I read through Chapter 6 (I am a fairly quick reader, and this is in no way a difficult read). It’s extraneously wordy, and obviously written for a YA audience (though, I found HP easily more involving).
That said, I don’t hate Bella. She is a bit whiney about her small town life. She is bookish and smart. Good for her, but a little less than willing to stand up for herself. Being obnoxiously clumsy myself, I would laugh at her self description of being the same, but it is over used as an excuse to be down on herself. The scenes from PE, though, are amusing…but in the first several chapters she seems like your average high school girl. It feels like the author went to a lot of trouble to toss in some feminist road flares to earn some street cred…maybe it’s just me…
Is Bella written intentionally w/o personality, except for the part where she is a little harsh to all of the people who are so nice to her, despite her many claims to have difficulty fitting in? She seems to be a bit of a boy magnet, and strikes me more as the type who wants to be invisible, despite being very well liked. This reads very much like her journal direct from under her mattress…complete w/ all the mundane details…
The exchange at the beach b/t her and Jacob upset me. Even though she admits it (to herself), she is being manipulative and unfair to this boy. She says she could easily be friends w/ this boy, so I don’t really care for the way that she treats him during this exchange. Also, the description of how she attempts to flirt w/ him is pretty funny, in that it feels forced in description. Meyer is trying a little too hard here.
She is obsessing over this “boy”, but she is a teenage girl. I remember what that is like.
I still find Edward a creepy stalker boy. The kind who toys w/ you, and thinks he is being cute by trying to convince the nice girl that he is really the cute bad boy. The description of him dragging her to his car after her near fainting incident is a little much. Inside Bella’s mind, she is sure that she couldn’t escape him if she wanted to. I am uncomfortable w/ this helpless imagery, it is too much like any type of assault that any young girl could experience at the hands of a young classmate.
I can’t say it enough, this behavior isn’t romantic, it is controlling and obsessive.
ETA: And then I got to this part: “I wanted nothing more than to be alone with my Perpetual Savior”.
*barf*