say "you are important so I'm going to let you in on something, and remember who told you." Bella isn't telling Alice, she's telling the Cullens and by extension Edward. Clearly she's doing this for reason number two.
Her other reason that "Jacob knew everything" is total bullshit. It's not the same situation. Jacob and the wolves knew everything before Bella was in the picture. They had it figured out on their own. Further, Alice should already know, but for some reason she doesn't and I bet I can guess why, but it won't make any sense.
It's the same reason that Laurent was killed by the werewolves. Meyer is going to claim that vampires' powers don't work on werewolves. Maybe one on one Laurent had a chance but there were five of them. She's going to limit the vampiric special powers on the wolves. Edward's telepathy, and the other one's emotional manipulation won't work on them. If that's the case, then it STILL doesn't explain Alice's blindness. Remember what James said at the end of the last book, Alice was psychic before she was turned.
Bella recounts the story up until this point, we are thankfully spared the recreation. Alice leaves to get clothes, although I'm not sure from where. I'm also curious because Alice claimed that she flew to Forks, yet she was driving Carlisle's car. Have they been hiding in the area the whole time? That would be both convenient and stupid. That's not the case because Alice was in Denali visiting Tanya's family, whoever the hell that is.
Charlie comes home. Charlie had something of a crush on Alice we found out earlier, so he's kind of happy to see her. Bella wakes up the next morning eavesdropping on a conversation between Alice and Charlie. Alice gets Charlie to go over everything that happened after the break up. It's a nice scene because it really does make us sympathize with Charlie as a father as he details his helplessness with Bella. It's also nice because for the first time we are dropped hints that he doesn't want Edward to come back.
A day or two goes by (shouldn't Spring break be over by now?) and the doorbell rings. Alice looks up then excuses herself assuming a lack of foresight is foresight itself. Bella puts it together, although this time she actually has the information to do so, "you can't see werewolves?"
-She grimaced. "So it would seem." She was obviously annoyed by this fact--very annoyed."
I'm annoyed too. It doesn't make sense but I've already covered why not two paragraphs ago. What doesn't make even more sense is that if we accept that she couldn't see Jacob rescuing her from the water, that meant that she saw Bella die and then that's it? Couldn't she have checked her future at a later date just to see if she pulled through?
Alice leaves before Jacob enters. Apparently werewolves and vampires can't be in the same room together. More likely I wouldn't want to see the two most likable characters become like everyone else in the same scene. That would be too much.
Is this a good thing? Well, I'm torn here. Alice is waiting for Bella in her house. It's strange though because upon reading it was her I was filled with dread. One thing I have learned about this series, and this writer, is that the more we spend time with a character the more they will become less likeable. Bella, of course is ecstatic that Alice has returned, she no longer has to go slumming with the wolves on the reservation. They almost make out because Alice has forgotten to eat before she came over. And we're starting to lose Alice now...
Alice, who can see the future forgot to grab a little snack before hanging out with the delicious human. Seems like an odd omission for her. Alice however serves another purpose, and that is to move the plot along lest we become inflicted with twenty pages of Bella's groveling. She gets to the point, "Speaking of which, would you like to explain to me how you're still alive?"
For you grammar sticklers out there, yes Meyer is wrong. The question mark is incorrect. Question marks are to be used at the end of sentences that would be considered questions or requests. Not at the end of an imperative sentence in which one person tells another to explain something. Alice was being nice in her wording but that wasn't a request.
She is of course referring to the cliff diving earlier. The dive that she should have in no way survived. The fall yes, but the water no. A fishing trawler should have picked her up in their nets six months from now. Alice is angry, she yells at Bella for jumping off of the cliff, although she tends to view it as a suicide attempt. She gets some points in my book for yelling at her. It seems someone finally gets to call Bella out for her selfishness. Bella denies this, but can she honestly do so? During her free fall she was happy, during her under the sea moment she told everyone who matters (re: Eddie) goodbye. Alice is right to be angry with her although Alice didn't see the complete event. Her prescience missed the fact that Jacob pulled her out of the water, probably because Alice's foresight can only work on things that are possible and not plot contrivances.
"Someone pulled you out?"
"Yes. Jacob saved me?"
Alice sniffs her for some reason. In my version of this story Alice is self aware that she's in a story (because of the future) and remarks, "the god of this world is so stupid."
In the actual story though, Alice detects a bad smell. Now Bella is left with a decision, does she spill the beans on Jacob and the pack for being...well, an actual pack or should she clam up? She's dealing with the prescient Alice, so the odds are that she knows what Jacob and the rest of them are. But she doesn't know whether Alice knows. So she ought to just follow the moral of the story in the MAD TV short "Ragin' Rudolph"--to "always keep your fucking mouth shut."
She doesn't and her reasoning, "It was too hard to keep secrets, I decided. Jacob knew everything, why not Alice too?"
I've had this conversation with various people I know. It's not hard to keep a secret, you just don't say anything. That's it. It's not like a secret is pressure that needs to be released. There are only two reasons that people reveal secrets: the first is to feel important, to brag that they know something that no one else knew before they said it. This reason is hilarious when everyone already knew. The second is to kiss up to the person you are telling the secret to. As if to say "you are important so I'm going to let you in on something, and remember who told you." Bella isn't telling Alice, she's telling the Cullens and by extension Edward. Clearly she's doing this for reason number two.
Her other reason that "Jacob knew everything" is total bullshit. It's not the same situation. Jacob and the wolves knew everything before Bella was in the picture. They had it figured out on their own. Further, Alice should already know, but for some reason she doesn't and I bet I can guess why, but it won't make any sense.
It's the same reason that Laurent was killed by the werewolves. Meyer is going to claim that vampires' powers don't work on werewolves. Maybe one on one Laurent had a chance but there were five of them. She's going to limit the vampiric special powers on the wolves. Edward's telepathy, and the other one's emotional manipulation won't work on them. If that's the case, then it STILL doesn't explain Alice's blindness. Remember what James said at the end of the last book, Alice was psychic before she was turned.
Bella recounts the story up until this point, we are thankfully spared the recreation. Alice leaves to get clothes, although I'm not sure from where. I'm also curious because Alice claimed that she flew to Forks, yet she was driving Carlisle's car. Have they been hiding in the area the whole time? That would be both convenient and stupid. That's not the case because Alice was in Denali visiting Tanya's family, whoever the hell that is.
Charlie comes home. Charlie had something of a crush on Alice we found out earlier, so he's kind of happy to see her. Bella wakes up the next morning eavesdropping on a conversation between Alice and Charlie. Alice gets Charlie to go over everything that happened after the break up. It's a nice scene because it really does make us sympathize with Charlie as a father as he details his helplessness with Bella. It's also nice because for the first time we are dropped hints that he doesn't want Edward to come back.
A day or two goes by (shouldn't Spring break be over by now?) and the doorbell rings. Alice looks up then excuses herself assuming a lack of foresight is foresight itself. Bella puts it together, although this time she actually has the information to do so, "you can't see werewolves?"
-She grimaced. "So it would seem." She was obviously annoyed by this fact--very annoyed."
I'm annoyed too. It doesn't make sense but I've already covered why not two paragraphs ago. What doesn't make even more sense is that if we accept that she couldn't see Jacob rescuing her from the water, that meant that she saw Bella die and then that's it? Couldn't she have checked her future at a later date just to see if she pulled through?
Alice leaves before Jacob enters. Apparently werewolves and vampires can't be in the same room together. More likely I wouldn't want to see the two most likable characters become like everyone else in the same scene. That would be too much.
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