New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2008, Paperback)

Stephenie Meyer is a awesome! I love this the books, "Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. 'Be very still,' he whispered, as if I wasn't already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat."
As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.
Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward's sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer's writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction.

As an English major and a writer, I find books like the Twilight series fascinating. Not because the story itself is all that original (Antagonist, misunderstood by the world, meets another who is also misunderstood) or because the writing is fantastic (Count the number of times Mrs. Meyer uses the term velvet to describe Edward's voice!) but because the books capture the interest of so many, despite their predictable and formulaic plot twists and endings. I confess that the first book really held my interest. I could not put the silly thing down until I had found out what happened to Bella and Edward. Mrs. Meyer really knows her stuff and is quite gifted at capturing the thoughts and feelings of a single glimpse, moment, or time period.

That being said, I was sadly disappointed with New Moon. One of my pet-peeves in stories is pointless drama and this story was full of it. Why does Bella need to hurt herself so many times? One would think her insurance policy would have run out a long time ago... besides the melodramatic plot twist towards the beginning, the book is slow-moving at best. Naturally, the author wanted a relationship to bloom and grow between Bella and Jacob. Was it really necessary for her to use painfully cliche' lines and plots to do so? Also, what happened to all the secondary characters who were introduced in the first book? Granted, Charlie gets a few more lines than usual along with the subplot between him, Billy, and Harry. However, Bella's friends are either ignored or completely taken out of the second book.

There are some good qualities to the book. It strengthens the relationship between Bella and Edward and reveals future problems for our star-crossed lovers. It's not a terrible book. The intended reader (preteens) may find this book slow-paced compared to the first and fourth book. The ending is satisfying and leaves a desire for the next installment. If you're willing to hang through the stereo-typical conversations and sluggish plot-lines, you will be rewarded.

The Twilight Saga has become a pop culture phenomenon!! New Moon is the incredible sequel to Twilight and it doesn't dissapoint! It starts out a few months past the end of Twilight. It's Bella's Birthday party and there is an incident with Jasper which causes Edward to decide to leave for Bella's own safety, not realizing other dangers might find there way to Bella. This causes Bella to go into a deep depression and leans on her best bud Jacob, only things with Jacob are not always what they seem. Jacob is a wherewolf. Victoria wants revenge, and he is the only one who can protect her now. With a series of misunderstandings and unfortunate events, Edward's exsistance is now at stake and Bella is the only one who can save him, or will she be too late??? This book is awesome, but I highly recomend that you read it at least twice. The break up between Edward and Bella can be devastating and its hard to concentrate on the middle of the book. You might find yourself skim reading waiting for them to be reunited and miss the important relationship that is being formed with Bella and Jacob. When you read it the second time its much easier to pick up on things you may not have acknowelaged the first time!! I highly recomend this book to anyone!!!

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer - a MOM review of the book - great for teen girls!! I am a mom of a pre-teen girl and since my daughter wanted to read the Twilight series books, I was a little hesitant about letting her, but agreed if I read them 1st and approved, that she could read them. Here is what I thought as a mom: I am glad that this saga does not revolve around sex and who's having sex with who kind of teen drama. That kind of media in not allowed in my home or around my daughter! I am glad it's focus is on love and commitment and what that all means in a relationship without sex being apart of that, teen girls need to hear that message a lot more that they do in this day and age (any mom or dad reading this knows what I am talking about)!!! However, in this book, (I may spoil the storyline here, so please skip the rest if you don't want to learn part of what happens) Edward suddenly breaks up with Bella and leaves her heartbroken for 4+ months, where she started a new friendship/relationship with Jacob and then, when Edward "comes back" she loves him and misses him and la di da, basically the end. My problem with this book is her reaction and what it says to all the teen girls out there using this book as a 1st look into love. I feel it is letting them know that a guy can leave you and hurt you like that and if he comes back, well that is ok that he hurt you... no, no no!! I would have like to see a positive role model with a back bone that loves herself enough to not take that from any guy and I feel that teen girls need to see more of that for self empowerment. But I am a mom, not a teen girl in love with the hero! So for moms and dads out there, wondering what your daughter is learning from this book, I hope this helps, some good stuff and some stuff that could have been better for teen girls to hear and read - overall it is a good book and if you have the time, read it yourself so you know what your child is reading. I find it opens up discussions and goes a long way in what they are talking about with friends!! Enjoy!

4.5 stars

NOTE: I'm adding, rather late, apparently, that there's a bit of a spoiler in this review. So, read with caution. That said, if you paid attention while reading Twilight, I'm puzzled as to how my spoiler could possibly be a spoiler. Myers spelled it out, in the book and interviews, almost as clearly as she spells out Bella's awed perception of Edward.

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In my review of Twilight, I said that the book had more in common with "Catcher in the Rye" and "Pride and Prejudice" than it did with any vampire novels or stories. That still holds true, although be certain: I'm not comparing Twilight or New Moon to these books in terms of literary quality. There are few that match either.

In New Moon we miss the vampires for most of the story, and Bella spends time with her friend Jacob, an Indian fated with becoming a werewolf, and fated to hate all "bloodsuckers", regardless of whether or not the bloodsuckers took human lives. (Btw, that little bit is cleared up at the end...what exactly their treaty entails. It's interesting, kind of, but I have to wonder if the author thought of it as the story was being written, and that it wasn't planned when the "treaty" was first mentioned. I suppose it doesn't matter.)

If you're reading this story because you like vampire stories, you will be disappointed. Edward's only around for a bit less than 1/3 of the book. When he is around, however, his presence is appreciated. One thing that the author didn't do this time, and it was similarly appreciated, was to have Bella writing down every single thought that she had regarding his absolute perfection (remember, this is a first person narrative).

While spending time with "the wolves", Bella goes through some interesting growth patterns. I say interesting, because I'm not entirely certain that I followed them or that if I understood them that I agreed with them. That said, I've never been a teenage girl, and the author has been a teenage girl, so I have to bow to her experience in this.

Many readers will look at Bella's behavior during her "dalliance with wolves" as bizarre and entirely unbelievable. I don't think they were. For anyone that has had the absolute love of their life torn from them, with the *absolute* belief that this love would not return, and if you happen to be emotionally immature to top all of this off, your behavior wouldn't be too far off from Bella's. I'm not saying exactly like Bella's, just not too far off.

Again, this is not a vampire story. The fact that vampires were not around in this book as often as some may have liked did not lessen the quality of the story. What was missing, though, was the urgency, and the mystery. For example, we never knew why, in Twilight, Edward recoiled upon first seeing Bella until the very end. We had a reaction, and a resolution, and during that time we had lots of questions. That type of immediacy was missing here. Everything was rather straightforward.

When Edward lies to Bella, we know that he is lying, and we know that there will be resolution. The problem is that we know he's lying, and we know the resolution won't be too surprising.

I did enjoy the unique take on werewolves, but I felt that since we had seen so much of the vampires in the first book, that we should have seen and felt more of the werewolves in this book.

One thing that I found particularly frustrating was the similarity of emotion that both Jake and Edward have for Bella. Yes, Bella is a clutz, and she defin