New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Title: New Moon
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 1, 2006
Format: Hardcover, 563 pages
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: The Twilight Saga (Book 2)

New Moon is the second book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series. My review of the first book, Twilight, can be found here.

New Moon continues the story of Bella and Edward's relationship and the troubles that they face together or apart. I really want to enjoy these books but that is difficult when I don't like the main character. Bella is moody and self-absorbed through the entire book. She only decides to hang out with Jacob Black at the insistence of Charlie and to feed her need to hear Edward's voice in her head while doing stupid, dangerous things. Bella is very aware of Jacob's feelings for her but decides to use him anyway. Although the vampire family is not physically present for most of the novel, they are never far from Bella's thoughts and motivate many of her actions. Although I can understand the lure of the handsome, mysterious vampire I also think that most teenagers would have enough sense to understand the danger that the vampires (and other supernatural creatures) pose to a mere human. Instead of running screaming, Bella heads straight toward the danger begging the family to make her one of them.

I did greatly enjoy the section of the story when Bella is thinking about Edward and Jacob and is comparing her situation to Romeo and Juliet. It is clear that Bella is very aware of her actions and how she might hurt Jacob but she manages to rationalize their relationship. Despite knowing how many people she might hurt, Bella continues to forge forward with reckless abandon. I realize that teenagers can be full of angst, especially in first love relationships, however I feel Meyer pushes it a bit over the top in Bella. I do want to like her and these books but I am finding it very difficult to do so.

I will finish reading the series since I'm already halfway through and now I want to know what happens to Bella and Edward but unless Bella becomes more sensible and likable I doubt my reaction to the last two books will be more favorable.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 5, 2005
Format: Hardcover, 544 pages
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: The Twilight Saga (Book 1)
Movie Release: November 21, 2008

I realize that I am a bit behind the times in reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. My only excuse is that there are too many wonderful books and simply not enough time to read them all! However, since the movie is being released in a mere eleven days, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and finally get this book read.

Bella Swan makes a difficult decision at the beginning of this story to move to Forks, WA to live with her dad so that her mom doesn't have to choose between spending time with Bella or her new husband who frequently travels. When Bella makes this decision, she has no idea of the incredible impact moving to Forks will have on her future. In Forks, Bella faces being the new kid in high school but it doesn't turn out to be as bad as she anticipated. Most of the students are actually quite friendly. Then there are the Cullens who are beautiful and mysterious. They stay apart from the rest of the students in Forks, only socializing with each other. Bella is incredibly drawn to Edward Cullen and his mysterious actions only intrigue her further. Edward, in turn, is also drawn to Bella even as he tells her that it is dangerous for him to be around her. Eventually Bella learns Edward's secret, that he is a vampire, but instead of scaring her away this only makes Edward more attractive. While Bella and Edward attempt to figure out how a human and a vampire can safely fall in love, they face other dangers together.

While I did enjoy this young adult novel, it didn't quite live up to the expectations generated by all the publicity and the fan hype in anticipation of the movie. While Bella seemed older than her seventeen years in some ways, like making the decision to move so her mother would be happy and cooking meals for her father, she was incredibly innocent when it came to Edward. Despite being told many times by Edward that he was dangerous and she was not safe with him, Bella continues to trust him implicitly even before he had done anything to earn that trust. Then there is Edward knowing that he poses a danger to Bella just by being around her and yet being unable to stay away from her. While the attraction is mutual and unmistakable, the fact that Bella and Edward could not stay away from each other could have easily been demonstrated by their actions rather than the very repetitive conversations about why their relationship was a bad idea. These were the two main flaws that I found in the book. The story itself is very enjoyable and I will be reading the rest of the series and probably watching the movie at some point.