Customer Reviews

New Moon

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After avoiding Twilight - certain I could not possibly be interested in a teen book about Vampires - and despite many recommendations, I finally picked it up and like many readers, couldn't put it down. Stephanie Meyer created such a beautiful character in Edward - ahh to be 17 again and in love with a vampire! A gorgeous, articulate, every-teenagers-fantasy-vampire! What a relief to end the first book knowing there was a sequel. Unfortunately New Moon simply does not measure up. I felt like the story was all over the place but I guess the biggest disappointment was that Edward was hardly in it!! I was turning every page hoping for his return. The plot was so convoluted and I felt like Meyer dumbed up the character of Bella - I mean did she really think and accept that Edward suddenly didn't love her - puleeeaze! I realise Meyer is developing her story by introducing the Werewolves but Bella's relationship with Jacob is simply not as enchanting. Poor Charlie has been relegated to the role of the pathetic Father - it seemed to me they had quite a mature relationship in Twilight and now he is grounding his 18 year old daughter? I really don't buy it.
I hope the third installment brings back some of the wonder and beauty that Meyer captured in Twilight.

It is official -- Stephanie Meyer is the oldest emo teenage girl on the face of this planet.

How else could she have written a book like "New Moon," the second sparkle-vampire romance in her bestselling Twilight series? Unfortunately this is no deep and intense romance -- it's basically a big oozing lump of teenage melodrama and horrendously purple prose. And the resolutely obnoxious heroine Bella Swan doesn't help with her endless moaning.

Bella's whether-you-like-it-or-not birthday party is wrecked when she cuts herself and prompts Jasper into a feeding frenzy, and the Cullens realize that she's just too tasty to be safe. So they leave town permanently. Cue emo music, for Bella's life is empty and worthless without Edward.

No, seriously -- it's empty. We have blank pages with month names on them, presumably to show that life is utterly empty and pointless when Eddie boy is absent -- "that I wasn't the heroine anymore, that my story was over."

But when she deliberately tries to put herself in danger, she hears Edward commanding her to stop. So she buys a motorcycle and starts immersing herself in extreme sports, hoping to hear him over and over again -- and she also gets to know local hunk Jacob Black, who has a supernatural secret of his own. But her near-suicidal antics have disastrous results for Edward, who believes her to be dead... and takes drastic action.

For the record, being seventeen-plus and/or breaking up with your True Luv are a fate worse than death. Teen Romance = True Luv. Catatonia and suicide are valid responses to being dumped. And life is an endless vile morass of nihilistic doom without a Sparkling Undead Coverboy to validate your existance and keep life from being ordinary.

At least, that is what "New Moon" would have you believe, since Stephanie Meyer smothers it in enough teenage melodrama and endless whiny angst to choke a blue whale. Thankfully her purple prose has been toned down -- presumably due to the absence of the "godlike" Edward -- but unfortunately page upon page of whining and suicidal despair is not a good substitute.

The entire story is pretty much devoted to the ever-passive Bella moping and whining as the sound of the world's smallest violin plays. Meyer attaches hilariously melodramatic significance to such scenes as Bella trying to get raped and murdered by a random bunch of guys, or having a recurring emo nightmare about being -- oh gasp of horror -- alone. You'd think being single was a death sentence.

Belatedly, Meyer realizes that post-breakup angst is not enough to carry even this thin plot. So she quickly spins up a bunch of Bad Evil Restrictive Vampires (with a not-so-subtle anti-Catholic bent), and Edward attempting suicide by the most hilarious method possible -- public sparkling. Such scenes almost mock themselves.

And Bella's endless woe-is-me-for-I-am-a-plain-mortal angst doesn't make her more vulnerable and likable -- it just eats up pages. And while Meyer tries desperately to show Bella's obsession as being True and Eternal Love, it never seems like more than a teenage girl's overwrought crush. And in a feeble attempt at a love triangle, Meyer makes Bella flirt callously with Jacob Black -- a sweet, nice, friendly guy who deserves way better.

"New Moon" is a prolonged, near-plotless slog of teenage melodrama, and it's nothing short of amazing that a grown woman could write such a book. Only for those who enjoy a fine whine.

The second book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer has a star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliette flavor to it. Not enought to say I soo saw that comming, but just enough romance, tragedy, a new possible love interest to keep the tears flowing, and the pages turning.

If you have not read the first book in the series (Twilight). I suggest you do so before attempting to read New Moon. You will fall in love with the characters while reading Twilight. In New Moon first you get your heart broken and then fall in love all over again

Bella Swain finds herself at a loss when a small accident forces vampire boyfirend's (Edward Cullen) family to leave Forks. She befriends the son of a family friend and becomes reckless with her life in the attempt to keep the memory of her boyfirned alive. Her new best friend's secrets will protect Bella and her family, but will eventually make her choose between him and her true love. New and old character (both good and bad) appear throughout the book. Leaving you with fear, a throbing heart, and a thirsrt for the next in the series. (not comming out till next year...hopefully)

I fell in love with these charactes and kept the pages turning till the wee hours of the morning hoping for just one more Edward Fix.

TWILIGHT was definitely a guilty pleasure for me. The writing was juvenile at best, the adjectives were just horrendous - but i kept reading it and could not stop talking about it for the feeling it gave me. It felt like i was going through the motions of my first crush again, the kind where you still think that love conquers all and the heart trumps the mind.

New Moon was unbearable and turned me off the rest of the series. My complaint has to be with Bella Swan's characterization. WHY must she be so useless? WHY has she courted the affections of every male body in town when she has absolutely nothing to be admired? In Twilight I accepted she had that certain, je ne sais quoi, but I still see no proof of anything. Hurting herself and putting herself in harms way just to hear the imagined voice of her beloved, is compleTELY asinine. The two main male characters in her life have blatantly said that she is completely useless and needs their 'protection'. She faints and swoons and screams and has nightmares from unrequited love - she dooms herself to failure because someone is not returning her affections.

It kills me to know that teenage girls are reading this and think Bella Swan is someone to be idolized. She's the antithesis of what a capable, strong woman in our century and beyond should be like. Both Edward and Jacob are too stereotypically masculine.. this is unbearable. Please find another female heroine worthy of your time.

I just finished the second book (literally minutes ago), and haven't read the third yet, so excuse my possible ignorance of some facts.

I had this huge rant full of spoilers that I obviously can't post here ready, but the main idea of it is that it's so frustrating that some obvious aspects of Bella's personality don't make sense! She contradicts herself so much. Her actions sometimes just make *no* sense. I obviously can't use real examples here, for fear of giving away the storyline to people, but her reactions to some things are just ridiculously illogical and, most of all, inconsistent. It bothers me. I seriously don't like her.

I guess I'm just a bit bitter about the books, altogether. I'm not going to lie, I enjoy Edward. He charms me as much as he charms every other female who reads this book (well, almost..). I can't stop smiling when he does something ridiculously sweet. And I actually like Jacob Black too. I think he's the least "fake" of all of the characters. Edward has a cockiness about him that I don't think Jake has, which I appreciate in Jake.

But besides the characters, who you can't help loving or hating, I don't actually think that the book is very well written. It's not what I would call "art". Interview with the Vampire is art in novel form. Tom Sawyer is art. Catch-22 is art. I would even argue that Harry Potter is. But I really don't think this is, in any way. In my honest personal opinion, Stephenie Meyer just takes what she KNOWS every teenage girl wants to hear. A "beautiful" and altogether perfect "bad guy" who's actually chosen to be good, who plays piano, who writes songs for her, who repeatedly saves her from grave danger, who words everything flawlessly, and who absolutely can't live without her, an *ordinary* girl (being ordinary and human is something we can all relate to). She takes every girl's fantasy of being swept off her feet by a perfect bad-guy-turned-good despite her flaws, and she milks it for all it's worth, with an overwhelming amount of descriptions of their loving encounters. She adds some fairly weak, simple storyline. It's not intricately written. It's not the kind of book where you can re-read it over and over again and discover something you missed the first time because the story is so well woven.

I don't mean to bash the author. I'm sure she's a very nice person, and she has developed a very strong character in Edward, someone we ALL want to be with. But I just feel like she's cheating because she's writing books she knows we all will like, no matter how badly written they are.

Those are the three words that best describe Bella Swan, the main character in the Twilight series. I enjoyed the first book enough to make me purchase and read the other two, but I really wish I had my time and money back. Bella's character degenerates so far in the second and third books that I found myself wishing a vampire or werewolf would hurry up and eat her. I've never seen a more helpless, useless character outside of a Harlequin romance. I hate to think that THIS is what young girls are being given as a role model. Elizabeth Bennet she is most certainly not. It would amaze me if Bella could walk the length of herself without having to be carried, or make it through one week without some imaginary emotional apocalypse. I realise that all this drama appeals to teen readers, but I think Stephanie Meyer is shirking her responsibility to provide a strong role model for her reader base. As far as I can see, the message she is sending to young girls basically translates to "You are helpless and useless without a man to take care of you. Your boyfriend should be your entire world." I hope my future daughter doesn't end up so pathetic. She certainly won't be reading this tripe.

Of all the books, this is the one that I liked the least. It was all Bella and Jacob. I had a hard time staying interested. I guess I had grown so attached to Edward in the first book, I didn't like not having him around in the second.

It's an awesome book. The delivery service was relatively fast... however, I am a bit disappointed because for a brand new book the cover was damaged a bit.

Better than the first!

This novel captured my attention from the very start, and nearly had me in tears through the first few chapters!
Bella's emotional anguish was my pain too...
I could understand the exactly how she felt because I'd been there.

Jacob became a complex character that could occasionally get on your nerves, but no one's perfect. (no, not even Edward.)

Interwoven through the chapters are references to and analogies using 'Romeo & Juliet'. An interesting theme on the author's part. Making things quite complex.

Edward's melodramatic personallity became his saving grace. And for once it was Bella to the rescue!

Some loose ends on this novel, (some intentional, and some that I'm sure would have made sense to tie up here) but I can only assume it's adressed in the next novel.

Sad and depressing?
Definitely.

Worth it?
Heck yeah!

I have read Twilight, and New Moon. Both books are amazing. Stephenie Meyer is an amazing writer. With Eclipse being released at the beginning of August, I have to say that I'm more excitied than a kid in a candy store with 100 bucks. I recommend reading this series if your a girl who loves romance, along with a strong female lead, allowing for a few hot vampires and more than a few damsle in distress moments and prince charming coming to the rescue. I loved New Moon I wasn't too sure at first because I find most sequals off and they dont hold up well to the first. New Moon rockets through the roof on this one. After seeing that stephenie didn't let us down with new moon, I'm sure eclipse will be no exception.