New Moon
by Stephenie Meyer

Little, Brown & Co., 2006, 563 pp., $10.99ISBN-10: 0-316-02496-1ISBN-13: 978-0-316-02496-9

New Moon is the second book in the Twilight saga about the forbidden love between Edward Cullen a 108-year-old vampire, who falls in love with Bella Swan, a 17-year-old human. New Moon is about when Bella is thrown an eighteenth birthday party by the Cullen family who are vampires. Bella receives a paper cut while opening a present. Jasper (Edward’s brother) has been attempting a non-human diet, but still has trouble with the scent of human blood. Jasper becomes completely overwhelmed by the scent of blood and tries to attack Bella. Edward immediately jumps in front of her to make an effort to save her but unfortunately Edward pushes Bella’s arm into a pile of glass plates making her entire arm ooze with blood. In an attempt to keep Bella safe from the world of vampires, Edward and his family leave the small town of Forks. From then on Bella enters a deep depression and seeks comfort with Jacob Black, an old family friend who clears the haze of Bella's pain. Bella and Jacob start to spend more and more time together. Then Bella soon after discovers the rush of adrenaline present when she places herself in dangerous situations, which stimulates a hallucination of Edward's voice. Bella begins to seek out dangerous behavior, such as motorcycle riding, to keep Edward's voice in her head. Meanwhile Jacob is sick with “mono” or at least that’s what Jacob’s dad said. Bella had her doubts because she knew that Jacob was in love with her and would never kiss another girl. Bella attempts to find out all she can about her best friend who is being forced by Jacob’s friends to stay away from Bella. Bella eventually gets the secret out of Jacob after she went to his house and from then on the story starts to unfold with the secret of Jacob and his tribe…

I loved how Stephenie Meyer started her own stereotype of vampires showing how vampires can be beautiful, sparkle in the sun instead of die, and they run fast and don’t turn into bats. Meyer also gives you a vivid description of all of the characters so it paints a picture in your head so you can connect to them and feel their pain. Meyer also shows the drama that Edward feels and how he has to resist the temptation to not kill Bella. Even though the story isn’t in Edward’s point of view, Meyer still shows the feeling he has towards Bella, and also how much he loves her. Even when Edward leaves Bella you could feel that he did it for another reason, not just because he didn’t want her anymore.

The character that I liked the most was Jacob Black because in New Moon his story really starts to develop after Edward leaves and he begins to fall in love with Bella. Bella who struggled with her love for Edward, began falling in love with Jacob. Throughout the entire Twilight saga Jacob never gives up on trying to get Bella to make the right choice and to give up on Edward because Edward had left her and made her go into a deep depression. The character that I liked the least was Bella because she whines most of the time and even during times when she should have been happy, Bella always felt like she has something to complain about and is so negative.

One of the main themes of New Moon is love because at the beginning Bella is in love with Edward and Jacob. Another theme is betrayal because when Edward left he betrayed Bella and in Twilight he had said he would love her forever. The last theme is friendship because after Bella goes into a depression she seeks friendship with Jacob to ease her pain.

I would recommend New Moon to anyone 13 years or older of either gender who wants to read a good book about the struggle of love. Overall New Moon is a great book and filled with the right amount of suspense, love, struggle and pain that makes it impossible to put down.

~ reviewed by Jen