Book: New Moon

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

ISBN:-10: 0-316-16019-9, ISBN-13: 978-0-316-16019-3

Price: $17.99 US and $21.99 Canada

Pages: 563

Released: 2006

RECOMMENDED FOR MATURE TEENS

5 Stars

Reviewed By: Emily Axelson

I absolutely loved New Moon. As a dark teenage fantasy, Stephanie Meyer takes mystical creatures such as vampires and shows us the deeper side to them and fabricating them into more than just evil bloodsuckers.

When I originally found the first book of the sequel Twilight, I instantly knew it was my kind of novel; it was different, intriguing, and mysterious.

To start off the addicting sequel to Twilight…in New Moon Bella Swan moves to a plain, boring town named Forks to live with her father Charlie. Back in her old town she was shy and awkward, but once she moves to dull Forks where the standards are not as high, she becomes the center of attention to all the boys and the envy of a best friend to all the girls. However, she doesn’t notice any of them; the only one she notices is the quiet, devastatingly handsome Edward Cullen. Of course, the only boy she is interested in stays as far away from her as possible. Everyone tells her to stay away from him advising her of his history. The most suspicious story of all though is her friend Jacob Black who stated that he’s part of an ancient legend called `the cold ones,` in more modern language, a vampire. Eventually, Edward breaks down and reveals his love for Bella and they are happier than ever as Bella forgets those suspicious stories. However, strange unexplainable events continue to occur and Edward keeps denying it. When Bella gets fed up, he reveals to her the shocking fact that he is indeed a vampire.

The second book starts exactly where the first left off. Edward is a vampire, and Bella accepts that. Their love is too strong to be wrecked by something as small as Edwards’s constant thirst for blood. Everything is fine other than the fact that a furious vampire, Victoria, seeks revenge on Edward for slaying her beloved mate James. As much as he loves, and needs Bella, he would hate even more to be responsible for putting her in danger. So in an act of love he leaves her in Forks, alone and heartbroken. Everything seems to be lost as Bella sinks into a depression lasting for months. She loses touch with all her friends, and spends every waking hour alone…at least physically. Edward is always consciously with her, but whenever anything reminds her of him, her broken heart burns, and she can hardly breathe. After months of emptiness, she meets up with her old friend Jacob again and decides to add some excitement in her life by taking up motorcycling.

She and Jacob grow close together, and for some reason, when she’s around him, the gaping and burning hole in her chest left by Edward is vanishing. She spends as much time as possible with Jacob working on the motorcycles in order to feel complete again. On her first motorcycling attempt, she is shocked to hear Edward in her ear urging her to stop before she gets hurt. She knows that this is not normal, but the sweet memory of his voice is too satisfying to the distracted by common sense. Her heart doesn’t burn at the sound; there is no pain, just happiness. She discovers that the key to the voices is danger. She begins doing all sorts of dangerous activities to hear Edward again. The only thing keeping her sane in all this is Jacob. In no time, Jacob becomes her safety net, and despite her better judgment, she decides to trust him and depend on him. Jacob had been talking about a cult people want him to join. Before she can get to the bottom of it, Jacob disappears. He joins the cult and never sees her anymore. Bella is left alone once again. But there is something strange about this cult. Why would Jacob join after being so afraid...and then it comes to her; maybe this “cult” isn’t a cult at all.

This enrapturing book has you wildly flipping the pages to discover what the truth to the many, many mysteries. On occasion, I was SO into the book that I had read until one in the morning without even realizing it was past midnight.

It’s filled with twists and turns and Stephanie Meyer has you in the palm of her hand as you fall for every twist, and then being left in total shock every time. The instant I finished Twilight, I got my hands on New Moon as soon as I could, and I cannot wait to read Eclipse, the next in the series. This series is definitely among the most captivating and astounding series I’ve ever read.