41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
Review from the older audience
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.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Juvenile Tripe
As a 15-year-old, and with it being so popular with my classmates, I was convinced I would like this book. I wasn't particularly impressed with Twilight but I made the naive assumption that the plot had to thicken, and that the storyline must improve at some point. I was obviously mistaken.
I put New Moon down around 2/3 in because I was so disgusted by just...
This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
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.
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
As a 15-year-old, and with it being so popular with my classmates, I was convinced I would like this book. I wasn't particularly impressed with Twilight but I made the naive assumption that the plot had to thicken, and that the storyline must improve at some point. I was obviously mistaken.
I put New Moon down around 2/3 in because I was so disgusted by just how...rubbish it is. I found that the book didn't grip me, because I really didn't care about the characters. They are all very shallow and one-dimensional.
Bella Swan is utterly bland without any personality whatsoever. The only emotions she seems to feel are angst and moodiness. She is apparently "unconditionally and irrevocably" in love with Edward, yet whenever she's with him she behaves sullenly and childishly. If I was her age and had already found someone who I loved that much, and who I believed to love me back, I would be ecstatic. Or at least I might smile a little. And not whinge and angst about that fact that the boy I love's family has spent a good deal of time planning a birthday party for me. This is NOT normal teenage behaviour. I was embarrassed that my age group was being represented in this way. In fact, I couldn't relate to her at all. I have never met anyone in or out of school of that age who behaves anything like her. This is part of the reason I didn't like the book; relating to the protagonist of a story is very important for me.
I won't blather on too much, though I do have an abundance of reasons not to read this book. I shall just point out one of my pet peeves about the book, in terms of Smeyer's writing style. Apart from her apparent abusive love affair with hyphens, and paragraphs littered with purple prose (Edward is "excruciatingly lovely", "like a marble tribute to some forgotten pagan god of beauty", with "liquid topaz eyes". Alright Smeyer, Edward's sexy, WE GET IT NOW) my main problem with this novel is the overuse of adverbs. They litter the page, and good trees are being killed to print these extra pagefuls as consequence. Unfortunately I cannot quote any at the moment as I have returned the book, but seriously, make a tally per page. It's quite amusing in a way.
Please, don't put yourself through the trauma of reading this book. Just don't.
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
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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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
Once again finding myself with nothing to read I decided to give this a go. I had read Twilight a few weeks before so it seemed the logical thing to do.
If Twilight was overrated then this was just plain awful.
Once I start reading something, I like to finish it. I just can't help it. But with each new chapter I found it harder and harder to continue. I became so infuriated with Bella's attitude, I've never seen such mental masochism in teenage fiction! And the sheer over protective, controlling nature of her father drove me round the bend!
The writing style seemed rushed compared to the first novel, I got no sense that the writer even cared about her characters, but maybe that was just my own feelings about this spilling into the book. I noticed multiple editorial errors, some sentences were so badly worded I had to read them twice.
As with Twilight, perhaps I'm just too old to really appreciate these stories. But as far as I am concerned - irritating characters, terrible writing structure, dull story line, and zero chemistry.
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
This is bad.
Most teenagers are guilty of being caught up in one stupid fad or another, but the increasingly disturbing Twilight series is more than stupid; it's frightening.
I knew the plot (what little there is) of this LOOOONG book before I read it, but even I read on with mounting horror (and increasing boredom).
Stephenie Meyer studied literature at university. We get it. But there is no need whatsoever to bring in literary comparisons and try to turn your characters into representations of Shakespeare's. Apart from anything else, she fails miserably at it.
Bella, Edward and Jacob are not Juliet, Romeo and Paris, but Meyer tries desperately to make them so. However, where Romeo and Juliet is a play about how hatred and outside forces can destroy something pure, New Moon is just an embarrassing display of teen melodrama.
Bella was always a whiny, insipid little wench; always needing a man to literally prop her up. In New Moon she takes this to a frightening new level. Bella simply cannot go anywhere without either being carried or being supported by a man. Hell, even in the car there's always a guy with his arm around her while he's driving (and how's that for road safety?!). She actually clings to whatever man is near her, and when there's no man she's sitting on the lap of, and clinging to, Alice, her female friend.
We are supposed to see Bella as Juliet. She's not. Bella's misery is embarrassing.
She goes walking at night in dangerous places, trying to attract men who previously tried to rape her. She rides - and repeatedly crashes - a motorcycle she does not know how to operate. She jumps off a cliff.
All so she can hallucinate her ex-boyfriend's voice.
She wakes up screaming - EVERY NIGHT. She does things that put her in the hospital every week.
Why? Because her boyfriend left her six months earlier.
This is not a broken heart; this is the world's most stupid girl being as melodramatic as it is possible to be. And anybody who's hallucinating a boyfriend should be medicated.
Stephenie Meyer is not a good writer, or even a trained writer, and she brags about it. If only she could get her ego under control and try and learn something about how to create a good book, then we might be getting somewhere. The thesaurus abuse does not come off as smart, just out of place and irritating. There is NEVER a good reason to use lots of fancy words just because you can.
And by halfway through I was actually laughing at loud at the overuse of the same few phrases. "His eyes tightened." (How in the world do eyes `tighten'?!) "His russet skin." "The hole in my chest." "My safe harbour."
Over and over again.
Meyer describes everything down to the smallest and most painful detail. We know exactly what Bella cooked for her father at every meal, and we know about every test and assignment she had to do for school. She frequently breaks off in the middle of a conversation for a four page ramble about her feelings, but then when the action actually comes along it is covered in just one or two paragraphs.
Meyer herself has admitted that when she started out writing she had no idea how long a manuscript should be. She found out when her first book was published and was bigger than a phone book. But then instead of giving future manuscripts a good and much-needed edit, she continued to ramble on and on. By the time anything actually happens in New Moon most - good - books would already have been finished.
And why are Stephenie Meyer's female (ONLY female) characters always cooking?!
The stereotyping just goes on and on; all of it inspired by Meyer's own biases. If you're a blonde woman, you MUST be evil. If you're a woman of any sort, cooking for any man near you is the ultimate life achievement (plus Bella seems to be cleaning the bathroom every second chapter). If you're anything less than a superhero, you're a waste of time. If you're male, you must be in love with Meyer's self-insert - otherwise known as Bella. I suppose it is quite amusing that Meyer wrote herself in as the starring character, seeing as said character is the nastiest and worst role model I have ever come across.
Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon, and it helps to keep that in mind when trying to come to terms with the frightening religious and antifeminist themes throughout the book.
Avoid at all costs.
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
This book is just awful and it not empowering for teenage girls in the slightest.
Bella is so annoying and completely self obsessed. She uses people for her own benefit e.g. Jessica, Mike and Jacob. They are nice people who want to be her friend and she just uses them and drops them like a hot potato with no consideration for their feelings in the slightest.
I know that being a teenager can be hard and your first love can cut deep, but this is just ridiculous.
At least in books such as Harry Potter and The Dark Materials, the lead character has inner strength, morals and treat the people they love with care and respect. I don't think this book series deserves the same kind of success as Bella is a terrible example for young girls.
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
See my review of `Twilight' - again I was utterly addicted from the moment I read the first page and yet, again I agree with the critics and particularly this passage from CB:
"New Moon resembles the diary of an incredibly whiney and depressed teenage girl. Its always important to have an interesting and compelling protagonist and this is doubly true in the case of a first-person narrative. New Moon's leading lady Bella Swan, however, is not only boring and irritating but downright pathetic. What we have here is 500 pages of Bella moping and whining and rambling about how she is depressed, and how she has a hole in her chest, and how her life is meaningless etc. Not only is this rather tedious, but its also insulting to women."
Yes, Bella is extraordinarily self-obsessed and annoying but the feelings she has for Edward are so intense that his departure causes a complete break-down in her, which is only partially healed by her growing friendship for Jacob.
This was probably my least favourite of the four books - because Edward wasn't in most of it (!) - but at least it had a bit more of a plot than the first. Not that it actually mattered - like in the first book, I was just enjoying being immersed in that world again and became emotionally attached to the characters, setting, plot etc until I emerged at the end of the novel, feeling quite dazed and desperate for the next one.
I think these are `Marmite' books (if you're not English, you may not understand this bit) and that those of us who became addicted will remain so and those of us who didn't like them will continue not to like them. The answer is clear - if you didn't enjoy the first two, don't bother reading the last two.
I felt that the style of this book was more 'epic' and less teen angst diary scribblings - Stephenie Meyers had got into her stride and had a bigger vision of the world she'd created than was apparent in the first book. There are now layers of complications which will run on into the next book (hopefully) and I suspect we are building to a massive climax by the end of book four (all puns intended).
Can't wait!
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
I never bought the original Twilight book as I had seen the film but after seeing the trailer for New Moon I had to buy it.
It is really badly written! I thought it would have been better than that given all the hype. Also, Bella comes across as pathetic. Meyer is not great at character development , with the exception of Jacob.
Bella just seems to constantly mope around not even attempting to change her life in any way, just waiting on things to happen.
I don't feel like I know anything about her and yet both Jacob and Edward are attracted to her. I mean come on, she didn't listen to music in general because it reminded her of Edward? And the waking up screaming every single night? Bella is such a stereotypical character, her boyfriend dumps so she sits around moping hoping that he will come back.
The only 2 things that kept me reading were the overall plot and Jacob who was the only interesting character.
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This review is from: New Moon (Twilight Saga) (Paperback)
This series is not just for teenagers. Was introduced to them on a recent family holiday - 3 generations - with me being the Granny. Was told I must read Twilight, so when it was my turn I did. Instantly hooked, and have since read all four books. Please Stephanie Meyer write a fifth. By the time we returned home, my granddaughter's precious books were in shreds what with the heat, damp hands and suntan lotion, so felt honour bound to replace them as she likes to keep her books for future rereading. Ordered The Host to see if it could compare, and yes it did. Very different but great reading. The recent film made of Twilight does not do the books justice at all. 8 to 80 - read the books, you will enjoy.
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