by Kay Parsons

Created on: May 23, 2008

New Moon is Stephenie Meyer's second book about Bella Swan and the Cullen family. By now, Bella has spent a good amount of time with the Cullens and has not only fully accepted that they are vampires, but has decided that she is going to be one of them soon, whether her boyfriend Edward Cullen wants her to be a vampire or not.

The story starts with Bella's eighteenth birthday, a concept that is entirely horrifying to her because she is now older' than Edward will ever be. Things only get worse when she has a small birthday party with the Cullens and an incident occurs that convinces Edward that he and his family are not safe for Bella. Next thing Bella knows, Edward breaks up with her and he and the Cullens are out of rainy Forks, Washington forever.

After Edward leaves, it is as if Bella has shattered into a million pieces. There is no point in life without him, or so Bella thinks. In the middle of her depression, she forms a friendship with friendly, machine-loving Jacob Black (or Jake, as everyone calls him) who lives on an Indian reservation with his father, Billy Black. Just when Bella starts to get close to Jake, though, odd things start happening to him and the story takes a twist as werewolves enter Bella's world.

As unusual as it is to have a werewolf for a best friend, Bella is as comfortable as ever around Jakeuntil one of the Cullens returns to Forks and Bella must leave Jake for a frantic race to save Edward's life.

Like Twilight, the first book about Bella and Edward, New Moon is incredibly fast-pacedthe kind of book that is easy to finish in only a few sittings, even though it is over 500 pages. It is filled with rich, vivid description that helps the reader feel as if they can really see and feel the same things as Bella. This story is also filled with very well-developed characters that have the power to make the reader laugh, feel frustration and anger, and even make them want to be a part of the story themselves.

As worthy as this book is of being Twilight's sequel, it has a few drawbacks. Throughout a good portion of the story, Bella's narration is whiny and a bit obnoxious and it can take some patience to get through her moping and childish behavior. She goes through a lot of internal conflict, which in her position is understandable, but Stephenie Meyer points it out often enough to slow down the story at several points.

Despite this, New Moon is a great book and very worth reading with some things that Twilight didn't have. Jake is a very enjoyable new main character and even though he can never replace Edward, you can't help but root for him. Many new and interesting characters are introduced, vampires and werewolves alike. In some ways, the climax of New Moon is more powerful than that of Twilight, though it seems to take longer to get to the climax in New Moon.

Over all, New Moon is an enjoyable read and a good continuation of Bella's story. I give it three and a half stars out of five.

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