Teen angst and hormonal fluctuations make young love difficult enough, but making a vampire the target of that young love makes it considerably more challenging. After surviving emotional and physical trauma in Twilight, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen try to conduct their relationship with as much normalcy as possible. Given that Edward and his family are vampires, the previous statement is a contradiction unto itself. After an unfortunate incident on Bella’s birthday, Edward realizes that Bella requires protection even from him. In an attempt to shield her from harm, Edward severs all ties with Bella and leaves Forks with the rest of the Cullens.
Bella, as expected, is destroyed by Edward’s abrupt departure. She remains in a near-catatonic state until she befriends Jacob Black. Tentatively, Bella attempts to live among the living again, instead of waiting for her sexy undead ex-boyfriend. Jacob shows her what romance with a human being could be like, but Bella is unwilling to let go of Edward, especially when she realizes that engaging in potentially life-threatening activities makes her memories of him more vivid. Bella comes to rely on Jacob’s stabilizing presence, all the while ignoring the fact that he wants more than she is willing to give. Bella’s timorous recovery is thrown off-kilter when Jacob also begins distancing himself. Bella’s navel-gazing worrying quickly falls by the wayside, however, when she’s confronted by the very real danger of past enemies and the wrath of the vampire royal family.
As I said before, there wasn’t nearly enough Edward Cullen in New Moon to satisfy my aching fangirl heart. The slightly weird and majorly codependent relationship between Edward and Bella is my favorite part of the story (I wonder what that says about my mental state?); doing without it for the majority of the book made New Moon a bit more difficult to read than Twilight.
In Edward’s place, the reader is given Jacob Black, who is sweet and all, but hardly in the league of Edward. Comparing the two is like comparing a puppy to a lion; the only thing he and Edward have in common is their infinite patience and affection for Bella. As a character, Jacob has little more to do than to fill the void Edward left, meaning (a) to save Bella from her mopey self, (b) to give Bella an idea of the superiority of human/human over vampire/human romance, and (c) to be used to build up the inevitable reunion between Edward and Bella (who belong together, damn it).
In comparison to Twilight, New Moon is a bit disappointing. There was a lot going on here – quite a few back stories and subplots to distract from what we know is coming. Having invested so much emotion in Edward and Bella’s implausible relationship, I found his absence in this book incredibly frustrating (it should go without saying that I am definitely a member of Team Edward); thankfully, their reunion, though long overdue, makes the read worthwhile. The new revelations here about the complex world in which Edward lives are also interesting – the vampire royal family, the Volturi, are introduced here, as are werewolves and the the treaty that exists between these two species. There’s not much else to say about New Moon that wouldn’t reveal the plot or that would be contrary to what those of us who have already read Twilight would expect. New Moon reads very much as a transitional piece, raising more questions than it answers and existing more as a platform for Eclipse, the third book in The Twilight Saga, than as an independent work. Still, despite its flaws – the still uneven writing and outrageous dialogue – I’m glad I slogged through it. I stated previously that the real star of this story is the romance between Bella and Edward, so, while New Moon didn’t entirely satisfy, what matters to me is that I still find myself swooning over them.
3 Comments
Jun 06, 2008 | Friday at 10:39 am
Gee, now I can’t wait for you to discover those super-duper kilig moments in Eclipse. As in. I mean, really. Hahaha!
Jun 24, 2008 | Tuesday at 9:57 am
[...] Speculative fiction The Ax for the Frozen Sea: Filed under Speculative Fiction, Young Adult [...]
Jul 17, 2008 | Thursday at 9:06 am
I have to agree about not having enough Edward. Jacob is an interesting character, but the chemistry between him and Bella simply do not compare. It was a fun story but it felt like 500 pages (granted interesting pages) of waiting for Edward’s return.