New Moon by Stephanie Myers -- A Book Review
An Evaluation of the Second Novel in the Twilight Series
Mar 4, 2009
In Twilight, we met Bella Swan, a teenager trying to find her place in the unfamiliar town of Forks. This became even harder when she fell in love with Edward Cullen and his family, the town’s resident vampire coven. The second novel in the Twilight series builds on this relationship, as well as the other relationships in Bella's life.
New Moon, New Struggles
In New Moon, Bella is still as in love with Edward as she was in Twilight, but Edward realizes that Bella is jeopardizing her own future (and life) to be with him. Feeling guilty, Edward decides that it would be best for her if he left town and let her build a new life without him. Unfortunately for the reader, this is not truly the best thing for Bella, for she spends months (and hundreds of pages of the novel) moping around and feeling sorry for herself, swearing that she is now incomplete without him.
Enter Jacob Black
While Edward is out of the picture, Jacob Black moves in to try to take his place. His father is an old friend of Bella’s family, and the two teens soon fall into a comfortable camaraderie. They spend all of their time together, and Jacob falls madly in love with Bella. Sadly, Bella is still obsessed with Edward, and she rejects Jacob, although she feels that he is still a vital part of her life. As if their relationship wasn’t complicated enough, Bella finds out a secret about Jacob that will not only threaten their friendship, but also her beloved vampire companions.
Unequal Partnership
New Moon, like Twilight, belongs to the romantic fiction genre. However, while the relationship between Bella and Edward in the first novel is endearing, in the second novel it is almost absurd. The pain that Bella feels when Edward leaves is understandable, but the way she wallows in that pain is embarrassing, and demeaning to women everywhere. She spends all of her days crying, and then she puts herself in danger just so that she can hear her conscience (which speaks in Edward’s voice) telling her to stop. She hurts not only herself, but all of those who care about her, due to her infatuation with a boy who was never really good for her in the first place.
The couple’s relationship becomes even more dysfunctional in this novel, for Bella’s entire life revolves around Edward, and the reader is never really certain that Edward actually feels the same way about her. She constantly feels inferior in his presence, and he ultimately abandons her. Jacob, on the other hand, treats her well and is a loyal friend and confidant, but she nevertheless rejects his earnest love in exchange for a never-ending lust for the one thing that she can never truly have—a normal life with Edward.
True Love or a Bad Example?
Bella’s inability to define herself without the influence of Edward could conceivably be due to their intense love for each other. However, it could also be construed as a terrible example of how women should envision a healthy relationship, and it sets a very poor example for the millions of teenage girls that adore the Twilight saga. For those who are able to look past the misogynistic nature of the novel, the plot is actually quite interesting, but the book is ultimately just a filler between books one and three of the series.
New Moon was published in 2006 by Little, Brown and Company. ISBN: 978-0-316-02496-9
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