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Wicca #12

Eclipse

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Morgan knows that a wave of destruction is on its way and everyone she loves is in danger, so she, Hunter, and a new ally join together to battle the dark powers in a fight that will test their abilities to the limit.

187 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

71 people are currently reading
3937 people want to read

About the author

Cate Tiernan

104 books3,812 followers
"was born in New Orleans, LA, in 1961. New Orleans is one of the most interesting American cities, and it has an incredibly rich and exotic culture that had a profound influence on me. Kids in other cities have lemonade stands; we sold voodoo gris-gris and made wax dolls in the likenesses of our enemies. It's a very beautiful city, and the constant heat and humidity make gardens grow out of control. There's an air of lassitude there, a general acceptance of eccentic or flamboyant behavior--the heat simply makes people do crazy things.

I went to school in New York, and after school went back to New Orleans. Then I went back to New York (Manhattan) and got a job in publishing and started writing. My first book, a young, middle-grade chapter book, was published in 1990.

Living in Manhattan was incredible, even though I didn't have a lot of money. There was so much to do and see, and so many interesting people to watch. There was a lot of frenetic energy there, and sometimes that felt very wearing and hard to live with. After eight years I was ready for a change, and my husband and I moved back to New Orleans. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

(While I was in NY, I helped edit "The Secret Circle" by L.J. Smith. I thought it was great.)

We stayed in New Orleans five years. By the time we had two small children we knew we had to find someplace safer to live. I was glad my children were born in New Orleans--I had been born there, and my father had, and his father had, and his father had and so on. There was something about the connection of generations of blood coming from one place that I found very primal and important.

Now I live in a cohousing community in Durham, NC. This is the most suburban place I've ever lived, and it's very different from living right in the middle of a city. For one thing, there aren't enough coffee shops. However, it's incredibly safe, and the community is very important to me. There are a lot of strong women here, and I find them inspiring.

Am I a witch? Well, no. Even Wicca is too organized a religion for me. I'm much more idiosyncratic and just need to do my own thing, which is kind of new-agey and pantheistic. It's not that I don't work or play well with others, but I need to decide for myself when I do a certain thing, and how I do it. However, I can really relate to Wicca, and I so appreciate its woman-centeredness and its essentially female identity. I love those aspects, among others.

I have several favorite writers. Barbara Hambly has been the biggest influence on how I describe magic. She's an incredibly imaginative and empathetic writer with a gift for creating a rich, sensual world. I love Barbara Pym, an English writer whose books came out mostly in the fifties. She was a master at describing the thousand tiny moments that make up a woman's day; how the seemingly small and inconsequential thing can suddenly take on a huge emotional importance. I greatly admire P.D. James. She's one of the very few writers who makes me actually look up words in the dictionary. She has a beautiful, precise, educated command of the language that leaves me in awe. I love Philip Larkin's poetry. I read a lot of nonfiction and also have some favorite romance writers. Before anyone groans, let me say that these women write really well about women trying to achieve emotional fulfillment, and that's kind of what we're all doing, right? I also just like reading about sex. Anyway, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and early Linda Howard are my faves.

And then of course there's my dark side, but more on that later.

" -Source

Cate Tiernan is a pseudonym for Gabrielle Charbonnet

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
Profile Image for julia ☆ [owls reads].
2,088 reviews416 followers
October 15, 2020
I'm not really sure how I feel about this? I really enjoyed Alisa, but some of the big moments in the novel fell a bit flat or were rushed. And we have different perspectives now, nearing the end, when most of the other books were all from Morgan's POV.
Profile Image for Amber J (Thereadingwitch).
1,165 reviews86 followers
May 9, 2021
Loved it. This one is back to the present day and crazy things are happening. We get to know Alisa more and better a lot of the character we are used to are not much in this one. This book is mostly focused on Alisa, Morgan, Hunter, and Hunter's father. This book doesn't end on a cliffhanger so I'm interested to see where the series takes the story from here.
Profile Image for Vanessa.
959 reviews1,213 followers
August 16, 2016
My continuation of reading the five final books in this series (that I never got to in my teen years) takes me to book 12 - Eclipse. I had absolutely no idea what this was going to be about, seeing as I read book 11 quite some time ago now. I like that though - the blurb's on the back of these books never really give anything away, so you can essentially go in blind.

I enjoyed the fact that this was told from a dual perspective - both Morgan and Alisa. Alisa is a relatively new character, and I did find her to be a little insufferable at times - she's an angsty teen who's mean to people for incredibly childish reasons, and her hatred of magick distressed me a little. Morgan I have always loved as a narrator, so I was happy to come back to her, but her life was so full of trouble and distress that the breaks to Alisa were welcome at times.

I was surprised at how much happened in this book that doesn't even reach 200 pages. However, there were some things that just felt too convenient, and the pacing was a bit off with most of the action happening within the last 50 pages.

Overall I enjoyed this, but it doesn't have the nostalgic factor of the others for me.
Profile Image for Jessica Di Salvio.
Author 7 books72 followers
September 29, 2024
Ce tome était pas mal. Commencé assez lentement et ennuyeux pour finalement aller vers quelque chose d’assez intense. C’était intéressant de voir Alisa enfin s’ouvrir à sa magye.

Mais c’est un roman pour ado… le méchant, même si là depuis plusieurs tomes, réussi à être vaincu par une ado de 17 ans et le monde (ou entka le village de Widow’s Vale) par une ado de 15 ans. Mouais… En même temps je ne m’attendais pas à mieux.

Sauf que la fin m’a laissé perplexe sur le pourquoi y’a 3 tomes de plus.
Profile Image for #ReadAllTheBooks.
1,219 reviews93 followers
October 29, 2010
Finally, the culmination of several story lines come into fruition. After so long in the series, I have to admit that part of me was getting impatient for this moment, when we'd finally see Morgan do battle against her blood father.

This entry in the series is narrated in two different voices- Morgan & Alisa. Morgan's blood father Ciaran is still on the loose & worse- he's managed to get rid of the watch sigil that Morgan inscribed on him. He's given Morgan an ultimatum- join him or perish. Meanwhile Alisa has been struggling with not only the realization that her soon to be stepmom isn't going anywhere, but that her mother was a witch- & a powerful one at that!

I really enjoyed this book. It has a great storyline to it & I didn't really mind the story jumping from Alisa to Morgan all that much. Parts of the book were more interesting to me than others, especially some revelations concerning Morgan & what her role might be for Woodbaynes everywhere on earth.

If you've been following the series faithfully, rest assured- this book will thrill you. If you've put the series aside for whatever reason, I really suggest that you pick the series back up so you can get to this book. It's worth it- this is a fantastic read. I know that there's 3 more books left in the series, so I'm curious to see how the story could be extended past this point.
Profile Image for Caroline.
351 reviews33 followers
June 6, 2022
I'l give this book a 3.5 star rating

There will be Spoilers below



I will continue reading the rest of the series but I'm currently waiting for my mail order to be delivered of the last 3 books of the series and I still had no luck in finding book 8: Changeling, but in the meantime, I will be reading other books, but keep an eye out for more Wicca reviews!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ben Alderson.
Author 31 books14.4k followers
October 20, 2013
four stars but still not perfect like the rest... maybe because its coming to the end of a HUGE series it will be abit weird and not really enjoyable... i think its because i know that this series will end for me soon and it makes me sad to think about it ! so i just keep having negative thoughts towards the series
Profile Image for Jenn G.
1,346 reviews62 followers
May 24, 2017
This series has been in my life for the last maybe 12 years... it's time I finish it haha! it wasn't my favorite but not the worst either! I'm not a fan of Alisa so her chapters weren't that great for me.
Profile Image for Marilyn Perras.
19 reviews
October 14, 2022
Excellent libre! Après un petit ralentissement au tome 9 de la série, le tome 12 permet de faire des liens entre les petites histoires et tient en alerte le lecteur du début à la fin!
Profile Image for Crystal K.
591 reviews8 followers
September 21, 2024
4 stars

The book alternates between Alisa's and Morgan's POVs,
Profile Image for Whitney.
123 reviews15 followers
January 12, 2016
Plot

Four books later and we’re finally getting to a resolution with Amyranth and Ciaran. Basically, it’s been a lot of hoopla for not much. It’s a very simple solution given to a nearly four-hundred-year-old problem. The solution seems to have been pulled out of thin air (or the author’s butt) and takes small pieces from Eclipse and the previous two books. There wasn’t much of a buildup, though there was at least a climax.

Writing

On one hand, I think parts of the writing in Eclipse was done very well. Each alternating chapter switches between Morgan and Alisa. The difference in their voices is much greater than between Morgan and Hunter or Rose. It was well done, I believe. However, there is some bad parts to this book’s writing. There are two major plot holes/continuity errors that I found. The editor should have caught this and made Tiernan go back and fix it. With them in place, the plot for the book actually falls apart because it doesn’t make sense given what was already stated as fact in previous books.

There’s a lot of very clumsy exposition in Strife. The way things were set up was so clunky. It was very obvious where things were going and there was nothing that the reader couldn’t immediately and correctly guess. It was terribly done, which is weird because while there’s nothing the reader couldn’t guess before, it has never been this bad.

Characters

Half the book is in Alisa’s POV so we get to experience more with her that isn’t in the form of journal entries. Unfortunately, she’s very unbearable for the majority of the book. She’s very judgmental and very rude to her stepmother-to-be, Hilary. She has no real reason to be acting the way she does and nobody ever calls her out on it. She improved somewhat by the end of the book, but I’m not looking forward to spending time with her in Reckoning, the next book in the series.

Things I Liked

I liked that there was a clear difference in the POV between Morgan and Alisa. You could tell, even without looking at the chapter title, who’s head you were in. That was well done. I also liked how the part where Alisa was creating the spell against the dark wave was written. It was a very tense couple of pages and the stress Alisa felt was very palpable.

Things I Didn't Like

There were to gaping plot holes, and there was no reason for them to be there. An editor should have seen and had them corrected. The first plot hole deals with Ciaran. Literally in Strife, three books ago, the reader and Morgan are told that Ciaran was in custody. That’s why they reversed the spell on the witch’s jar. There wasn’t an explanation that said that the council lied to them about Ciaran or anything so it’s best to assume it was a major error on Tiernan’s part.

The other plot hole deals with the dark wave. We know for a fact that the dark wave can and has killed non-witches. The Presbyterian minister in Origins and countless other non-witches in Lillipool were killed by the first dark wave. But now, all of a sudden, non-witches aren’t “powerful enough” to be hurt by the dark wave? Then why did Morgan worry about the members of Kithic? It makes no sense, and neither does Alisa being able to perform the spell and live because she’s “half and half”.

Diversity

Alisa has been confirmed to be half Latina. The actual term used is “Hispanic”, but she’s Latina.

Overall

It’s taken forever to get to this point in the story, and now that we’re here it seems a bit underwhelming. The scene dealing with the dark wave was great, but the series is a little long, and there’s still three more books to go. Eclipse has its problems, but it was must easier to get through than the other books, probably because it was set at a faster pace.

Here is a link to my notes.
Profile Image for Kat Mandu.
186 reviews8 followers
September 2, 2016
Kat Mandu says...

An evil wave of dark magick capable of destroying entire cities and all life within it is hunting Morgan. She has to team up with Hunter, his recently discovered father, and half-witch Alisa to stop it from claiming anyone else she loves.

The spellcrafting is so much more complicated in this book compared to the others. It’s kind of like reading about someone going up against their greatest enemy—knowing the territory inside out, which weaknesses to exploit, how to catch your opponent off guard. It’s a great battle of good versus evil. The action of the scene is nice, but after it’s all over, the happy ending is a bit too… anticlimactic? I didn’t like the abrupt feeling of, “Holy shit, it’s over.” It just seemed too bleh after all that.

This book is the first in the series narrated by two characters at once. Morgan, I can handle. Alisa I cannot. The fourteen-year-old just drives me batty. There’s a scene where she walks into Morgan’s room while Morgan is “resting” to ask a question. She calls out for Morgan and then wonders how Morgan knew she was there without opening her eyes to see her. Alisa angrily blames it on Morgan’s “scary witch powers.” No, dumb ass. You walked into the room and said her name. Of course she knew it was you because she recognized your voice! Oi vey.

And Alisa’s turn-around is ridiculous. She goes from being freaked out enough to send a letter to the government about witchcraft to, “oh, okay, sure I’ll do a spell even though I might die.” Really? Finding out you are half-witch made you realize you weren’t very competent and that witchcraft isn’t so bad? Ugh, I’ve always disliked hearing from Alisa.

I like the magick. I love how the characters are feeling the effects of the dark wave; it shows blood witches tend to have more vulnerabilities than I originally thought. I like that Daniel Niall gets to punch Ciaran and that Morgan turns out to be stronger than her biological father. I do wish Killian stayed longer, he is one of my favorite characters. *le sigh*

Over all, a pretty good book. But be warned, Alisa is the big turn off here.
Profile Image for Rianne Heartfilia.
500 reviews29 followers
July 28, 2015
This book made me realize how different I'm from Morgan or Alisa. Both of the girls tell that they are not the heroine type. And it's not because I want to brag, it's actually not a very good trait. I'm a person that can think quite cleary when under pressure. That's a good trait when you've got projects at school, deadlines.
It's not a good trait in friendship. I had a clique. My best friend was like Morgan. Shy, not outspoken, still had an opinion but she barely said it. She only was a liar, something I don't think Morgan is. However when you are the person who keeps everything together, it's horrible to have this trait. I was annoyed by everything without a planning or another example my best friend never made her homework and she was failing junior year. I helped her but she still didn't do it. We of course had a fight about something so silly.

I rather not have this heroine-trait as Morgan calls it. Especially not now anymore. I tried to put it away but that's not who I am. And I'm done with running away. I'm done with being someone else. Alisa her quote about being someone for fifteen years to find out you are someone else. I had the same when I was fifteen and I'm glad who I am now. I don't want to be that person before I was fifteen again. I want to be myself, no longer lie who I am. I know that it includes bad traits but everyone has them and you just have to learn to live with that. I know I can be mad very easily but I also know that friends are like my family. Everyone has good and bad traits and so has Morgan. She is honest, puts friends, family etc. on the first place and sometimes she keeps a secret. Not a problem. I like her. I believed that we would be friends. She is not my ex-best-friend, actually Morgan is better.
Profile Image for Stephanie Bain.
207 reviews47 followers
November 8, 2015
I dont even know what to write here anymore...
Like seriously the series is so good!! I love it and i know it will only get kore awesome... Wtf is going to happen in the last 3 books idk but im excited to find out :)!!!
Profile Image for Shirley.
988 reviews233 followers
March 17, 2015
I loved it, only the chapters from Alisa weren't that interesting. I like to read in Morgan's POV not Alisa's.
Profile Image for Musaritch.
214 reviews2 followers
October 27, 2024
C'était bien mais certainement moins bien que le tome précédent. J'ai quand même bien aimé retrouver Morgan, Hunter et Alisa.

Dans ce tome-ci Morgan refuse toujours de rejoindre son père dans ses délires diabolique. Du coup le géniteur décide simplement de la tuer elle et tous ceux qu'elle aime par une vague noir. Tu m'étonnes qu'elle veuille pas le suivre. Puis du coup ils commencent tous à tomber malade aka bientôt la mort. Ils ont trouvé un sort qui annulé la vague sombre, mais si un sorcier l'utilise il a de grande chance de mourir. Mais bonne nouvelle Alisa, la meilleure amie de la petite sœur de Morgan, découvre qu'elle est une demi-sorciere ! Ça c'est un sacré coup de bol ! Du coup, elle apprend le sort, entre temps ils retirent les pouvoirs du méchant daron de Morgan. Alisa utilise le sort et bim bada boum, tous le monde est sauvé. On dirait la fin de la saga alors qu'il reste 3 tomes.

Déjà dans le tome 11, je savais qu'Alisa était une sorcière et je ne comprenais pas que personne ne le voyait. Bon enfin c'est aspect là est résolu ! J'avoue j'avais vraiment peur qu'en devienne méchante, ou refuse simplement le fait qu'elle soit une sorcière. Mais Dieu merci non. Autre chose j'avais vraiment l'impression que Morgan allait rejoindre son père à la fin du roman en mode "On a plus le temps, je viens avec toi papou chéri mais tu arrêtes de tuer mes amis.". Mais en fin de compte non. C'est quand même cool de voir que la saga n'est pas partie dans des clichés, mais d'un autre côté je pense que j'aurais aimé ça voir Morgan passer un peu de l'autre côté...

À dessiner : Une montre, une boîte à bijoux, un cimetière et/ou de gros nuages bien sombres.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Kathryn.
888 reviews22 followers
November 2, 2022
October 2022 re-read, paperback.

I first read this series twenty (?!) years ago and when I saw most of the series available at a library booksale, I snatched it up for a re-read.
I have been very conscientious the last few years in what media I consume, putting an emphasis on "whatever is good" (Phil 4:8) and I can say that the magic(k) in these books is so over the top they reach Harry Potter like levels of fantasy. The compulsion to keep reading comes from the interpersonal drama and slowly revealed backstory of the main character. That being said, pick these up with a healthy dose of discernment. They remind me of a WB teen drama (have I sufficiently dated myself yet?) and one can't tear through them fast enough.
I think books 1-6 are the strongest, with a satisfying arc that resembles the first season of a TV show. Around 7-8 the magic(k) goes way beyond plausibility, 9 is where the narrative begins to lose steam, and 10-14 are titles narrated by other characters that takes away from the story's focus. The introduction of Alisa as a 'spin-off' main character in 12 feels pointless when she's given a storyline almost identical to Morgan's.
Profile Image for Isabella.
152 reviews17 followers
August 18, 2017
2.75
I read this two days ago and I've already forgotten a lot of the details. I've known for some time that this whole series could and should have been wrapped up into 4-5 books max. It's ridiculously long and unnecessary, but regardless we finally did get some actually sizable development in the plot this time.
Alisa is terribly annoying. I mean if you haven't figured that out prior to this, then prepare for you to have it hit you in the face. I can't image she wasn't meant to at least be kind or annoying. I think my main issue with her was her immaturity. I mean she's 15, so I get it, but she definitely has only child syndrome and also is kinda like obsessed with Morgan? Like she will being her into anything and apparently thinks often of different aspects of her.
The other plot stuff was fine. Glad we finally tied up some loose ends. If it wasn't for the Alisa narrative in this, it'd be at least a 3.5.
Profile Image for Darianna.
522 reviews
February 26, 2022
Este otro libro de la saga es sobre la perspectiva de Alissa y enterarnos de cómo piensa y de cómo se sintió al descubrir su verdadera herencia y quien fue su verdadera madre realmente.
Lo que hace que Alissa se sienta más confundida y con respecto a eso al descubrir el secreto de su madre que fue una bruja de sangre con poderes telequinéticos y que se deshizo de ellos por que les tenía miedo a ellos y no sabía cómo controlarlos, lo que la ocurre actualmente a ella que parece que heredó sus poderes y no sabe controlarlos por que recientemente descubrió que es una bruja de sangre.
Por eso Alisa emprende una aventura en solitario para conocer a la familia de su madre y saber mas de ella y de sus poderes.
La parte que no entendí fue cuando Morgan, Hunter y Alissa se enfrentaron a la amenaza de la ola oscura en momento ocurrió en la historia por que se habla muy poco sobre eso.
Profile Image for Thomas.
317 reviews11 followers
January 18, 2022
Why this book is called Eclipse, I still don't know; it should have been called "Wave" or something like that. Other than that, there was a lot going on, which I liked because the writing style was very visual, almost like a telenovela (so were most other ones). There is not that much psychological development, even though we spend most of the time inside Morgan's (and now also Alisa's) head.

New favorite quote though:

'Morgan,” he [= Hunter] said, and underlying his smooth voice was a fine edge of anger. “You’re being very provincial. Unsophisticated. Close-minded.'

LMAO
Profile Image for Leoni Dempsey.
140 reviews14 followers
July 22, 2019
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me!! After the slightly random book 11 (Origins), I was delighted to see the return of Ciaran, a witch so bad he is good! The news of an impending dark wave set to destroy Widow’s Vale added an extra shock! I also enjoyed reading the book from the alternating perspectives of Morgan and Alisa 😊 going to have a short break from the series to read some crime now but looking forward to reading book 13 very soon (although feeling sad that my re-read of the series is nearly coming to an end!) 😞
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Grenae.
73 reviews
March 30, 2020
It was good like how it progressed the story. I'm glad that Morgan's father has finally been stopped and they stripped him of his powers. That it seems like a Hunter's father can finally heal and move on. And oh my God I am so happy that Alisa finally found out that she is a witch like the moment all that weird telekinesis stuff start happening and she was always there I knew it was her I'm glad they finally just put it out there in like she's a witch and I like that she was a very important key part in stopping the dark wave. I'm so close to the end three more books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Laura Williamson.
4 reviews
April 28, 2018
One of my favourites in the series, more action packed, more character development, more emotional. New appreciation for Alisa and the complex relationship between Ciaran and Morgan. As ever though, these books are terribly written. I love the plot, the characters (to a point, they could definitely be improved upon) - I'm always left thinking the entire series needs to be rewritten and fleshed out better.
Profile Image for Nikki.
129 reviews7 followers
April 12, 2019
I’ve really taken my time reading this series and I’m very excited that there are only 3 more books to go. I love Morgan and she impresses me more each time she uses and gets to know the magick that she possesses. Alisa really stepped up in this book and I was cheering her along and it definitely felt like a challenge getting to know and like Hunter’s father and I felt just as Morgan did about his acceptance of her. I can’t wait for more!
Profile Image for Valérie Montour.
417 reviews
July 19, 2021
REREAD/RELECTURE // THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!! Hunter est redevenu gentil, donc merci. Au début je redoutais un peu les passages avec Alisa, mais finalement, ce personnage est vraiment intéressant. C'était insane la capture de Ciaran et le sortilège pour vaincre la vague sombre! J'ai trouvé que le livre était bien équilibré et qu'il avait un bon nombre d'action. Le côté magique était très hot.
Profile Image for Amelia.
280 reviews11 followers
July 10, 2023
This is ridiculous. The thing that we've been waiting for to happen for the last four books or so was handled, solved, and dismantled by a person who doesn't even want to be a witch. I am so glad we are turning the corner and the finish line of this series is only three books long. I can do it, I think I can. Whew, we will see.
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