New Moon
by Stephenie Meyer

Little, Brown and Co., 2006, 563 pp.
ISBN-10: 0-316-16019-9

New Moon (the second book in the Twilight saga) is a book about an eighteen-year-old girl named Bella Swan. She came from sunny Phoenix,Arizona and moved to the rainy Olympic Peninsula last year. Bella fell in love with a beautiful boy named Edward Cullen. There is something different about Edward and his whole family; they are vampires. There is a party for Bella’s birthday and she is almost eaten by Edwards’s brother. Over the next few weeks Edward becomes more and more distant until one day after school Edward takes Bella on a walk and tells her he and his family is leaving. After the Cullen’s leave, Bella is a zombie for four months. She goes to her friend Jacob’s house and he helps her get over the hurt of her life, her love, leaving her behind forever. Jacob becomes her best friend and they are almost inseparable until he leaves her for some new friends. Her nightmares return and she is worse off than before. Jacob loves Bella and she cannot love him that way because she knows that it will never equal the amount of love she has for Edward. Her love for Edward, and Jacob, takes her to places she has never been and never wants to go back.

New Moon is a book that I liked because even though I liked Edward inTwilight I think I liked the break from him. Jacob, Bella’s friend from La Push, is less controlling and more laid back.  Bella loves Jacob and you can feel her love for him more than for Edward because she loves him as a brother and feels the need to protect him, whereas with Edward she was the one being protected. Bella loves Edward more than life itself so she risks her life in the end when Edward tries to commit suicide. I think Jacob is better for Bella in some ways because she can live life to the fullest with him, she has a say in what she wants to do. With Edward she is much more protected. Bella is unable to do anything with risk at all with Edward, but she loves him so much. It is impossible for Bella to be friends with Jacob while she is in love with Edward. Bella is pretty much broken with out Edward so she should be with him. The end of the book, when she finds Edward, is scary and suspenseful. I love this kind of story.

The themes in New Moon are love and belonging. Love because she and Edward even though they aren’t together they still love each other. Belonging because finally Bella relates to a human and fells like she belongs. She hasn’t ever been able to relate well to people and now she does and feels like she belongs.

This story is good but at points can be confusing. In the end it was hard for me to understand the first time but after I reread it, it was much easier to get. This book isn’t a hard read it has vocabulary like a book for a third grader but other than that this book is great!

I will recommend New Moon for teenagers because there is some content that is too mature for younger children. I think this is a good book for teenagers who like love stories or suspense and action.  Maybe if you haven’t caught the reading bug you should try this series (but start with Twilight).

~ reviewed by CiCi