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Book Review of New Moon (Twilight, Bk 2)

New Moon (Twilight, Bk 2)
Tesstarosa avatar reviewed on + 151 more book reviews


The second book in the Twilight series opens with Bella's senior year and her 18th birthday. She doesn't want to celebrate this birthday and is appalled that people are acknowledging it. She is extremely upset that Edward and his sister Alice are so excited and that they've decided to throw a party for her at their home.

She reluctantly agrees to go to the party and all hell breaks loose when she gets a paper cut while opening a gift. Remember that Bella is a klutz and while everyone else's paper cuts simply hurt immensely, Bella's produce blood. Enough to make Jasper, one of the Cullens, loose control and almost attack Bella. While the Cullen family holds Jasper back, Bella falls, breaks a mirror and cuts her arm on the broken mirror. Now, chaos ensues in the Cullen family and Edward, his father, Carlisle, and mother, Esme, are barely able to rescue Bella from the rest of the family. (Why they didn't get feed before the party is just beyond comprehension -- apparently they haven't read the dieter's guides to not overeating at a party -- eat first so you aren't hungry at the party.)

Within a few days of the party disaster, the Cullen family leaves Forks and Edward goes with them, telling Bella he doesn't want her. He takes all evidence that she has of him in her life -- photos from her scrapbook, the CD he made for her, etc. Bella is heartbroken, but the author takes pity on the reader and devotes 5 less pages to her moping by labeling them October, November, December, January and a brief paragraph about coming out of her misery without Edward.

Her father insists that she stop moping and missing Edward (wow -- it took her father over 4 months to kick her ass into living.) She has maintained her grades, worked a job a the local outdoors retailer and kept the house running, but she hasn't done anything to move on with her life and now she starts to interact more with her friends. Although, not surprisingly since she had no interest in them when Edward was around, they aren't as excited to spend time with her.

She soon realizes that thinking about doing dangerous things, makes her feel better and she hears Edwards voice anytime she thinks about them. This makes her decide to actually do something dangerous and when she sees two old beat up motorcycles being offered for free, she nabs them. She sneaks them over to Jacob Black's home -- the Black's are old family friends that live on the reservation in La Push -- and convinces Jacob to restore the bikes. He'll do the labor and give her riding lessons; she'll pay for the parts and let him have one of the bikes.

Bella and Jacob start to spend a lot of time together and her father is happy about this, but he is still worried because she is letting her circle of friends once again be her and a boyfriend. Charlie continues to push Bella to hang out with her other friends.

Plus, there is a new danger in the Forks area. Campers are reporting sightings of huge bears and people are being found mauled to death.

Then one day, Bella learns Jacob's secret and why Jacob and his family never liked the Cullen family. Jacob is a werewolf -- a recently acquired skill for him and his friends -- and werewolves are the enemies of vampires. They'd lived peacefully with the Cullen family because of a treaty that Jacob's great-grandfather had negotiated.

Bella is still intent on doing dangerous activities and one day she decides to try cliff jumping. Alice, Edward's sister, has the gift of premonition and has seen Bella jump and has told the Cullen family that she has seen Bella die. Alice returns to Forks to try to stop Bella -- but she's too late. Bella has jumped -- but she is pulled from the water by Jacob.

As they are leaving the beach, Bella sees something red in the water and realizes that it is Victoria, who she has learned is out to kill her to avenge the death of her mate James (from Twilight) and is trying to get to Bella. Jacob and his werewolf friends have been protecting Bella from Victoria. But Jacob can't protect Bella anymore when Alice arrives. A misinterpreted phone call from Edward causes Edward to take actions that will get him killed and Alice and Bella head to Italy to try to save Edward.

Will they get there on time? Will Charlie kill Bella when she gets back from Italy? Will Jacob ever be friends with Bella again? Oh, the tragedy and angst of a teen-agers life.

There are just so many things wrong with this story. A teenage girl is has no life without some boy -- who is now hard and cold. I don't remember Edward's body being described as hard as stone in the first book. And her desire to be turned into a vampire which is forever but her unwillingness to say she'll marry Edward -- which should be forever as well. Her main objection to the marriage -- her mother thinks she should wait until she's 30 so she doesn't make the same mistakes that she made by marrying Charlie young. Never mind what her mother might think of her decision to go for dead at age 18.

I'm looking forward to how much more ridiculous the storyline can get.