New Moon Review

This was a pleasant surprise for me. While Twilight was a bit of a slog to get through as I already knew the basics of the series and Meyer was utterly committed to showing the mundanities of Bella’s life, I managed to finish this book in one day even though it was double the length.

Though it might have been the werewolves that were the biggest draw for me.

Yep, this is the book that has Edward leaving Bella for her own safety and turning her into an utter zombie as she believes the ease that he was able to remove all bits of him from her life proves her insecurity that she would never be able to keep his attention as she’s an average human and he’s a marble, dazzling, statuesque god-being-vampire.

Which is something I agree with. Not just of Bella but any human that gets with a supernatural creature. I always found it hard to suspend disbelief that these awesome creatures with above-average skills, looks and other supernatural powers would be attracted to someone who is basically a fragile load to carry. It makes perfect sense that Bella would want to become a vampire so she can stop being a burdan and also get that sweet vampire epicness for herself. Which is a little digression but I’m glad that Meyer is realistic in how supernatural monsters and plain humans have a huge gap between them that would surely affect their relationship and its future.

Anyway, thanks to Edward’s convincing performance, Bella goes into a depression and finds only slivers of joy when she throws herself into danger so she can hallucinate the sound of Edward’s voice. Once more, it’s overdramatic and angsty as a teenager point of view would make it but I’m glad Meyer still depicts Bella as self-aware enough to realize that it’s kinda sick even as she does it anyway, falling from depression to addiction. I don’t get why people say Bella is uninteresting and boring, she throws herself into a lot of action. Stupidly but still, she makes her own decisions.

And in that race for adreneline and hallucinations, she uncovers another secret of Forks, werewolves! I’ll admit, I’m biased, I like werewolves. They’re my favorite monster so I was excited to see how Bella finds out and I believe Meyer forshadows it decently even though Bella takes awhile to figure it out. But the girl is in a major-depressive state so I’ll give her a pass.

Anyway, Bella and Jacob’s friendship is the best part of the book with Jacob providing an earnest, little brother sweetness that brings some lightness to Bella and I just feel for her as she realizes she loves him in a way that is just as strong as her love for Edward, but it’s not the same. She doesn’t recipocate his feelings and yet as she knows she’s using him to fill the hole and distract from her depression and nightmares, one cannot deny how much she cares for him as she actually listens to him and care for his family and for his life when he’s upset and in danger.

That’s why the ending and the climax where Jacob’s new form/pack comes between them, are the most moving parts. Yes, Bella may love Edward in a star-crossed lover sense, but Bella and Jacob are ‘soul mates” if you will in that they will always try to have each other’s backs, they care for each other as friends/brothers in arms if you want to be dramatic and that’s a difficult bond to lose. Without a doubt, they are the emotional core of this book.

It probably helps that it is very Romeo and Juliet-esque which appears throughout the novel from the prelude to Bella’s English class to her musings of the supposed love triangle between Romeo, Juliet and Paris that emphasizes the angsty lovelorn feelings and tragedy of the situation. It also provided a very interesting new perspective to Paris before returning things to the status quo. . almost.

Another big plus is that there is a lot more history and lore revealed in this book for the werewolf Quileute tribe and the vampires’ ultra-powerful commanders, the Volterra which certainly lay the groundwork for the next novel as the threat of Victoria still hangs in the background and now the uneasy truce between werewolves and vampires seem to be unraveling.

Once more there is a big vampire-action climax (with a surprise trip to Italy!) that is exciting but also feels shoe-horned in as a final bit of excitment compared to the more looming suspense built up in Forks. But at the same time, I want more of that big vampire action and I wish it wasn’t relegated to the last few chapters of the book like it was here and in Twilight.

Another little nitpick is that Edward got a bit on my nerves as well as the general exaggerated love declarations from Edward and Bella but they are teenagers. I do enjoy how the other characters point it out with Alice saying they might have some time to save Edward from himself because he’ll want to commit suicide in the most overdramatic way possible.

Nonetheless, I have found reading this popular series to be very enlightening and engaging and I can’t wait to get to the next one which seems like it will have an actually vampire on vampire battle on the page.

4 stars.