Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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58 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book, can;t wait for the next!!, 24 Jan 2008
I read Twilight and this book in a matter of three days because I found myself being drawn into the world of Bella, feeling the emotions she goes through and the desires she has for her lover Edward and her best friend Jacob. Although i love this book i can't help feeling that Stephenie Meyer allowed the reader to be caught up in the emotions and love that Jacob feels towards Bella and probably ruined the bonds that the reader developes for Edward. His absense during the book left an empty space in Bellas life and it also leaves an empty space in the book. Probably too much of an empty space. The passion becomes lost and although Bella comes round to thinking that maybe she should accept Jacobs feelings towards her and forget about Edward, it just doesn't pack the same punch as Twilight. Then all of a sudden Edward is thrust straight back into the lime light!! I can't help but feel sad for poor Jacob, he loves Bella and she dumps him when Edward returns. I found myself crying along with Bella. When she describes the feeling of her chest being ripped apart with the loss of Edward, as a woman i could relate to her feeling of utter loss. Stephenie Meyer really knows how to pack the emotional punches into a story aswell as the action sequences. I love this book as a whole and can't wait for the next one to be delivered. I'm ordering it straight away from Amazon!!
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43 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A gaping hole in the middle, 3 April 2008
I was very excited to see that there was a sequel to Meyer's debut. Twilight did have its faults, but it was light and the romance was refreshingly well written.
And let's face it, I fell in love with Edward just like the rest of us. He's beautiful and frightening at the same time and those of you who have a problem with Bella's continued amazement of his physical appearance: aren't we all shallow enough that we'd like our significant other to look that way? What's wrong with a little fantasy?
With New Moon, the light tone and Bella's sarcastic narrative changed into something dark and hollow. Bella's situation takes a sudden and drastic plunge for the worse: An incident at the Cullen house leaves Edward so shaken he decides to follow through on his promise to "do what's best for her." In this case it means he and his family leave Forks and with that: Bella.
Bella goes to pieces, turning into a shadow of her former self. Edwards absence literally leaves a hole in her chest --and in the book. It's like he was never there; he removed all evidence of his excistence from her, in a vain ettempt to force her to get on with her human life. It's the sadness, more than anything else that drains the book.
This is a story about people so in love with eachtother, their separation nearly destroys them both. New Moon is the 500 paged gap in their chest.
Then Jacob enters the plot. Their friendship takes the front seat --obviously an attempt by Meyer to fill the void Edward's departure caused. Thanks to his company, Bella slowly but surely becomes "alive" again. But ofcourse, her newfound best friend turns out not to be so human after all...
If you've read Helly Armstrong's "Bitten" you'll pick up the clues about what's going on with Jacob soon enough --and you'll become impatient because Bella doesn't catch on as quick. Meyer tried to create a effect similar to Twilight: now Jacob becomes the mysterious boy who isn't quite what he seems beneath the surface.
It's predictable, but I would be able to live with it he held the same amount of attraction Edward did. Instead, I'm having deja vu's all the time: (the "it's not safe for me to be near you" spiel starts all over again.) Jacob had potential, but it would've worked better if Meyer would've made him a completely different character. She did-- in the beginning. After "the change" it's Edward all over again, minus the velvet voice, the angeletic face and the smoldering eyes. He just doesn't have that -well what should I call it- pull. To add to the "fun:" he hates vampires. What a surprise.
Just when some some supporting characters are fleshed out, Edward is back in the story. I missed him so much I didn't even care it felt forced. But it wasn't the same.
Bottomline, New Moon isn't a bad sequel, but it doesn't have that freshness Twilight had. Bella's bordering on insanity and so insecure about herself I'd like to smack her head and tell her to grow up. Still, unlike some readers, I don't think she lost all her appeal as a main character. There's hope left. Hope that Eclipse will close the void New Moon created but could not close.
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31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Emo woe squared, 16 Jan 2009
It is official -- Stephanie Meyer is the oldest emo teenage girl on the face of this planet.
How else could she have written a book like "New Moon," the second sparkle-vampire romance in her bestselling Twilight series? Unfortunately this is no deep and intense romance -- it's basically a big oozing lump of teenage melodrama and horrendously purple prose. And the resolutely obnoxious heroine Bella Swan doesn't help with her endless moaning.
Bella's whether-you-like-it-or-not birthday party is wrecked when she cuts herself and prompts Jasper into a feeding frenzy, and the Cullens realize that she's just too tasty to be safe. So they leave town permanently. Cue emo music, for Bella's life is empty and worthless without Edward.
No, seriously -- it's empty. We have blank pages with month names on them, presumably to show that life is utterly empty and pointless when Eddie boy is absent -- "that I wasn't the heroine anymore, that my story was over."
But when she deliberately tries to put herself in danger, she hears Edward commanding her to stop. So she buys a motorcycle and starts immersing herself in extreme sports, hoping to hear him over and over again -- and she also gets to know local hunk Jacob Black, who has a supernatural secret of his own. But her near-suicidal antics have disastrous results for Edward, who believes her to be dead... and takes drastic action.
For the record, being seventeen-plus and/or breaking up with your True Luv are a fate worse than death. Teen Romance = True Luv. Catatonia and suicide are valid responses to being dumped. And life is an endless vile morass of nihilistic doom without a Sparkling Undead Coverboy to validate your existance and keep life from being ordinary.
At least, that is what "New Moon" would have you believe, since Stephanie Meyer smothers it in enough teenage melodrama and endless whiny angst to choke a blue whale. Thankfully her purple prose has been toned down -- presumably due to the absence of the "godlike" Edward -- but unfortunately page upon page of whining and suicidal despair is not a good substitute.
The entire story is pretty much devoted to the ever-passive Bella moping and whining as the sound of the world's smallest violin plays. Meyer attaches hilariously melodramatic significance to such scenes as Bella trying to get raped and murdered by a random bunch of guys, or having a recurring emo nightmare about being -- oh gasp of horror -- alone. You'd think being single was a death sentence.
Belatedly, Meyer realizes that post-breakup angst is not enough to carry even this thin plot. So she quickly spins up a bunch of Bad Evil Restrictive Vampires (with a not-so-subtle anti-Catholic bent), and Edward attempting suicide by the most hilarious method possible -- public sparkling. Such scenes almost mock themselves.
And Bella's endless woe-is-me-for-I-am-a-plain-mortal angst doesn't make her more vulnerable and likable -- it just eats up pages. And while Meyer tries desperately to show Bella's obsession as being True and Eternal Love, it never seems like more than a teenage girl's overwrought crush. And in a feeble attempt at a love triangle, Meyer makes Bella flirt callously with Jacob Black -- a sweet, nice, friendly guy who deserves way better.
"New Moon" is a prolonged, near-plotless slog of teenage melodrama, and it's nothing short of amazing that a grown woman could write such a book. Only for those who enjoy a fine whine.
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