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 Book Two of the Twilight Series November 11, 2008
Twilight left us knowing that Edward and Bella were together and in love, and all that malarky. New Moon starts off with more of the same. But as their relationship deepens, and they begin to consider their future together, things start to fall apart. They realise that things between them will never be simple. They have more than just themselves to think about.
Things start to kick off when Edward and the rest of the Cullens leave Forks, rendering Bella completely heartbroken. Having told her he no longer wants to be with her, he disappears. Bella completely falls to pieces, much to the despair of her father, Charlie. She sinks deeper and deeper into her own little world, and feels she can't go on without Edward. Things eventually start to look up when Jacob Black, the son of Charlie's good friend Billy Black, arrives back in Bella's life. They strike up a friendship, and Bella slowly starts to realise that life can go on without Edward. She is still heartbroken, but she is starting to have a life again, instead of mourning for her loss.
However, things start to become complicated again when Jacob develops feelings for her. Bella likes Jacob immensely, but he isn't Edward. After telling him straight that she only wants to be friends with him, Bella and Jacob have a fun and fulfilling friendship, which delights both of their fathers. But as always with Bella, things are never straightforward. After a series of death defying stunts, she finds herself in the company of vampires once more...
New Moon is good and bad. It's a fabulous follow on from Twilight, but I started to get really irritated by Bella's behaviour. I know it was there to demonstrate how empty she felt without Edward and the Cullens but I often felt myself wanting to shout at her to pull herself together. Jacob is a great character because he helps Bella becomes a person again, and start living life. But I started to feel really sorry for him as it was obvious that Bella would never see him as any more than a friend. Then as the plot thickened, I felt myself becoming hopeful for him once again as the pair grew closer.
It improved for me once Bella got over the main part of her moping around, because that was drawn out a bit much for me. But I suppose given that this book is just a small part of a much longer story, it needed to have its own time scale.
Basically, this book is a no-brainer. If you've read Twilight and enjoyed it, you need to read this, and all the others that follow on. It's compulsive enough to want to know the rest of the story. I should know; as soon as I put this one down, I found myself reaching for the next one in the series...
 Boring!! November 11, 2008
So, the first book was about Edward and Bella falling in love. The second book is just 500 pages of Bella moping about Edward leaving and basically going mental. This book was worse than the first one and generally nothing of interst actually happens. The only good thing about the book was Jacob Black, but then Meyer decided that he'd be better off as a moody and irritable idiot. Possibly the most funniest part of the book was when Bella was thinking about Paris and Juliet being friends/falling in love and likening this situation to that between herself and Jacob. Bella then says that '"Juliet gets dumped and ends up with Paris" would have never been a hit' which is funny considering that New Moon is exactly that.
 New Moon November 5, 2008
- The Author -
Stephenie Meyer was born on the 24th of December, 1973. She is an american author who writes for both adults and teenagers. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, after graduating from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Stephenie Meyer now lives with her husband who she met whilst growing up with her three sons.
- About -
New Moon is the sequel to Twilight, an american international bestseller which is part of a four book series (although there is a fifth book not yet realeased which is Twilight written in another characters perspective). First published hardcover in October 2005, it is a young adult book, both a romance book and an adventure book. It continues the story of 17/18 year old Bella (Isabella) Swan who has moved to Forks, Washington, and has fallen in love with vampire, Edward Cullen. New Moon is about losing true love. It is 608 pages long in both the hardcover and paperback version.
- Storyline -
New Moon starts with Bella's surprise eighteenth birthday party at The Cullen's house, thrown by Alice and Edward. Whilst opening her present from Edward and Alice, Bella gets a paper cut. Jasper, who finds it the hardest to live on a non-human blood diet, cannot control himself and tries to attack Bella. Luckily Bella dosen't get seriously hurt.
Edward and his family leave Forks, trying to protect Bella from the dangerous vampire world. Bella becomes very depressed and goes to La Push to see Jacob Black, an old family friend. Bella finds that when she is around him, she isn't as depressed so she goes to see him almost every night. Consequently Bella and Jacob grow very close. Bella starts takes up dangerous hobbies such as motorcycle riding as she hears Edward's voice when she does something dangerous. After seeing a group of boys cliff-diving, Bella wants to try it, but Jacob manages to distract her from it for a while.
Jacob soon sees some strange behavior from Sam, a boy a little older than himself. Then his close friend Embry turns strange, not talking to Jacob and always hanging around Sam and his friends.
Soon enough, Jacob dosen't want to see Bella anymore and won't talk to her. One day Bella begs him what is wrong and he tells her that he cannot tell her. Then he tells her to think about the first time they met eachother at the beach and about a storyhe told her. He tells her that the answer is in the story and that she has to figure it out herself.
Bella eventually figures out about Jacob and it changes everything. Meanwhile, Alice, Edward's sister who has a gift of seeing the future, sees an image which brings her back to Forks. Soon, Bella and Alice find themselves chasing time to save a life.
- Price -
New Moon paperback is RRP 6.99 though it is sold online and in book shops quite cheaply. I bought it on amazon for 3.98 free delivery so it was quite cheap. Hardcover is RRP 12.99, but again it can be found cheaper.
- Verdict -
Although I don't think this book was as good as it's prequel, Twilight, I still found it to be very exciting and I couldn't put it down.
However, New Moon got quite a bit of critisism, as "Bella, happens to be the weakest character in the story and the most annoying..." and also that some of the storyline was a bit uneven. However, it still got the #1 position on the New York Times Bestseller List for Children's Chapter Books and remained in that spot for 11 weeks. It spent over 30 weeks in total on the list.
In New Moon, Bella is portrayed as a selfish user who seemed to only be able to exist with the help of a man in her life. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the book made made me really start to dislike Bella.
Whilst reading New Moon, I throughly enjoyed it, but when I look back, I really don't think it was that great. Actually, it was nowhere near as good as Twilight. New Moon was much too long, the same problem as in Twilight. Like I said, it wasgreat at the time I was reading it but when I re-read it, it just didn't hit the spot. It should have been cut down so that it didn't drag on. This would have made it a very good book.
Although I did criticise New Moon a lot, I do think it is worth reading. The first time I read it was impossible to put it down but after that, I really wasn't bothered. Maybe it would be better if you lended this book from the Librar instead.
best books i have read in ages November 5, 2008
my daughter told me about these books, she bought the first one and I read it after her then I was hooked. Have read all four now and could not put them down. I would recommend them to any one of any age
Good read- almost surpasses its predecessor October 28, 2008
being a HUGE fan of the first book i dived into this novel, anticipating more of the same. this book was good with the new concept of an edward-free time. the loss of that oh so perfect vampire is a period of greif for both bella and the reader. the re-introduction of jacob spices things up a bit and while bella can sometimes to hard to understand in her decisions jacob effectively lightens the tone as well as the new revelation of even more mythological creatures exist! the end is a particularly brilliant feature in this book- i love the introduction of the volturi- a new fascinating look at stepahnie mayers fictional world as the effectively "rulers" of the vampires are revealed. the return of edward also helps those who has missed him to cheer up! but all in all a very enjoyable sequel.
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