New Moon Review

A review of New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

            New Moon by Stephenie Meyer is a step up from Twilight, her previous book.  The word “deliberate” appears only once or twice.  The hyphen was employed many a time, but not nearly in the amount the first book possessed.  Meyer threw in new plot twists, albeit slowly.  She created a different atmosphere.  Instead of fear and determination being the common moods as in the first story, depression and obsession flowed through the pages.  The author employed an effective technique that displayed what exactly Bella’s life was like during her darkest period.  Yet, at the end of the second book in the series, one is left with a sense of fury and disappointment because Meyer failed to commit to an action we all knew was going to happen anyway.

            New Moon was written at an elementary level much like Twilight.  It had the same dragging, slow-moving pace as its predecessor.  The only things that held my attention were hopes that Bella would do something drastic that would possibly endanger her life (a situation actually presented itself in which this happened, but it was not thoroughly satisfying), the development with the werewolves involving her only friend, and the aura of despair that filled this literary work.  The fact that Victoria, Bella’s former stalker’s girlfriend, came back to kill Bella did not hurt my interest level, either.  It was very enjoyable to read the scene in the woods where Edward totally destroyed his lover by leaving her for what was supposed to be forever.  Though it is very improbable that someone like Edward would truly abandon Bella under any circumstances (He said many times that he could do no such thing in the first book because he was too selfish.), it was nice to experience a fresh turn in the book’s story line.   

            Meyer had the book going at a sluggish pace to begin with, but after Edward left Bella Swan, it became even more lethargic.  Though the author mercifully devoted only one page each for the months of October through January, the reader still has to sit through Bella’s every boring, self-pitying day after that.  During this misery that overwhelmed Bella, she began to grow close to Jacob, a boy of Indian lineage.  It nearly seemed as if she would finally move on and become involved with her friend, but then Alice Cullen showed up and informed Bella that Edward was trying to con the Volturi-the royal vampires-into killing him due to a misinformed vision by Alice of Bella jumping off a cliff and dying.  Bella left her father with a non-descriptive note that she was leaving to help the boy who had hurt her so deeply.  They rush off and save Edward in the nick of time.

            When Alice and Bella are with Edward and the Volturi in Italy, everyone finds out that Bella is definitely extraordinary.  Not even the all-powerful royal vampires can penetrate her mind.  It is a bit excessive to have the main character so powerful.  Then she gets right back with Edward Cullen as if nothing had happened and further hurts Jacob and her father.  The story ends without resolving the issue of Bella becoming a vampire.  It is truly wearisome to have this aspect of the plot up in the air.  Meyer seems to want to drag it out, maybe to never have the event happen.  All in all, New Moon is slightly more appealing than the first book in the series, but still just as substandard.

 

Reviews

[Anatar]

You know how far I got with Stephanie Meyer's proverbial turds on literature. Although I've never read this book, I know your critical review was too kind. I like that its negative at all, mind you.

[Wyrd_of_Night]

This a really great review, I think you'll become a journalist with this kind of stuff. (Excuse my bad grammar and spelling- I don't excel at it.) I think you basically summed up the whole book in the nicest way possible, but as most people who aren't captured by it.... it sucks. I agree 100%. I only got up to the third book and i was too tiered of it. It does drag on tremendously and Meyers does right at an elementary level, i have friends that write much better than her and have more exciting plot then Twilight has and their in High School. BTW thanks for the review on my poem.

[Tracy]

Great review, although I do think it is much too kind. I thought this book moved much slower than Twilight. The slowest of the series in fact. Perhaps the genius of Meyer is that even as tragically awful as her published works are, we still flock to them.

For that I give her kudos.