Ayesha Khan's Reviews > New Moon

BEFORE I BEGIN
Here's a review coming from someone who's read Eclipse as well and has had some things change in her mind since I read New Moon. I'll try to stay true to what I was thinking once I finished New Moon, but not everything might be 100% accurate to what I was thinking. Just keep that in mind when you read this review. This will also have a lot of spoilers so bear that in mind. I'll put the spoiler code over it so you'll have to click it to see it, but just realise that even though I'll try to keep it overall, there might be quite a few spoilers you'll have to avoid.

CHARACTERS
I remember reading Twilight and thinking about how personality-less all of the characters were, especially Bella and Edward. I mean, Bella's always chasing after him and she loves him and he's her core... whatever. And Edward loves Bella; he hates being a vampire and therefore a danger to her; he wants her to be happy forever - they're both obsessed with each other... whatever.

And then the werewolves come in. They're playful, charismatic, though a little troubled boys. Bella loves them and they love her. Jake's a little reckless, he's blunt, and he's rough, but he's transparent with everything and he only wants the best for those he loves. He does it in a good way, even if it does come across as rude in the beginning.

(view spoiler)[By the time the vampires were back (hide spoiler)]I could see more character building into Bella especially, and some in the vampires as well, if I have to be honest. It was pretty good, but I have to say Meyer could have put a lot more effort into that.

Then there's the idea of the supernatural creatures. The vampires are pretty much indestructible(view spoiler)[, the only way to destroy them is to cut them up into a million tiny pieces and burn them (hide spoiler)]. A human pretty dang well does not have the resources to do that, which means that only a werewolf or one of their own can ever defeat a vampire. That's pretty disappointing. And it's pretty much the same for the werewolves. (view spoiler)[They aren't tied to the moon, instead their temper, which can be better(in Sam's case) or worse(in Paul's case), but in most cases it's better. They don't even have that uncontrollable lust for killing people that makes the idea so interesting. No. They're literally just humans who turn into wolves and hunt vampires when they come onto their territory. (hide spoiler)] Supernatural creatures are usually scary but not unkillable. Humans can trump them, that's why we feel glad when humans kill them. But in the Twilight Saga, it's only a buff to make someone save Bella again or to make them feel unworthy or dangerous to her.

PLOT
Though she's always obsessing over Edward (view spoiler)[even after he leaves (hide spoiler)], Bella genuinely begins to get over him. It was nice to see a proper relationship that wasn't just romance in this series, and to watch it form and bloom. (view spoiler)[Even though Jake loves Bella and Bella doesn't love Jake, it really seemed like if she stopped looking at boys like they were drugs, she might get a nice future with someone who really grows, and she won't even have to change herself in order to do it. (hide spoiler)] And even if it did eventually become romance - which is something I would ship - I wouldn't mind that one. It's a great relationship because she loves him and he loves her, but they have space for so much more in their lives. They're the center of each other, but they're not absolutely everything In short, it was heartwarming.

(view spoiler)[I have to say, it was disappointing when the Cullens eventually came back. Things would have bloomed and, despite what Bella says, I think she would have been happy without Edward. She would be really happy with Jake. No vampire-ish complications. And I do genuinely believe, considering the spoiler of who he later imprints on, if Bella and he married and properly lived together, he would not have imprinted. But of course Edward, the "fantasy of every middle school girl"(I'm rolling my eyes at the idea), has to return to save the day and save Bella's broken heart. (hide spoiler)]

Now, throughout the whole story, Bella can't fight, because she's so human and weak. I've already talked about this above, but the creatures are all so invincible. Unlike other good supernatural stories like Dracula or Interview With The Vampire, humans can't even come close to their level. Only the other supernatural creatures. It's kind of ridiculous if you think about it. Which means that Bella never actually gets to fight or defend herself. It's always the others fighting for her once the action finally comes, while she's sitting there and wondering if they'll survive.

I wasn't expecting much because I absolutely did not like the first book(rated it 2.9), but I remember actually loving it towards the almost-middle, and I couldn't wait to pick it up again. All that was squashed when the Cullens came back again. I dunno. I feel like if that slow-burn-romance-that-could-also-stay-as-friendship had happened, it would be so much better. But I know that the series is about Edward and Jacob, so that can't happen.

SETTING
The setting was a bit cliche, what with the main character moving to a small village, expecting to hate it, and discovering all of the supernatural stuff. But I don't really care much about small cliches like that if there isn't too much. It fit with everything that was going on and the ideas.

WRITING STYLE
The writing style was kinda bland and tripped me up here and there, but it wasn't really bad, so I'm really not complaining.

MORALS
There was the whole thing with Bella obsessing over Edward and using both Edward and Jacob as drugs and all that. It can't be healthy and it's not a good example for girls my age - maybe younger or older, too - who'd be reading series and incorporating it into their lives.

Another thing that annoyed me was the Quileutes. There's nothing wrong with them, really, just how they're portrayed. I never really noticed their brown skin and I'd been imagining them white for a very long part of the book to be honest. Here's the thing: I like to know what the hell I'm reading, and whenever I come upon a word I don't know, I search it up right away or write it down to search it later. What did I get? They are: "a Native American people in western Washington state". They are the Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation. La Push is their reserve. I'm a little picky about religions being put into books because it's often very inaccurate, and I don't know if it was portrayed well in this book or not, because I'm not part of the tribe, so I'm not really sure if I should get into that. But it was definitely very hard to realise who they are. They say "Quileute" and "La Push" in the book and expect us to know what it means. Without doing some online search - and many people don't - you wouldn't know this. It seems a bit loosely done if you're going to add something like that into it.

OVERALL
Overall it was pretty good, and I loved reading it, but there were a lot of things that annoyed me, so many loose ends, and it annoyed the hell out of me. Am I gonna read the next book? ...yeah. New Moon was pretty good.

3.9