New Moon (Twilight Saga) [Kindle Edition]

I am in my late 30s and read Twilight because I had heard good things and the hype of the movie was good. I enjoyed it immensely and was drawn in by the love story and taken back to my high school days. I became a bit pathetic and moped around for a few days when I had finished the book...simply because I wanted to read more.

Wanting more and itching to read New Moon, I logged on to Amazon and read the reviews and became a little worried as so many people gave it mediocre to poor reviews. However, I decided just to buy it and read it and I am so glad I did.

I found that it is a much better written book than Twilight. It seemed like Stephenie Meyer actually THOUGHT about what she was writing this time, and didn't just throw stuff on the pages randomly.

The compaint other reviews had was the lack of Edward in the story. However, I did not find this a drawback in the least, it was necessary to keep the emotions running as strongly as they do in this book, and I found the storyline excellent. Please do not be put off by the negative reviews - this book is well worth the read.

The second book in the Twilight saga covers the pain Bella goes through when Edward decides to leave and how she bonds with Jacob while trying to get over her heart break.

Again, Meyer does a great job in portraying how it feels to lose someone you're madly in love with. The sensation of loss, emptiness, the hole in your chest, the difficulty to breath, the effort of trying to keep on living when you feel that nothing else matters - you do feel Bella's pain. For selfish reasons, Bella starts to hang out with Jacob, trying new "highs" so she can hear Edward's voice in her head while she's in peril. Bella and Jacob's bond becomes stronger and they fall in love with each other, not with the same intensity though. Although Bella's feelings are more of a friendly love, very often she says how warmth Jacob's skin and how beautiful he is - you could almost feel a bit of lust and desire in those remarks.

As for Jacob you can also feel his pain and frustration, having Bella so close yet impossible to have. And when Jacob's transformation into werewolf finally happens (who was surprised?), it's an ironic situation since it could be even riskier for Bella to be around Jacob since he's not totally in control of his emotions.

Comparing New Moon to Twilight, there's an improvement in the way Meyer wrote the dialogues and the character display their feelings, even though there are still loads of "I thought", "he growled", "she sighed" every time the characters talk to each other.

Since the biggest part of the book is mostly about how Bella tries do move on and the role Jacob plays in her life, the pace overall is not quite the same as Twilight. However, the last 5 chapters the story develops in a such speed that it's almost hard to follow. In the end, Bella gets her happy ending, even though from now on it will be difficult to please both Jacob and Edward fans.

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.