dragonfire88's Full Review: Stephenie Meyer - New Moon
The Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer have been very popular for a few years now and the process has started to make movies based on all four books. It was almost a year ago before I finally read the first book in the series, Twilight. I liked the book overall while still feeling that there were issues with it. I have had the other books sitting around waiting for me to read them and I finally got through the second book, New Moon.
Some of the things I will be mentioning while discussing New Moon will be spoilers for people who haven't read Twilight or seen the movie version yet.
Previously, Bella moves to the dreary Forks to live with her father so that her mother can follow her new husband when he has to travel as a minor league baseball player. Bella is not that happy in her new home, though she manages to make a few friends. She also notices the Cullen family, especially Edward. It doesn't take long for Bella to figure out that all the Cullens are vampires. Edward tries to stay away from Bella to protect her, but he ultimately can't because he loves her so much. Bella ends up in danger from another more vicious vampire.
Bella is trying to ignore her birthday completely because she is turning eighteen. Despite how long Edward has been a vampire, she considers turning eighteen getting older than him because he was seventeen when he became a vampire. She wants to become one as well so that she can be with him and he refuses to even consider the idea because he doesn't want to condemn her soul. Edward and the Cullens decide to celebrate Bella's birthday and while things start off fine, a minor accident puts Bella in danger. The situation is dealt with, but it changes things. Soon after, Edward tells Bella he no longer wants her and all the Cullens leave town.
Bella slides immediately into a depression, devastated by her loss. She is just going through the motions for the most part, and has even shut out her friends. She discovers by accident that if she gets herself into a dangerous situation, she can hear Edward's voice. She decides it is worth risking her life to keep her delusions going. After getting two junky motorcycles, she remembers Jacob when trying to figure out how she is going to get them running. She convinces Jacob to fix them, saying they can go riding together, and she starts spending a lot of time with him. Jacob develops stronger feelings for her while also dealing with an issue of his own. Victoria, one of the vicious vampires from the first book, returns, putting Bella in danger again.
Even though the book is fairly long, not much really happens over the course of New Moon. The majority of the book is focused on Bella's wallowing in her misery after Edward leaves. A little bit of interest is added through the reports of some bear attacks, but that really doesn't go anywhere. The threat from Victoria is just sort of tossed in the mix and then isn't really dealt with properly. Instead, a new threat is introduced late in the book. It is sort of dealt with, but it will continue to hang over the characters. Not much really happens until late in the book, and even then, it isn't enough to justify the book being so long. The pace drags for much of the book, with entirely too much time being devoted to certain things. A few hundred pages could have easily been cut without changing the outcome.
There is really no action to New Moon. Every once in a while there is a minor confrontation or Bella pulls another one of her stupid stunts, and those things briefly add a tiny amount of action. More seems to be going on later in the book, but even then, ultimately not much happens. The violence that does turn up every so often is rather mild. It does seem like there has been an attempt to add some mystery to what is going on with Jacob and his friends, but it was immediately clear to me what was going on thanks the saturation of information about these books and movies in the media in the last several years. People would have to be living in a cave somewhere to have avoided hearing certain things that completely wipe out the tiny attempt at mystery. I didn't feel like there was any suspense to what was going on either. Part of that is because I know there are two more books.
New Moon, like Twilight, is written in the first person point of view from Bella's perspective. All of her thoughts and feelings are shared, and most of those are tied to her misery after Edward leaves. Bella comes across as extremely self-centered, caring only about what she wants. I have read many other books written in first person, and I haven't felt like the main characters in those books were self-centered like Bella. Having her thoughts and feelings shared would have been fine if there was any substance to them.
Bella goes on and on and on about how sad she is and how she doesn't care about anything anymore in New Moon. That gets very old very quick, even though a chunk of time is skipped over. I get that she is upset, but her reactions and way of dealing with the trouble in the relationship are rather extreme. From what Charlie says to another character later in the book, Bella was basically catatonic for about a week. Even once she snapped out of that, she still is basically in a trance, shutting everyone out until her dad mentions having her go live with her mother. Then Bella has a fit, though she does start to sort of make an effort with her friends again. After months of ignoring them, she is surprised that one of them doesn't welcome her back with open arms. Instead of taking any responsibility for the damage done to the friendship, Bella just thinks that the evil girl - a girl who has never liked Bella - got to her friend instead. So in Bella's mind, the people who don't like her are evil, and there is no other reason for someone not to like her. Yes the girl Bella thinks of as evil wasn't that nice to begin with and made some catty remarks, but it is still messed up for Bella to blame the breakdown of a friendship on her. Bella takes no responsibility for basically ignoring her friends for months.
The biggest issue I have with New Moon is Bella's stupidity and the things that causes her to do. She is irrational for most of the book. Even before the accident that causes Edward to leave, she is still going on and on about how wonderful and absolutely perfect he is and that it just doesn't make sense for him to love her and she all but waiting for him to come to his senses. When he says he doesn't love her and is leaving, she accepts it without any argument or doubt. She is basically ready to die for him, yet she has no faith in his feelings for her. She does some of her martyr act again, believing that she isn't good enough for Edward and then fully embraces her despair and misery after he leaves. She even ends up risking her life, though it is to help someone else one of those times.
After discovering that she can hear Edward's voice in her head if she is in danger, she latches on to that as a way to keep him her in life. She is reckless on purpose just so she can hear her precious Edward's voice in her head again. She won't listen to her father when he tells her to stay out of the woods because of recent bear attacks and she lies and sneaks around to do her other dangerous activities. She never once stops to think how he or her mother will feel if she ends up getting hurt, or worse dead, because of her stupid stunts, making her extremely self-centered. She is just obsessed with hearing Edward's voice. She starts to panic when she doesn't hear him after a while, and starts dreaming up more dangerous things to do. She isn't exactly planning to kill herself, though she isn't overly concerned about keeping herself safe and alive either. She gets hurt more than once because of her own stupidity and comes very close to dying as well. She frequently thinks of herself as Juliet and Edward as Romeo, something she finds exquisitely romantic for some twisted reason. Bella's self-destructive behavior is not easy to read about and is upsetting. That whole aspect of the book makes me wonder just how appropriate the book is for younger readers since it embraces the idea of getting horribly depressed and then doing stupid, reckless things. I know that some people have called these books romantic, but that certainly doesn't fit with what is going on in this one.
Bella turns to Jacob as a way to get a motorcycle running so she can be reckless. That leads to her spending more time with him because she's discovered that spending time with him makes her feel better. She calls him her best friend, but she didn't even think to try to talk to him until she got the motorcycles and needed someone to fix them that wouldn't tell her father. She was flat out using him and really not that concerned about his growing feelings. She tries to tell him they are just friends once she realizes he is more serious, but that stop her from still spending most of her time with him, leading him on. She is horribly dependent, thinking she needs Jacob to distract her. She gets to the point of thinking she will just go ahead and be Jacob's girlfriend so she won't have to be alone. She even thinks that Jacob will be fine with the situation. She gets all offended when she feels that someone isn't cooperating with her and what she wants, like Jacob's father at one point. All that matters to her is what she wants at any particular time, and everyone else is unreasonable. At one point, she basically tells her father than he can only punish her if it is on her terms. If he pushes too far according to her, she'll move out. She really is controlling and manipulating at times. Bella's behavior sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of this book.
There are several characters in New Moon, though none of them receive the same amount of attention as Bella, which is unfortunate since she is so insufferable and irritating throughout the book. She does one stupid thing after the other, getting more annoying by the page, and thoroughly getting on my nerves in the process. I have heard some people describe Bella as intelligent and independent. I don't think she shows either trait in this book. She acts like a brainless twit for most of the book, doing one stupid thing after the other. She is very dependent on Edward and then Jacob, and is ready to settle for Jacob just so she won't have to face being alone. Charlie is trying to do what is right as far as Bella is concerned, but he doesn't seem to be paying enough attention to what is going on with her.
Edward and the rest of the Cullens are only barely in the book. Edward is around more than the others, but even he is barely in the book since he is gone after the first few chapters. Even though he has left, he isn't completely gone since Bella keeps thinking about him. He does a few stupid things as well, though he really isn't on Bella's level of stupidity. Alice turns up a few times, though she doesn't get the chance to do much. She still seems sweet and nice even though she isn't around much. The other Cullens are around even less, so there is no new development for any of them.
Jacob ends up with a lot more attention throughout this book and he goes though several changes. He is quick to agree to fix up the motorcycles for Bella and he really enjoys their time together. In no time, he develops much stronger feelings for her and wants more than just friendship. He doesn't seem to have a problem with helping Bella do things that she knows Charlie wouldn't like. Jacob's father Billy is around a few times, though he really doesn't do much. Some of Jacob's friends from his tribe and Bella's friends from school turn up every so often without any of them really having much to add.
I'm really not that impressed with New Moon overall. I didn't hate it, but it has issues and really isn't that great. It is only mildly entertaining. Bella is just so incredibly irritating that it was hard to keep reading at times. If I didn't already have the last two books sitting in my piles to read, I would have serious reservations about continuing the series. As it is, I think it will be a while before I am ready to tackle more Bella with the third book. I doubt that I'll see the movie version of this book any time soon. I am not that interesting in seeing Bella act like an idiot while surrounded by a bunch of giggling teenage girls going into hysterics every time Edward or Jacob are seen.
For me, this is barely a three star book. I recommend it, but with reservations. People who enjoyed the first book will probably want to continue the series. People that didn't care for the first book should avoid this one.
Fantasy - Contemporary Fiction - Stephenie Meyer, Read by Ilyana Kadushin,Compact Disc - Unabridged, 12 CDs,Series: Twilight Saga Series 2, English-la...More at Barnes and Noble
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