After finally reading the first book in the series, Twilight, I decided to give the rest of them a try, to see if my opinion of the story would change if I take all the books in as a whole. Today I finished the second in the series, New Moon. Twilight, I ended up with a bit of a sour opinion of and the teaser chapters included with that book made this one looks so promising. I figured this one would be much more enjoyable.
New Moon is written by Stephenie Meyer and it includes around 563 pages (this is not including any acknowledgement pages or teaser chapters) to the actual story. The cover art is my favorite of any of the books in the series: it is a crimson and white tulip, parrot or ruffled I cannot quite decide. But, it looks perhaps like a white tulip that was shorn and is coated in blood. Very pretty.
In New Moon, Bella Swan and Edward Cullens, her vampire Romeo, are still together and it opens with Bella's 18th birthday. She is still as persistent as ever about wanting to be a vampire herself, and Edward still states a firm "No". They go to the Cullens' house for a birthday party where Bella gets a paper cut and things turn bad as Jasper (Edward's "adopted" vampire brother who is still fighting urges for human blood) cannot control himself and makes a lunge at Bella.
Running off of that, Edward comes to the conclusion that Bella would be safer if he weren't around at all, so he gives her the "I don't want you" speech and breaks it off with her and he and his family move away. Months pass. Bella becomes completely depressed and a bit reckless, not completely able to let go of Edward, and not really wanting to either. She basically just goes through the motions with life. Not dead...but not really alive either.
Thankfully, she had Jacob [her N.A. friend you may remember from the first book] there to lean on, and we read a bit more about him and what's going on in his "life" because of it. The story starts to drag out, but picks up at the end where for the first time, it's not Bella that needs saving.
My Thoughts
I felt a little letdown, as a reader. Bella moped around throughout the book and her insecurities were through the roof. Yes, Edward left her, but honestly, she seemed as insecure when he was with her 24-7. The only thing that saved the entire middle of the book, IMO, was Jacob and the issue he was dealing with.
A few other things frustrated me with this book. First, I lost count the amount of times that Bella needed saving. It is beginning to seem like their relationship is mostly based on Bella's need of protection and Edward's need of seeing her safe and protected. And, we see more of Edward's possessiveness matched with Bella's obsessiveness.
The "Victoria thing" was a real letdown, for me. I was anticipating much more than what we were actually given. But hopefully it's resolved soon enough.
Bella is 18 now, and to me she still seems locked into a 15 year old's body, suffering over her first crush [all respect to 15 year olds. I am merely stating that she doesn't seem mature for her age]. I don't know what to make of Edward, he seems a bit older but still not relatable enough for me. He is eternally 17, but he's over a hundred in human years...has he picked up no real depth in his long span of time?
Meyer is really descriptive as an author and there are a few times in the book when her words make me snicker a little, as I believe they were intended. Bella doesn't have any great lines like in the first book, but it was good to see that she (Meyer) went into more detail with the werewolf legend we were teased with in Twilight. It seemed a little forced at times, almost like a way to fill the middle of the book with words before coming to the roller coaster of an ending. But, the Jacob character is slowly becoming one of my preferred, out of the the trio. Let's see if that changes with the other books......
I would go so far as to say that if you enjoyed Twilight, you may not enjoy this book as much. Maybe it will pick up in the third book and maybe the series will round off to be a nice collective tale. I wouldn't want to recommend buying this book to anyone really unless they truly enjoy the series. Checking it out of a library...sure, why not.
Also at the end of the book, there are teaser chapters of the third book in the series, Eclipse which is a nice bonus.
***Update***
After loaning this book out to several people, I felt I should come back to this review and say a few things. I appear a bit harsh in my judging of the story, but I've realized that it's possibly because this series hints more of the adolescent romance genre [which I am no fan of], while hiding behind the fantasy genre [which I am a huge fan of]. Loaning the book out to women I know who are indeed fans of fluffy romance, they eat this book up [even ones ranging in their 50's]. On the same note, loaning it to people who strictly read the classics [with elements of romance such as Austen's works], this book had a sour reception. This is the category I would also fall into.
And so, while it does not appeal to me, that's not to say it's a terrible story. I think the story...if tweaked...could have the potential to be great [again, according to my tastes, only]. I mostly balk at the writing technique of the author and believe this to be the biggest flaw. Everyone loves a good story, including myself, but I find this craze of Meyer to be a bit laughable.
Star-crossed lovers Bella and Edward face new obstacles in this vampire love story--the second installment of Meyer s #1 New York Times -bestselling T...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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