New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

New Moon
Kelly Honea
As all the hype wound down about the new movie and book, Twilight, my criticism and aversion to the series did as well. I never thought that a romance novel about vampires would ever be as intriguing as, it seemed, everyone had found it to be. Despite my warnings that I would complain and mock throughout the entire movie, my friend convinced me to watch it, certain that I would become just as enthralled with it as she was. My friend was right. Twilight was one of the most gripping movies I had seen. I became so interested in the movie that I actually did what I never thought in a million years I would do—I read the book. After finishing the first novel I became so engaged in the story that I had to know how it was resolved. I surrendered to my opposition to the series and picked up the second book.
New Moon is the fascinating sequel to twilight. The two main characters, Edward Cullen, a vampire, and Isabella Swan, an eighteen year old girl who is “unconditionally and irrevocably” in love with Edward continue their struggle against the world—which blatantly rejects the idea of a mortal and a vampire falling and love. The Cullens are a rare clan among their species; they are “vegetarian vampires,” meaning they are able to abstain from drinking human blood. Instead, they hunt large animals such as bears. When Edward realizes that he is subjecting Bella to constant danger, he lies and tells Bella that he no longer loves her and moves away. After having her heart broken beyond repair Bella spirals into a depression where she becomes a self-proclaimed “living zombie.” Only when she is threatened with being sent to live with her mother in Florida does Bella snap out of her trance-like state and becomes friends with her old friend Jacob, a member of the Quileute Native American tribe on the La Push reservation. Jacob helps Bella restore two old motorcycles. Bella secretly hoped that by riding the motorcycles she would have another astonishingly vivid hallucination of Edward’s musical voice. After seeing a group of Quileute teenagers jumping off a cliff into the distant ocean for recreation, Bella sees another opportunity to hear Edward. Edward’s sister, Alice, who can see the future, saw Bella jump and assumed she had committed suicide. Edward found out about her vision and was so torn by the thought of living in a world without Bella that he decided to kill himself. Because there are very few ways to kill a vampire, he went to Italy to taunt the dangerous Volturi family who would destroy him forever if he exposed his secret. Guided by Alice’s visions, Bella and Alice travel to Italy to save him from his self-destruction. Meanwhile, Bella’s friend Jacob became a werewolf, as legend stated. He and four other boys his age became werewolves to protect their people from the vampires. When Edward and Bella return, Bella demands that she is transformed into an immortal vampire in order to stay with Edward forever. Edward, being very protective of Bella’s soul, blatantly refuses. Bella then decides that since the Volturi are going to ensure that her heart stops one way or the other and that another vampire is planning on murdering her, she put her transformation to a vote with the Cullens. The vote is synonymous and the date is set for after Bella’s graduation. Edward is extremely opposed to Bella becoming a vampire and offers to make a deal with her. If she marries Edward, he will transform her into a vampire, instead of Edward’s extremely self-controlled father figure, Carlisle Cullen. New Moon ends with Edward and Bella’s deal remaining unresolved, and an understanding between Bella and Jacob that absolute enemies cannot remain best friends.
I recommend New Moon because it is endearing and captivating. The characters in the novel are interesting, detailed, and very easy to relate to. The plot is equally interesting and detailed, as well as unpredictable. One cannot help but become absorbed by Edward’s perfectness and empowered by Bella’s bravery and odd immunity to the powers of supernatural creatures. The greatest lesson I learned by reading this book is not inside the pages, but on the outside—never judge a book by its cover. A week ago I opposed the entire idea of books about vampires and now I am a strong advocate of Stephenie Meyer’s series.