New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Second in the Twilight series

1 star

New Moon starts off on Bella’s eighteenth birthday in a dream. Bella sulks all day about the fact that Edward is staying forever young while she grows older. Alice throws a surprise birthday party at which Bella receives a paper cut when opening a gift and Jasper, Alice’s mate, attacks Bella causing a huge fiasco in Cullen paradise. Edward and his family then leave Forks. Edward claims that this is to protect Bella. Bella wallows in self pity and some other stuff goes down. I don’t want to give away the whole entire book in just a couple of sentences. I have to write a review after all. New Moon, where to start with New Moon? I know! How about the fact that even when I was a huge twi-hard fan of the books I absolutely hated New Moon? Yes I was a huge fan of the books when I first got my hands on them and I’m not ashamed to admit it, but that was years ago and I was only ten years old when I read New Moon. I remember even hating New Moon then. This book was a waste of space and should’ve just been skipped over completely. There were a few interesting things that happened, but were they didn’t make up for the lack of everything else in this book. Even as a ten year old I saw this and it will forever remain my least favorite of the series. I literally trudged through this book for two weeks and picking it up seemed to only make me want to fall asleep. Literally when I finished this book at the end of the day in my English I erupted with joy of finally being set free. I hated New Moon and I still do, but I hadn’t wanted to skip at the time since well I didn’t want to miss anything important. If I was to ever to a reread of the series, I would definitely skip this one.

The main female character is once again Bella. Remember in my last review how when I talked about the ending and how stupid it was to think that Edward would’ve transformed her into a vampire at prom? No well here it is to refresh your memory. Bella’s stupidity raged on after that. I think it got worse. New Moon starts off with Bella having a dream, which was a pretty boring and dumb dream. I get dreams are subconscious, but I feel like Bella’s subconscious was actually playing a cruel joke on her and us by boring us on her birthday. What a boring birthday if I may say so? I mean gosh all Bella did was mope and whine about the fact that Edward was a year younger than her.
 
Bella did it slip your mind that Edward only looks young, but he’s actually over a hundred years old? Therefore, he’s not younger than you and you don’t have to worry about the fact that you’ll be seen as a cougar. I don’t know how being a cougar is a bad thing. It’s a preference and it shouldn’t be judged so harshly like Meyer was implying. The only interesting thing about her birthday was when Jasper when crazy with bloodlust and it was awesome! 
 
Too bad he didn’t eat her. Edward then tells Bella that he doesn’t love her., he sure is you’re modern day Romeo, and then leaves with his family. Bella becomes emo and depressed for about five billion months and reading those scenes was unbearable.
 
Finally, Charlie said something and she started to make an effort of being social and talking with “friends” again. Bella eventually starts hanging out with Jacob and while she’s riding a motorcycle Edward appears to her in a spiritual form or in her mind. I’m not exactly sure because it was just so crazy. She then decides that she’s going to keep putting her life on the line just to hear Edward’s voice again. I just don’t know what to say to that. Who does that? Why would you risk your life over some guy that said he didn’t love you when he left you to die alone in the woods until finally a rescue team found your pathetic ass? Bella, you need to wake up, sit down, breathe, and get some counseling. She later runs into Laurent (more on that later). Overall Bella was so unbearable in this book. If you thought she was bad in Twilight it’s probably good if you steer clear of New Moon.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 0

The main male character is Edward and he is also joined by Jacob Black. Edward was only present for about a tenth of the book. Although I’m not completely sure since I didn’t document it. Edward is just as annoying as he was in Twilight, but now he’s just a constant thought in Bella’s head. “Edward, Edward. Would Edward approve of this? No, but I have to hear Edward’s voice again. Edward!” That was literally all he was for half the book. The way he broke up with her was cold. I mean he left her alone in the woods. The least he could’ve done is ran her back to her house with his super speed. Bella was literally so depressed after the breakup I’m surprised wild animals didn’t start coming sniff around her body. When Edward does make an appearance again it’s in Italy. The Vulturi was mentioned a little bit at the beginning of the book and Edward says they are powerful and should be feared and yadda yadda yadda. He is going to give himself over to the Volturi by revealing himself to all the humans by stepping out into the sun because after Bella does one of her dumb reckless stunts Alice has a vision and believes her to be dead. Of course Bella arrives just on time to stop Edward from walking shirtless out into the sun. Edward is just so unappealing and I honestly don’t understand why Bella is so in love with him or why he is so in love with her. Guess it’s just another great mystery in the universe, like aliens, we’ll probably never know the answer. Time to talk about Jacob Black! He made an appearance in Twilight when he dropped off Bella’s big truck and at the beach trip where he hinted that the Cullens weren’t all what they seemed. Now Jacob is the start of a love triangle in this book. He fixes motorcycles and cars and such. He has long black hair and he’s of Native American decent- Quileutes. As the story goes on he starts to become cold toward Bella much to Bella’s dismay. One day Bella goes to the meadow that she and Edward spent so much time at and she runs into Laurent. He is then attacked by a bunch of big ass dogs. One of these dogs looks at Bella and she believes it to be Jake. She eventually learns that she is right and that he’s a werewolf. Werewolves are enemies of vampires and Jake hates them with a passion. Alice later comes back to Forks to deliver the news of Edwards impending suicide and there is an obvious dislike and disgust towards each other. Jake is nothing special. He reminds me of a male version of Bella. I only think that Meyer wanted to create some drama so she threw Jake in as a love interest. I think if you’re going to do a love triangle the characters should at least be interesting and well-thought-out.

Swoon Worthy Scale: Edward- 1 Jacob-1

The Villain- Laurent hunted down Bella for Victoria and was attacked a pack of werewolves. Victoria also poses to become a threatening force to the lovely *gag* couple, but the real villains are the Volturi. The Volturi are the rulers of vampiredom and apparently they want the Cullens dead. I think. You know I’m really not all that sure what the point of the Volturi is and why they are such a threat to Edward and Bella. Honestly I feel like the Volturi should care less about these dumb specimens, but apparently they want blood spilled. They all have special powers which Bella is immune to. They aren’t really as threatening as I think Meyer hoped they would be.


Villain Scale: 3

Alice is the most prominent of the Cullens in this book. At the end of the book she claims to have had a vision of Bella becoming a vampire she tells the Volturi so they won’t kill her since she knows of their existence. The Cullens think it’s a great idea and Edward still refuses Bella. Jacob also threatens the pact they’ve made in honor of each other’s territories. Honestly that was pretty much all of the characters in this book. Mike went on a date with Bella and Jacob though, which was just awkward and stupid.

Character Scale: 2

New Moon is one of the most hated books I’ve ever read. Even my mom who is still a fan of the books hates New Moon. Let’s face it, New Moon is the book that shouldn’t have been written and was just a waste of space. I recommend just skipping this one completely. At least skip pretty much the first half of the book because it’s just so boring.


Cover Thoughts: I love the flower. It’s beautiful or maybe it’s a feather. I don’t know, but it’s pretty and I think it’s the only good thing about this book.