New Moon

New Moon
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Release Date: September, 2006

Series: the Twilight series
Position in Series: Book 2 of 3 to date
Main Characters: Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black
Sequel Bait: Children of the Cullen family: Rosalie, Alice, Emmett, Jasper
Bad Guys: The Volturi, an ancient trio of vampires who rule the vampire world

New Moon picks up a few months after the ending of Twilight, the first book in the Twilight series. Human teen Bella Swan has fallen deeply in love with vampire Edward Cullen, who returns her feelings in full measure. Despite Edward’s overwhelming thirst for Bella’s blood – a thirst that transcends the normal desire for human blood that most vampires possess – the couple has spent every waking moment together, their friendship and love forming a bond that Bella believes nothing can ever break.

When a freak accident at her birthday party illuminates just how fragile the control Edward and his family have over their natural urges to do Bella harm, Bella is blindsided by Edward’s reaction. Claiming that he no longer wants to be with her, Edward leaves Forks, vowing to Bella that she’ll never see him or any of the Cullen family again, ostensibly to speed the healing of the shredded remains of her heart.

And shredded it is. For months, Bella walks around in a near catatonic state, unwilling to feel anything because her pain is so great and deep. When she discovers she can hear Edward speaking to her whenever she puts her life in danger, she sets out to take as many risks as possible just to keep him close. And when she enlists the help of Jacob Black, a young Quileute man living on the nearby reservation, to help her repair the motorcycle she’s purchased to aid her quest for danger, Bella finally begins to live again.

Through most of the book, the relationship between Bella and Jacob moves from friendship to something bordering on more. However, Jacob goes through some inexplicable change and no longer wants to spend time with Bella, once again sending her world into a tailspin. Determined to know why she has once again been abandoned by someone she’s come to care for deeply, Bella learns that Jacob’s fate is intricately entwined with Edward’s world.

When Bella takes one risk too many, Alice Cullen returns to Forks. And through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, Bella learns that she may lose Edward forever if she can’t get to him in time.

I began and finished Twilight after New Moon had been released, so it was sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. Thank heavens! I was so enamored with Bella and Edward’s story, I couldn’t wait to dive right back into their world. While I thoroughly enjoyed New Moon, I found it not quite as compelling as Twilight.
The primary problem I had with NM was one I think any fan of Edward and Bella’s romance would take issue with: Edward is out of the picture for a good portion of the book. By page 73 he’d said his good-byes to Bella, and he didn’t return in true physical form until page 450. In the course of those 377 pages, we watch Bella develop a relationship with another boy. That’s a hard premise to swallow given the depth of the love we were led to believe she felt for Edward.

This is an even harder pill to swallow when you take into account the mastery author Meyer showed in conveying the amount of pain Bella felt upon Edward’s leaving her. I rarely cry when reading a book, but tears flowed freely as I read about the aftermath of Edward’s good-by. My heart broke right alongside of Bella’s. Her grief was palpable, and I hated Edward for doing what he did to her just as I despaired that he was leaving her forever.

Because of these emotions, I was never able to fully embrace the relationship between Jacob and Bella. Jacob wore his heart on his sleeve for her, leaving no doubt that he sought a romantic relationship. Yet I never believed that she would return his feelings, so I was never really engaged by their story. Nor did I doubt that if the time came for her to make a choice between Jacob and Edward exactly who it was Bella would pick. While Bella never treated Jacob like a doormat, she never kept it a secret that she loved and would always love Edward.

Part of my disinterest in this relationship rested on Jacob Black as a hero. Jake is the quintessential beta male. A great friend, nice guy type who would bend over backwards for Bella, he paled in comparison to the uber-perfection that was Edward. Even after Jacob experienced his transformation and gained a dark edge, he didn't hold the same appeal as Edward. To Jacob's defense, I don't imagine any hero could.

Too, I experienced a great deal of confusion over how Bella waffled all over the place in the way that she treated Jacob toward the end of the story. First she’s upset and confused that he won’t see her and is clearly hiding some pretty major stuff from her. (Sidebar to say that I figured out Jacob's situation fairly early on, so by the time Bella caught up, I was wondering what had taken her so long. I don't recall being spoiled for this development, and I'm not that clever, so the clues must have been pretty well spotlighted.) When she corners him and he yet again rebuffs her, Bella is furious and ready to write him off, which I can understand. Naturally, when he explains and apologizes, she’s forgiving and understanding. However, when Alice Cullen shows up in Forks to see how Bella is doing, Bella treats Jacob like an unwelcome intruder. Her loyalties are very clearly drawn, and there was never any genuine sense that making a choice was a difficult thing for Bella to do. For all of the build-up of Jacob and Bella's deep friendship, things are left decidedly unfriendly between them.

In the end, I was left feeling that Bella had somewhat used Jacob, which led mostly to feelings of pity for the boy. I never got over my urge to skip over all of the Jacob interactions just so I could find out what would happen with Edward. If I were to go back for a re-read, I’d be tempted to make the jump from page 73 to around 400 without feeling as if I’d missed anything of interest.

I can’t offer much on my other big issue with this story without giving key plot points away. Suffice it to say, some major story developments revolve around a Big Misunderstanding of the Romeo and Juliet variety, and I hate that kind of stuff. If Edward’s feelings for Bella were such that he’d be driven to take the actions he did, I don’t really understand how he could stay away from her so long. You’ll have to read the book to understand.

And following along with my took-me-out-of-the-story nitpick of the Cullen children attending high school for the umpteenth time, Bella’s chronic accident-proneness really stretched the limits of my suspension of disbelief. Between this book and the first, I've lost track of how many times she's journeyed to the hospital for stitches. If this were reality, I imagine the doctors in the emergency room would be reporting possible suspected child abuse to the authorities. Not to mention how Bella manages to explain away all of her various injuries to her father.

Where this story worked for me is in the expert way Meyer showed Bella’s pain over losing Edward. Throughout the story the hole Edward left in Bella’s heart was obvious. While she came out of her grief and began to live again, you were never in doubt that she would never fully recover from the pain she’d endured.

Reading over this review one would get the impression that I didn’t like this book. But despite the problems I’ve listed above, I really did enjoy the story overall. It kept me turning pages – again, primarily to see if and how Edward would re-enter the story – although I’m not sure that’s the best technique for capturing a reader’s attention. Too, given that Edward and Bella have suffered pretty much the worst experience two lovers can go through short of death, I’m not sure how much further their story can go in subsequent titles. However, Meyer clearly has a good plan. She’s deftly woven in a cliff-hanger at the end of NM that is so intriguing I can’t wait to read the next installment, Eclipse. Can’t ask for more than that.

Rating: Couldn’t Put It Down
Status of Series: Still going strong

Twilight

Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Release Date: Hardback – October, 2005/paperback – September, 2006

Series: the Twilight series
Position in Series: Book 1 of 3 to date
Main Characters: Bella Swan, Edward Cullen
Sequel Bait: Jacob Black, Alice Cullen
Bad Guys: vampires who rely on human blood for sustenance

When Bella Swan moves from her mother’s house in Phoenix, AZ to live with her father in Forks, WA, her life changes far more dramatically than she could have ever imagined. Sure, she’s going from one of the sunniest places on earth to one of the rainiest. She’s also moving from a large city to a town where everyone knows everyone else. And she’s got to adjust to living with a father she barely knows while trying to navigate the social landmines pervasive in attending a new high school.

What she never expects when she moves to Forks, however, is to fall deeply in love. At least, not with someone like Edward Cullen.

From the first time Bella and Edward lay eyes on each other, sparks fly between them. Bella cannot understand why Edward, whom she finds too beautiful to be real, seems to despise her so completely when she’s never done so much as say hello to him. For his part, Edward cannot put enough space between himself and Forks High School’s newest student. But when Edward keeps Bella from being crushed in a freak car accident, she’s stunned not only that he bothered to help her at all, but that he somehow possesses the super-human strength that enabled him to stop a ton of speeding metal and glass without being injured himself.

Being tenacious and so completely fascinated by Edward and his equally beautiful sisters and brothers, Rosalie, Alice, Emmett and Jasper, Bella sets out to learn the Cullen family’s secrets. She gets some help from Jacob Black, a young native American, when he shares some of his tribe’s folklore with her about the cold ones, the blood drinkers who once tormented the Quileute people. Putting two and two together, Bella figures out that the Cullen family is actually a pack of vampires, a fact that is confirmed by Edward himself when Bella confronts him with the truth.

Despite his extreme reservations, Edward and Bella begin spending more and more time together. Before she knows what has happened, Bella has fallen madly in love with Edward. From the moment he saw her, Edward had been fighting his own attraction to Bella, an attraction that included more than just romantic interest but an intense form of blood lust rarely experienced by the vampire kind. Even though he long ago swore never to drink human blood again, Edward doubts his abilities to control himself around Bella. Being with her is a constant struggle against every instinct he has, yet he can’t find himself able to stay away.

As Bella becomes more involved with the Cullen family, her safety becomes endangered not only from Edward, but from outside forces beyond his control. Before she knows it, she’s on the run from other vampires who see her simply as a challenging meal, and Edward might not be able to save her.


First, I must stress that although Twilight is labeled a young adult title, is shelved in the young adult section at the bookstore and library, and features a young adult heroine/narrator, the story itself transcends age. I’m many years past being a young adult, yet I enjoyed every word.

Twilight is written in first person, so from the very beginning, the reader feels an immediate closeness to Bella. She’s a very likeable heroine: she doesn’t mope or complain any more than the average teen about having to start again in a new school. She’s resigned to it sucking, so we don’t get pages and pages of self-pity.

Her reaction to Edward’s initial open hostility toward her morphs naturally from dismay and confusion to an almost obsessive need to understand this unusual boy. When she begins to suspect the truth about Edward’s true nature, I didn't find her reaction as nearly shocked enough, as one might expect to be learning that vampires exist right next door. Bella seemed to take it all in stride, accepting the truth without a whole lot of skepticism or denial. Nor does she worry overmuch what it means that she's fallen in love with a non-human being. However, author Meyer has set the pace such that by the time Edward admits that he’s a vampire, Bella has traveled too far down the emotional path to turn back. We as readers like him, so we don't mind if he's a vampire. Why should she?

As a hero, Edward is nearly perfect. He’s beautiful. He’s intelligent (who wouldn’t be after nearly a hundred years of living). He’s sensitive and intuitive yet enough of an alpha-male to keep from looking poncy. I myself fell head over heels for him, so I could hardly blame Bella for the same. If anything, Edward might ring a little too perfect. His main faults are actually not faults at all because they rise out of his wanting to protect Bella from himself. This gives him a pass for any of his initial jerk-like behaviour once Bella learns the facts of Edward’s situation. He often falls into the trap of having seemingly bad habits that actually make him a cool hero: driving too fast, being too protective of Bella, being a mysterious non-bloodsucking creatue of the night. Since, like I said, I fell in love with Edward, I wouldn't change much about him, however. He's a model romance hero, 100% pure fantasy.

Edward’s fear for Bella’s safety given his almost overwhelming desire for her particular blood fuels the majority of the conflict between the couple. However, I feel it was given the short shrift given how rich in promise such a premise is. In the beginning, Edward doesn’t even try to fight his urges, figuring he’d be best off to simply move away. However, as their relationship grows deeper, he speaks often of the danger she could be in if he lost control. That being said, I found that Edward’s ability to keep his cool ran counter to what he was saying. I think I would have been more convinced of the star-crossed lovers aspect of their relationship had it been harder for Edward to keep his…er...fangs off Bella. There is a scene or two where some innocent kissing leads to things that Edward fears will throw him off his game, but he seems to overcome his issues almost a little too easily. While he does tell her that he's not sure they will ever be able to become intimately familiar, he certainly seems fine with all the touching and closeness they share, with nary a clue that he struggles desperately to keep from taking a big bite.

Meyer does an amazing job evoking the setting of Forks. You can almost smell the rain and envision the dark greens and blues of the wet forests. Forks itself serves as a separate character, and once the reasons behind the Cullen family’s decision to settle in such a place become clear, you can’t imagine the story being set any place else.

Another strength Meyer demonstrates is her ability to put a new spin on the vampire myth. Most of the traditional lore is explained away with unique answers – such as why vampires cannot go out in the sun. Too, she imbues her creatures with the ability to choose whether or not they want to partake of human blood. In effect, vampires are divided into two classes. Those like the Cullens who have alternate means of getting sustenance are firmly in the good-guy camp, although there are very few of this sort. Vamps who still feed on human blood aren’t necessarily portrayed as purely evil, however they do serve as the villains of the story.

While Edward and Bella’s blossoming relationship makes up the bulk of the story, Meyer does throw in an external action plot that doesn’t begin until three-quarters of the way through the book. I found this addition to be wholly un-necessary. While it did serve to magnify the differences between Edward’s type of vampire and all of the other vampires out there, the whole scenario felt tacked on, as if Meyer’s publisher told her she needed more action to liven up the book, or, even worse, some kind of damsel-in-peril scenario to remind us all how much Edward loves Bella. The villain was menacing, to be sure, but his fascination with Bella in particular felt very contrived and forced.

I’d rather Meyer would have beefed up the inherent conflict between Bella and Edward. Given that Edward himself poses the greatest danger to Bella, much more could have been done with his struggle to stay away from her or to learn to manage his urges in such a way so that he could get closer to her.

Actually, Meyer has on her website an exercise she did in which she shows Edward and Bella's first interactions from Edward's point of view. It does much to demonstrate the amount of torment Edward went through, and it almost make me wonder if her choice to stay in Bella's first-person POV for the entirety of Twilight might not have short-changed the readers, denying them the crucial Edward-side of the story. If her website is to be believed, she has tentative plans to explore Edward's side of the story in a full-length book. I'll be first in line to buy it if she follows through.

There is one other nitpick I had with the story. Edward and his brothers and sisters are all students at Forks High School. Meyer's mythology follows the construct that vampires remain eternally stuck at the age they were when converted, thus Edward will always look like a seventeen-ish year old, as do his "siblings". Too, there is a need for the family to establish a cover that allows them to live in Forks without drawing undo attention to themselves, which means the young-looking members would need to be in school. However, I cannot imagine how insanely boring it would be for Edward - a boy who has gone through medical school twice - to sit through high-school level classes. I can't believe that the whole home-schooling option wouldn't be used as a reasonable sham to keep the Cullen kids out of such tedium. Then again, if such was the case, Edward and Bella never would have met. Even so, I couldn't get that overarching problem out of my head every time a scene set at school came up.

In the end, however, Twilight kept me turning pages like nothing else. The love that Bella and Edward share is one of those soul-mate kind of things, where even though she is only a teenager, you can’t imagine her with anyone else for the rest of her life. Thankfully, but the time I got around to reading it, the sequel, New Moon, had already been released, so I didn't have to wait to get more of their world. I'm eagerly tapping my fingers for the third book in the trilogy.

Rating: All Nighter
Series Status: Stellar first installment.

Twilight Series

Series: The Twilight Series
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers

Series Premise: A young girl moves to Forks, WA where she meets a family of vampires and falls in love with one of them, despite the danger it presents.

Main Recurring Characters: Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Charlie Swan, members of the Cullen family: Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper.

Bad Guys: Vampires who still gain their sustenance from human blood

Number of books in series to date: 4
Twilight, October, 2005 - review
(re-released in paperback September, 2006)
New Moon, August, 2006 - review
Eclipse, August 7, 2007 - review
Breaking Dawn, August, 2008

Next release: Series is finished for the moment, although there is the possibility that Meyer may publish books that are set in the Twilight universe or that tell Bella and Edward's story through different points of view.

Number of books planned: 4
"I have no intention of quitting at three. Firstly, Bella and Edward would never forgive me. Secondly, the next two books would have to be 1000+ pages apiece to get the story to any place that felt like a true resolution. Thirdly, there are other stories to tell here, and, though the narrator might change, the story will continue. I just have way to much fun living in Forks (in my head) to stop anytime soon."...from Stephenie Meyer

Series Appeals to:
Those who like star-crossed lover stories
Those who like vampire stories
Those who like coming of age stories
Those who enjoy young adult characters*
Hardcore Twilight Fans

Level of Violence: Mild, although threat of more extreme violence is present With Breaking Dawn, the level of graphic violence portrayed went through the roof. Not because of any mischief on the part of the vampires but because of the horrific way childbirth is portrayed.

Level of Sex: Sweet - kisses, behind-closed-doors consummation of marriage

Series strengths: Bella as a character and narrator is very appealing and sympathetic, Bella begins as a very appealing and sympathetic character. Edward Cullen is an extremely worthy hero Edward began the story as an extremely worthy hero. The vampire mythology is unique, the pace moves nicely, the love story is extremely well written and the emotions experienced by Bella are almost palpable.**

*Despite its status as a Young Adult novel and the teen-aged narrator, this series easily crosses into adult fiction and can be enjoyed by those out of their teen years.

**After the release of Breaking Dawn, my original assessment of the series changed drastically. While the first book, Twilight stands alone as an excellent installment with the strengths listed above, the series as a whole has very few strengths. Unfortunately.

Series weaknesses: Second title causes some frustration based on the lengthy separation of the hero and heroine. Third title destroys Bella as a likable character and turns hero Edward into a milksap. The addition of a forced love-triangle rings hollow and creates unnecessary drama while diminishing the original love story. Fourth and final story...don't even have the words.

Website: www.stepheniemeyer.com
(This is an excellent website, with an absolutely fascinating story about the unlikely road to publication Stephenie Meyer traveled. It also contains many behind-the-scenes extras as well as links to interviews and fan sites where even more information can be found. An excellent example of an author's website tying into her novels.)