New Moon (The Twilight Saga)
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of New Moon (The Twilight Saga)
Book Review: Maybe if I was younger...
Summary: 3 Stars
I really have to start this review by saying that if I was 16, I would be all over this series. Obsessed and tearing through them and unable to put them down. However, I am not 16. I picked up the first volume for two reasons: one, I am high school teacher, and I wanted to know what it is that all my girls are reading, and two, as a writer (but not yet published) I feel like I should keep up with the current trends.
So here we are at the end of book #2. Without giving away too much, Bella is still head-over-heels for Edward, our vampire hero. However, Edward breaks up with her somewhere in the first 50 pages (of almost 600). This brings on a deluge of teen angst and sends Bella into a dangerous downward spiral worthy of a VH1 documentary. She recovers eventually and rekindles a friendship with Jacob, an old family friend who she hasn't seen much of, because of some bad blood (sorry, had to do it) between him and Edward.
Here is my main issue with this series: Bella has no identity of her own. She is either Edward's girlfriend or Jacob's. She is either with the vampires or the werewolves. She has yet to embrace her own individuality. I don't like the message this sends our girls. When you get dumped, you should stalk around like a zombie for months and take foolish risks with your life? If you can't get over one boy, go find yourself another to become infatuated with? Allow yourself to become so absorbed with a boyfriend that you allow him (whichever one we're talking about here... doesn't matter) to tell you who you can be friends with and who you can not?
Overall, the series so far is entertaining, but I'm getting tired of Bella constantly saying how beautiful Edward is and how plain she looks next to him. She actually says at one point, "by comparison, I am hideous." Oh, please, Bella. According to Stephanie Meyer, you have every boy in Forks and La Push after you. There must be something redeeming about you. Stop talking about how you don't deserve your controlling, possessive, noncommunicative boyfriend. It doesn't become you.
Yes, I will read the third book. I'm invested enough in the story to want to know how it comes out, but I hope that the kids who are reading this take it with a grain of sat. Edward is not, contrary to popular belief right now, the perfect boyfriend. But when I was 16, I don't know if if I would have realized that. I hope that I would have.
Book Review: Banal romance novel writing in this book turns me off
Summary: 2 Stars
My 14-year-old daughter urged me to read the Twilight series and the more I got into it, the more I was repelled by the banal writing and the more I disliked Bella.
The author keeps trying to convince us how unusual and unique Bella is, but her actions are those of a conventional, moon-calfy, teeny-bopper with a very conventional crush on the cutest boy in school. YAWN. You gotta wonder why the hell Edward falls in love with this nimrod if he supposedly is smart and has over 100 years of living under his belt.
The writing style is the same as a bodice-ripping romance novel that features lots of sexual longing, but no actual sex - lots of smoldering looks, but no follow-through, which appeals to the younger teen crowd, I guess. But it gets ludicrous after thousands of pages.
In short, there's a whole lotta sex NOT going on here and it becomes a bore after 100 pages. Meyer stretches out a plot that SHOULD fill 1 medium-sized novel into 4 overbloated ones. I found myself quickly skimming through these parts of the books and jumping to those that advanced the plot, which quickly became all I was interested in.
Meyer's shortcomings as a writer also stand out in her characterization of Bella who, by the end of the 1st book, started to irritate me. Like other reviewers here, I started rooting for the rogue vampires to catch Bella and give her an ugly, lingering death.
Meyer has the beginning of an interesting alternate, magical universe set up in these books. The rules she's set up in her vampire/werewolf world are intriguing. But the members of the Cullum family are the only characters that maintained my interest in the book. I wish Meyer had developed them further, but I suspect she kept them more in the background because she ran out of ideas, choosing instead to spend yet another 50 pages on Bella and Edward panting for each other. (Edward! Go on, already! Bite her! Get a hotel room!)
If you're looking for good writing in the fantasy genre, read Harry Potter instead. Hell, read Stoker's original "Dracula." This series is badly in need of an editor with a giant red pen who could cut out the repetitious passages and banality, but what would be left? A plot outline, I guess. I wish a better writer had produced a book based on this plot- the bare bones of it are promising, but the Meyer's follow-through is very disappointing.
Book Review: I'm not feeling any of the characters
Summary: 2 Stars
After hearing about this series from what seems like the whole world, I decided to give it a try. I usually like paranormal romances so it wasn't exactly a punishment. But I have to say that I'm deeply disappointed by this series.
I read the first book and tried not to judge too harshly. I mean it IS marketed to teenagers and I'm sure that they probably identify with Bella "falling in love" within days of being completely snubbed by Edward for weeks. I even tried to overlook the fact that she was staring at him in a way that screamed stalker throughout most of the book. However, it really started to grate that she's evidently nearly crippled by her own klutziness. She can't run from enemies or even walk without falling, thus necessitating being carried around by every male character in the book.
Not surprisingly, that didn't change by the second book. However, she became even less likeable. She and Edward break up and she's so distraught that she becomes catatonic for a week? She goes through the motions of living, but can't muster up sufficient will to live without Edward there. Which just proves that as a character she only exists so that the author can showcase just how wonderful Edward is.
The only thing that saved this book from a one rating was the introduction of Jacob's plot line. For about 40 pages or so I was actually somewhat interested in what was going on. Of course I had to wade through more of Bella risking her life to hear her mind chew her out in Edward's voice, her clutching the "hole" in her chest and wheezing for breath, and her whining about poor Jacob risking his life. And then, of course, he falls for her like every guy in the town evidently has. I guess they like their women spineless in Forks or something.
I think this is a horrible book for teens to be reading. Why not have a strong female character who does something productive with her life when her boyfriend dumps her? My guess is that because then it would be an actual fleshed out character instead of a placeholder to keep the Edward love fest going on.
It's ok for an author to be smitten with her male leads, but when you can't seperate yourself from your character long enough to write a well thought out, strongly plotted book with interesting, likeable characters then it's become a problem. I wouldn't recommend this book or series to anyone.
Book Review: did you know that bella has a hole in her chest?
Summary: 3 Stars
Well, if you didn't figure that out the 1st 10 times that she whines about this, unless you get it by the 100th time, you're as dull as Bella. For this reader, Bella is downright annoying in this book: whiny, moping, determined to wallow in the loss of a relationship for 7 months as much as she is to hurt herself by her definition of "living on the edge," defiant without reason to Charlie. Emo? You bet. I wanted to slap her up the side of her head.
I loved Twilight & couldn't wait to read New Moon. But take my advice: skip the beginning & start reading around page 400. Before that, each sentence is torturously boring, with no plot to really speak of ... easily, it could have been written in 50 pages. So, maybe I exaggerate, but not by much. We have to suffer through pages and pages of Bella's angst, useless ruminations about her relationships with Edward & Jacob, and that darn hole in her chest.
Be prepared to also suffer Stephenie Meyer's prediliction to repeat ad nauseum the same theme, just to make sure the reader gets it. Bella has a hole in her heart. Jacob is sunny. The Cullens are stone hard and cold to the touch. Yeah, okay, we get it! At least Meyer's spares the reader from reminding us 47 times that Edward is like a Greek god, as she did in Twilight. Look, I understand that this a series for young adults (and I'm far beyond those years), but I really don't think young people are that dense ... Meyer's repetitions are almost an insult to her targeted audience.
And the Romeo & Juliet theme? Give me a break. I have no problem with writers who riff off classical literature. But to write an entire chapter ("Paris") to reiterate the story and relate it to Bella, Edward & Jacob is worthless. Was Meyers attempting to romanticize the fate of Romeo and Juliet? Yeah, a little, injecting the tragedy into Bella's and Edward's decisions & actions.
The endless plotting (or is it plodding?) in New Moon is so ponderous that it made me angry. As much as I loved Twilight, I was ready to give upon the saga if this was what Meyers had to offer after such a compelling start. And then I hit page 400 (or so). That's when the plot picks up & becomes interesting, turning a lot of blahblah-hole in my chest-blahblahblah into a page turner. The plot and action pops -- and as much as I was resistant, I'm looking forward to Eclipse. But please, Bella, GROW UP!!!
Book Review: A hypnotic series ...
Summary: 5 Stars
When we last read about Bella and Edward, they survived an attack with another legion of vampires, attended the prom together and continued on with their relationship despite the dangers it's brought. Her life has certainly been turned upside down in the past year.
In the beginning of NEW MOON, we are in the midst of celebrating Bella's eighteenth birthday - an affair she much rather have ignored as it brings her one year over her beloved Edward's age. She wants nothing more than to become a vampire before she gets too old. The prospect of being with him forever also plays a role in her quest to get bitten.
Her birthday party takes a turn for the worst when an accident causes certain members of the Cullen family to react ferociously, attempting to make a meal out of her. Once things cool off and all is brought back under control, Edward comes to the realization that he can no longer put Bella in this sort of erratic danger.
In an effort to keep her safe, he sees he has no other choice besides leaving her. So, he breaks it off. Unable to wrap her head around Edward and the rest of the Cullen clan's departure, Bella becomes a shell of her former self - going through the motions of daily life, but never really being fully "there".
Days turn to weeks, weeks to months and Bella begins hanging out with Jacob. During her time with him, she begins to slowly (but never completely) come out of her depression. Jacob brings out the best in her and tries to make her understand that the way she feels about Edward isn't healthy - comparing their former relationship to a drug addiction.
Though they become best of friends, sharing secrets and reckless behaviors, Jacob feelings run deeper, as he falls in love with the girl who lost an outsized piece of herself the day Edward Cullen walked away.
Overall, this was another FANTASTIC novel from Stephenie Meyer - who once again did not let us "Twilighters" down. In the beginning I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy the book without Edward, but the relationship between Bella and Jacob made for an exciting tale. I found myself more in tuned with Bella's feelings and struggles as she fought to preserve and at the same time relinquish the memories of the Cullen's and what they ALL meant to her.
A fantastic sequel to a phenomenal series, NEW MOON will NOT disappoint!