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New Moon (Kindle Edition)

October 19th, 2009

New Moon

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005), Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step. Vampire fans will appreciate the subsequently dour mood that permeates the novel, and it’s not until Bella befriends Jacob, a sophomore from her school with a penchant for motorcycles, that both the pace and her disposition begin to take off. Their adventures are wild, dare-devilish, and teeter on the brink of romance, but memories of Edward pervade Bella’s emotions, and soon their fun quickly morphs into danger, especially when she uncovers the true identities of Jacob and his pack of friends. Less streamlined than Twilight yet just as exciting, New Moon will more than feed the bloodthirsty hankerings of fans of the first volume and leave them breathless for the third.–Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.




From Booklist

Gr. 8-11. “Which is tempting you more, my blood or my body?” Things are heating up between Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, in this sequel to the immensely popular Twilight (2005). Then Bella is injured at her birthday party, and the Cullens’ reaction to her blood sends Edward’s family packing. Bella is inconsolable until she discovers that reckless behavior allows her to hear Edward’s warning voice in her head. To keep him close, she decides to live as dangerously as possible, acquiring two motorcycles and developing a close friendship with Jacob, who helps her rebuild them. Romantics will miss Edward’s presence, but the suspense created by a pack of werewolves bent on protecting Bella from a vindictive vampire will keep them occupied until the lovers can be reunited. The writing is a bit melodramatic, but readers won’t care. Bella’s dismay at being ordinary (after all, she’s only human) will strike a chord even among girls who have no desire to be immortal, and like the vampires who watch Bella bleed with “fevered eyes,” teens will relish this new adventure and hunger for more. Cindy Dobrez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


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  1. October 19th, 2009 at 20:05 | #1

    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?

  2. October 19th, 2009 at 23:54 | #2

    As soon as I finished reading “New Moon” I wanted nothing more than to be able to contact Stephenie Meyers (a face-to-face interview would be preferable!) and ask what the hell she was thinking when she decided to make Bella Swan such a co-dependent, pathetic excuse for a character. I mean come on, its only so obvious that many young, impressionable girls are reading the “twilight” series and (god forbid) thinking that they need a man in their life or else there’s nothing left to live for. And by the way, I know some of you are probably wondering why I’ve read not only “New Moon” but “Eclipse” as well, after writing a less than wonderful review for “Twilight” but ill get to that later. First, lets go over the basic plot of “New Moon” and ill tell you why I especially despise Bella in this book.

    At the beginning of “New Moon” Bella and Edward are happily in love (atleast as far as I can remember) until an unfortunate event happens during Bellas birthday party at the Cullens house, in which Edward realizes that his being near his dearly beloved puts her life in danger. So then…..*dramatic pause* Edward decides to leave, for Bellas own good (gasp!) and doesn’t plan on ever coming back (oh no!) and worst of all, before leaving he acts as if he hates Bella and informs her that he no longer loves her (is it really so?!) for months afterwards, Bella turns into a catatonic headcase, barely able to function without her beautiful Edward around. She can’t eat, can’t listen to music, and can’t even watch TV because something on it might remind her of Edward. (Rolls eyes) she makes pretty much no effort whatsoever to help herself and let her friends cheer her up, and she might have never recovered if not for….Jacob Black. Jacob Black, aka the werewolf (by the way, werewolves are enemies with the vampires which I just had to mention because I love how Bellas future best friend happens to be an enemy of the love of her life) Bella starts hanging out with Jacob more, and slowly starts to complain a little less about the “massive hole in her chest”….etc etc (skip ahead to the best parts) but of course Bella can’t get Edward out of her head, especially when she realizes that she hears his voice when she is in danger, so then what does she do? Starts purposefully putting herself in ridiculously unecessary dangerous situation, even practically committing suicide just so she can hear his voice. Of course, the vampires find out and Alice Cullen informs Bella that Edward thinks that she is dead and so he decides that he no longer has a reason to live and decides to pay a little visit to Italy, in hopes that the volturi will play a role in ending his life as a vampire. So of course Bella immediately hops on a plane to Italy, and of course gets there just in time to save Edward. And then of course he ends up going back with Bella, realizing that he can’t bear to live without her….blah, blah, blah! (Oh and I do love Edward, atleast until I read Eclipse, so I’m not trying to diss him I just couldn’t help but roll my eyes at his dramatics in this book)

    Ok, so now that I’ve finished with my summary of the book, here are some more things I’d like to add. Feel free to stop reading at anytime, really as I’m aware that I’ve written quite a lot already and I’m sure much of what I’ve said has probably angered many of you twilighters.

    first, let me start off by saying that I did understand Bellas depression in this book (I just can’t believe the extremes that she took it to) after all, I’m 19 and I’ve had my heartbroken before. But come, practically going into a catatonic state for not just weeks, but months and months, because your boyfriend left you? (And yes I understand that its definitely not easy to get over someone, especially someone that you love. I know this takes quite a bit of time) and not even being able to watch TV? And not being able to function in general, until another guy comes along? (Yep another great message there, girls: remember that having a man in your life is the only thing that will make you happy!) and seriously… are we really supposed to believe that Edward no longer loves Bella? And better yet, are we really supposed to believe that Bella really believes that Edward no longer loves her? Please. And worst of all is the fact that Bella was intentionally hurting herself in order to simply hear Edwards voice. Yet ANOTHER great message for young girls (missing your man? go jump off a cliff and commit suicide and hopefully that’ll get his attention! Life without him isn’t worth living anyway!) and then there’s the extreme and completely unecessary drama of Edward deciding to end his life over Bella, and Bella getting there just in time (but of course) to save his life! Now, I know I may be making a huge deal out of nothing, seeing as how this is just a book, but there are many books out there in which the characters go through so much worse (I.E. Losing a loved one to death or something of the nature) and none of them act half as bad and self-pitying as Bella Swan. Someone needs to give her a swift slap to the face and tell her to wake up and smell the sunshine and inform her that having a man isn’t the most important thing in the world. Perhaps somebody should inform Mrs. Meyers about this as well. A bit harsh? Maybe, but reading these books just made me realize how much I hate reading about female characters with no backbone whatsoever. And really, I have nothing against Stephenie Meyers so don’t get me wrong. I think she could be a very talented writer if she wanted to be (after all, I haven’t met one person who has never heard of her book series) but I just don’t agree with the way she portrays Bella (as you can tell) and I don’t like the kind of message young girls will get because of that.

    And as I said, yes its true that I didn’t like “twilight” and had no intention of finishing it, but my sister (who is a huge fan by the way) didn’t understand how I couldn’t like these books, and persuaded me to atleast finish the first one. So I did, and I came to the conclusion that the second half of the book was only slightly more interesting than the first. And was I the only one rooting for that vampire to kill Bella? And yes, even despite my dislike for “twilight” I still decided to read “new moon” because you know what I realized? These books are like a bad soap opera, something you don’t necessarily like, but can’t help but get caught up in it all, if only to laugh and say to yourself “seriously, why does everyone love this so much?”

    And just one more thing I’d like to add. I don’t necessarily dislike “twilight” overall. Atleast not the idea of it. After all I like the cullen family, and the volturi are actually pretty interesting. I just think that Stephenie needs to make some HUGE changes with Bella (if only!) and add some events of actual interest to the pages of “twilight” (instead of just Bella describing how beautiful Edward is every other paragraph) and then maybe ill have some nicer things to say about it all.

  3. October 20th, 2009 at 05:34 | #3

    I just received my book in the mail two days ago and I have been devouring it ever since.

    The book begins with seeing Bella become very comfortable with Edward and his family. I was delighted to see Alice’s character take on more depth as we began to see more of her personality, but this may quickly turn into disappointment for some, when she is whisked away all too soon. Bella is given a birthday party and accidentally gets a paper cut. This leads to a tense moment when one of the family members cannot contain themselves and makes a leap for Bella. Edward is forced to protect her, but this makes it all to clear that keeping Bella close to the family puts her at risk. Edward begins to withdraw himself emotionally in order to (we readers know what is going to happen, but Bella seems to be in denial)leave her.

    Naturally, Bella’s grief is heartwrenching to read. Any girl who has felt the pain of lost or unrequited love will shed a few tears during this chapter. It is hard to get over being furious at Edward’s behavior at the begining of the book, but this simply shows you how easy it is to get pulled into almost believing these characters are real.

    Bella becomes seriously withdrawn from the world after his departure and considering their strange and magical relationship, this is to be expected. I do miss Edward’s presence-he was such a strong character in Twilight- but I did something I never do, I flipped to the back of the book to assure myself of his return. Ms. Meyer realizes how addicted her audience is to Edward, so he does make token appearances in a roundabout way. Bella begins to hear Edward’s voice warning her when she puts herself in harm’s way and in this way Bella begins to court danger.

    Jacob, the young native American from Twilight, makes a reappearance in New Moon. He becomes a very close friend of Bella’s and helps her through her depression. His character takes the place of Edward and he becomes a major player in this story. He is also the complete opposite of Edward’s sophisticated, wordly one. Jacob is lovable, akward, attractive (in a regular way) and warm-blooded. His story is one of interest and I don’t believe any reader who has already read Twilight, will be surprised at the turn of events in which Jacob is involved.

    The book is certainly excellent, as Ms. Meyer is a fabulous writer, but I do find myself impatiently turning the pages and skimming ahead to see when one of the Cullens’ family members will appear. Even with those minor faults, I still find myself staying up way too late to finish another chapter. I have read half the book in the past two days instead of working on lesson plans for my class, during the first week of school, no less. This is a real indicator of just how wonderful New Moon is.

    My ultimate disappointment will be when I am finished and must wait another year for the next book to come out. I don’t believe Stephenie Meyer can whip these out fast enough to appease her growing leagues of fans. This is a very desirable position to be in for a writer and this should guarantee many Bella and Edward stories in the future.

    *Update
    The ending was very good and the reader finds out some interesting information concerning Bella and how special she really is. The twist adds a new dimension to the novel it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. There is no complete closure for a few important issues and obviously this leaves it wide open for the third novel in the series.

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