New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2)

Maybe I'm being stuffy, maybe I'm out of touch now that I'm an old lady of 28. But I generally like quality young adult fantasies, and I liked the original book a lot.

What got me about this one, like others have mentioned, was Bella's inability to function without her boyfriend, and later without a man in general. Like Charlie told her, she's not the first one to have gone through a break-up or have her heart broken. I wish she would have just sucked it up, gone on with her life, maybe gotten ANGRY with Edward for being such a drama queen. Instead it's wah, wah, wah, I've lost everything. Even though I have a home, two parents who love me, friends who are willing to support me even though I dropped them to be with a guy...none of it means anything because my true wuv, my high school boyfriend of one year, is gone. Boo-friggin' hoo, Bella. Her identity is so wrapped up in her boyfriend that her conscience speaks in his voice. Gag me.

Then, naturally, the only person to pull her out of her depression is another boy, and naturally she can't just tell him she ISN'T INTERESTED before things spin out of control. She thinks she's ready to become a vampire, but she can't break it off with a dude. It just bothered me.

All that aside, I liked the parts where Bella wasn't moping! :)

Anyone who enjoyed the first book but found the phrasing repetitive and the character of Bella to be mildly annoying, be warned.

Pgs 1-70 are actually interesting, aside from Bella being a brat about turning 18

Pgs 70-400 are basically the plot of the first book, recycled, with Jacob as the new love interest. As with Edward, she shuns the other kids at school, wants to spend all her time with him, and, when she finds out what he really is, she embraces it, meets the family...etc etc.

pgs 400-the end are essentially the only novelty to the book. Even so, it's ruined by the fact that Bella is so helpless and insecure. I don't understand why Edward loves you either, Bella, but he does. And I don't want to have to read 500 pages of him convincing you of that.

This book is basically ACT II of the first book, but with a few less obnoxious descriptions of Edward's bronze hair/marble body/topaz eyes, and a few more obnoxious descriptions of the aching hole/depression in Bella's soul when Edward leaves her.

Bella morphs from being slightly annoying and whiny, to being completely pathetic. Her world revolves around Edward, so when he leaves, she is left in a catatonic state...until eventually she decides to rebel and do crazy things, in the hopes that she might hear his voice (oh yes, that velvet voice of his is in this book too, and velvet must be on Meyer's 'favorite adjectives list").

But then Bella finds reason for living again, in the arms of another man, Jacob. Her basic attraction to him is based on...wait for it..."she's less miserable with him". Hmmm....the co-dependent latches on again. She completely leads him on, because the whole time she is with him, she is still thinking about Edward and how she can reunite her crazy messed up head with a precious delusion of him.

In the end, Edward and Jacob are mortal enemies (oh no!) and Bella is left choosing between the man who is the world to her, and the man who is the world to her when the man who really is the world to her is unavailable. Gee, I wonder who she'll choose in the end. Apparently Meyer wants us to think it's a toss up and plans to make another book of it. Yeah right.

I can only hope that the third book doesn't contain the following phrases and/or words, because I HATE THEM BY NOW:

grimaced
smirked
topaz
velvet voice
touseled bronze hair
marble slab
perfect face
singing laughter
aching hole
russett skin
angelic anything
it felt like I was dreaming
I wasn't sure if it was a dream
it had to be a dream

Twilight was a good read (the first time, not so much the others) so I felt compelled to pick up this one and find out how our "star-crossed" lovers were doing.

Instantly I was launched into a story of angst and Emo! to the extreme, cardboard cutouts, and plot-lackingness abound.

For the majority of the story all Bella does is mope around and play with another boy's affections until Edward finally returns and it concludes with the decision of whether she is to become a vampire or not. In the end nobody goes home a better person and another long and drawn out chapter in the life of the Twilight saga has ended.

I resisted throwing this book at the wall in disgust. Well written, my neck. On the topic of necks, I'm not betting my neck (or Bella's) that the next one will be any better.

There's a certain melodrama to New Moon that makes its previous installment, Twilight, pale in comparison. Bella Swan's life is particularly complicated these days, what with the teenage angst and emotional turmoil. Not to belittle teenage angst, but Bella's version of it could be called Shakespearean if not for the giant billboards plastered all through the narrative that insist This Is Like Romeo And Juliet FULL STOP We Are Just As Emotionally Complicated And Tragic FULL STOP.

The comparisons to Shakespeare beat the readers over the head repeatedly. This is a tragic relationship, we got it. We don't need a constant analysis of Romeo and Juliet, nor do we need a play by play concerning which character in New Moon most accurately compares to Paris.

One point in New Moon that could be applauded would be that the story's topaz-eyed, bronze-haired, god-like Edward Cullen is absent for the majority of the book. Quite a bold move by the author, although it's wasted seeing as how the portions without Edward involve Bella acting like her life has literally ended. Instead of growing up and learning to exist without a perfect, beautiful boyfriend to guide her through life, Bella absolutely shuts down. Her only mild attempts to live occur only when she has Jacob to take on Edward's role, which suggests Bella is only fully functional when she has a man to please and be pleased by. This is particularly damning. Bella herself is easy to insist everything wrong be her fault, that she is simply too imperfect to deserve the attention she receives from the men in her life (hilarious, considering how many boys have fallen for her since the start of Twilight) and that she is just so painfully plain and human that she is nothing -- that her life is nothing -- without Edward by her side. She is incapable of being alone, of growing to support herself when no one else can. She is so dependent on Edward (and, to an extent, on Jacob) that whatever dangerous situation she intentionally (as her life means nothing now, without Edward) puts herself in that her own subconscious will tell her her actions are stupid and she should save herself not in her own voice, but in Edward's. This is shaky ground, as Bella lacks character anyway, striping her subconscious and replacing it with Edward's voice makes her seem less of an independent woman, much less a person.

There is no personal growth in New Moon for Bella or Edward. If anything, these two characters regress. The character that does make massive strides in terms of character development is Jacob Black, who will most likely be doomed to playing Edward's second fiddle and arch enemy.

Stephenie Meyer's third book in the Twilight series, Eclipse, comes out August 7th. While Edward and Bella continue their angst-ridden obsession with immortality and death and each other, one wonders if Jacob isn't the only thing worth reading about.

Do you remember when you were a teenager and your first real boyfriend left you? You know, when you went suicidal and started doing things that were very hazardous to your health? Well, that's exactly how painful reading this book was.

Before the rabid fans of Stephanie Meyer come for me and trash my first review on this website I would like to add an adendum. I am a twenty-two year old Undergrade, and I enjoy a little "brain popcorn" every so often. Warning! Spoilers ahead.

I labored over a decision to buy and read the Twilight series for weeks. After asking/begging for information over the series at my local B&N reading reviews here on Amazon, and my Library Patrons I decided to give it a try. I read Twilight and was hooked, I finished it in about 2 days and moved on to the next two in the series. Then, I labored over wether I should write a review of this book or not. Funny, the laborous process should have been my first hint.

I want to ask Meyer, if she lost inspiration, had something traumatic happen, or just lose her drive to write these books? I was never interested in Edward as a character, or love intrest for Bella. By the time I finished New Moon I could care less about either of them and was just hoping Jacob would find a new, more interesting girl to suit him.

Bella is uninteresting, incredibly Emo (and not in an artistic way), and so Co-Dependent that you just want to bash her head in so that you can be done with it. Watching her stumble, bumble and "live" without Edward is incredibly painful and embarassing just to read about, let alone be caught reading about in public. She is so disgustingly set on Edward and his disgusting, vapid, rather uninteresting and beautiful family that her own life gets put on hold.

Perhaps if this book was written and released in the 80's, or prior to "Girl Power" this wouldn't be such an issue. But to market this kind of literature to a demographic is 13 to 20 year old Teens and Young Adults is just plain irresponsible! Sending the message that being incredibly selfish and leading someone on to deal with your own pain is both unforgiveable and sickening. The fact that Bella is so interesting in putting herself in harms way just to hear Edwards voice is just plain unbelievable at best and if you want me to believe that little miss "I don't want other people to realize that I exist" wants to cliff dive, I've got a bridge in Wichita to sell you.

Don't get me started on the forced, horrible literary refrences to Romeo and Juliet. The analogies, allusions and personifications of people were enough to make me tear my hair out.

So there you have it. If you're upwards of twenty something, read classic literature and/are a fan of the Bard, have self esteem and don't need a "man" to complete your life do not pick up these books and if you must, borrow from your local library.

There are already alot of reviews for this book, but here's one more for you.

I bought it on a whim. I did not like "Twilight" - I thought it was poorly written. It had a romance that had no real flare or reason behind it, the heroine had a brain full of marbles. And there was the ridiculous stuff - vampires playing baseball, glittering in daylight, etc.

Why did I get "New Moon" then? Because it was at Wal Mart and I had run out of books and it was literally the only thing that seemed interesting. I wasn't completely revulsed by "Twilight" so I thought I'd give her vampire world another chance.

And she blew it. The breakup was ridiculous. Bella leading Jake around as she did was irresponsible and completely horrible. Of course she was hurting him and she knew it and did not care. Bella is a selfish character in general, and a delusional one at that. Despite the fact that Jake cared about her, she kept using him to force herself into more "dangerous" situations so she could "break her promise" and "even the score" to counter the promise that her vampire wannabe lover did not keep (that she supposed anyway). So "dangerous" motorcycle riding (oh shock, that's the worst you can think of?) and cliff jumping come into play so she could hear Edward's voice (it came to her only to warn her of doing stupid things, which of course, made her want to do even more stupid things).

Trying to get into a situation with some potentially dangerous strangers hanging out in front of a bar, while she was out walking in a dangerous area WITH HER FRIEND was even worse. Just so she could hear that voice and get her delusion fix. They could have been attacked, raped, or worse.

The book gets stupider, just as Bella does. Her relationship with her father makes her seem more like a 12 year old than an 18 year old legal adult. Through it all I think the most disgusting part was this: Throughout the whole entire book - Bella is begging to become a vampire like Edward so they can be together forever (she is afraid Edward will leave her once she's over the age of 20 or something since he is "forever 17" and as long as she's human she will still age). She manages to make a deal with "The Family" regarding the future state of her mortality after a particular set of circumstances. This makes future issues become nonissues. Edward is against this but says that he would help her along her road to immortality if she would marry him first.

Which she won't commit to.

EXCUSE ME?

You are willing to be bitten and changed by vampires to become an unsleeping, glittery-in-the-sun blood sucker for the rest of ETERNITY, and leave your parents and friends to rot and suffer without you, but you will NOT agree to marry the man that you *kept trying to kill yourself over just so you could hear his voice after he had faux dumped you?*. The one you absolutely cannot live without? Who gives you that freakin HOLE in your soul that we had to read about ten billion times while she ignored her friends and wallowed in self pity. The heck?

I know the author may be trying to discourage young marriages, but that just smacks of ridiculousness. I have no problems suspending disbelief for good fantasy takes on reality but its things like this that just blow it right out of context. It's also strange how attached she is to these people. When her vampire-friend Alice showed up, she was hanging on to her so hard and being so obsessive and overflowing with love that I thought they would end up being a same sex couple before the book was over.

In short "New Moon" is implausible, ridiculous, emo in the whiniest way, and finishes with a clunking thud. Character development is nonexistant, there is no sensual spark between Edward and Bella - just a creepy obsession, and thus leaves no reason left to read it. Yet, I'm sure there are zillions out there that lap this up like its the best thing since sliced bread.

... Back when it was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, literally a decade ago. Let's think about this: girl moves to new town, finds mysterious boy who happens to be a vampire, they date against everyone's better judgement. That's the first book, and coincidentally ("coincidentally"?) one of the main subplots of the first season of Buffy. The temptation to suck blood having to be faced in order to save Bella's life from poison? Angel needing the blood of a Slayer after being poisoned by Faith and having to take it from Buffy. A bit flip-flopped, but still a parallel. And now in this book, Edward abruptly breaks up with Bella and leaves town, stating that it's "For the best." Last few episodes of season three, anyone? Buffy starts going out with Riley, who turns out to be part of a special ops group dedicated to hunting demons, especially vampires. Bella starts spending a lot of time with Jacob, who turns out to be a sworn enemy of vampires along with the rest of his werewolf pack... are you sensing a connection?
And it wasn't just the plot basically being lifted from Buffy that made this book nigh unreadable. This is Bella's first boyfriend. Supernatural or not, when your first boyfriend breaks up with you and you haven't even been going out a year, your life is not over. You may think it is. You may pout and cry and mope... for maybe a month. Not six. I have never known anybody to get *that* depressed for *that* long over their first boyfriend, no matter how much they said they were in love. Bella wins the award for "Heroine you should never, EVER imitate," because first off she was absolutely useless as a person. She forever had to have a man (be he werewolf, human or vampire) come rescue her from the latest scrap she got herself into, and secondly, watching her whine and thrash around in agony for literally three-hundred and fifty of the five hundred odd pages is the most pathetic thing I've ever read. If they were real people, I'd say separation would do them a bit of good, because it is truly unhealthy to think you literally cannot live without a certain person. They'd need time to figure out who they are without each other. It also really bothered me that Bella could not mention Edward's name without saying how absolutely beautiful he was. Every single sentence about him was coupled with that, and usually chased by her saying how klutzy or unremarkable or otherwise unworthy of her vampire boyfriend's affections. To say it got old fast would be an understatment; it was absolutely pointless to begin with. So skip this book. It's not even good as a sleep-aide; you end up yelling at Bella to stop being so stupid.

In the first book Bella was dreamless, hobby-less, and hopeless. Now she becomes a lush for adrenaline because her precious vampire boyfriend dumps her. One can only wish she'd succeed instead of making the reader suffer along with her for 500 pages. Bella's self-confidence and self-worth rest on the whims of a boy, and a vampire at that, and that's hardly a good message for any girl to take away from the book. You get sick of hearing Bella whine about the hole in her chest.
The werewolves are actually decent, and one embellished the most also achieves what neither Bella nor Edward can: actual reader interest. Jacob Black has a hobby! He has some legitimate angst! He is flawed! And he and Bella actually have chemistry that goes beyond "You are my sun, my moon, my stars, my love!" Jacob strikes me as the kind of guy one could actually LIVE with for the rest of one's existence, morning breath and all. But don't expect Bella to actually LISTEN to any of this logic.
Perhaps more jaded sorts, such as myself, shouldn't read this. I am not a romance reader; I'm a fantasy buff and a stickler for character logic. I just kind of ended up in the wrong kind of territory. It baffles me that shallow, blah characters like Eragon and this series can become bestsellers hand over fist. I think in order for these books to work for me I'd have to believe in the happily-ever-after for these characters, and all I find myself thinking is "Okay, what are they going to DO for the rest of eternity? Stroking each other's ego's over how beautiful they are would get really old really fast ..."

You end the book hating the character of Bella more then you could have ever thought possible. She comes off as two things throughout the book. First a bit of a bitch to one her father, for ignoring him for months then running off to Italy with only a note to tell him where she is. Also for obviously jerking Jacob around by his heart strings throughout the book.

The second thing? She comes off as very much not in her right mind. She goes catatonic for a week and into a zombie trance for months because Edward left her. I'm sorry I refuse to believe one's soul mate leaving them would warrant a reaction like that. She's obsessive about Edward to a degree that if it weren't for the fact he's equally as obsessed, we would have a set of psychotic stalkers on our hands. Instead it's true love, ain't that just the most darling message?

Edward comes off as a dick for leaving Bella, who is very much not in her right mind (she goes catatonic for a week then goes zombie trance for months?), and honestly seems very suicidal. He constantly tosses around the idea of suicide so much and how he's going as soon as she goes, you get the idea that he's going to cut her brakes, just so he can off himself.

Any actual plot was procrastinated off to the very end, when Alice deus ex machina's in and tells Bella about suicidal Edward. Then it's off to Italy, a narrow save of Edward (who could have seen that coming?), and the Volturi lovingly shoving it down our throats that Bella is the most special snowflake of the lot.

And I very much appreciated the Romeo and Juliet comparisons being shoved down my throat every other chapter. Ms. Meyer, I'm sure you've read it (because Bella is so obviously a young Mary-Sue version of yourself), the main things I took away was a cautionary tale of feuding and how it will destroy what you care for most.I never saw the true love of the play, and it always seemed like a plot point more then anything, for the rest of a more interesting story to go off of. Hey maybe New Moon is more like it then I thought... except with the lacking of a more interesting story.

In review what does her brand of true love tells us what? You can't live without your man. It's perfectly okay to drop entire lives for someone you love. It's perfectly okay to commit suicide just to hear your ex's voice. It's perfectly okay to go comatose because you where dumped.


I only have one question after being forced to read this book. Why. Ms. Meyer, Why?