New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: clock tolled, Jacob Black, Sam Uley, Port Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005), Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step. Vampire fans will appreciate the subsequently dour mood that permeates the novel, and it's not until Bella befriends Jacob, a sophomore from her school with a penchant for motorcycles, that both the pace and her disposition begin to take off. Their adventures are wild, dare-devilish, and teeter on the brink of romance, but memories of Edward pervade Bella's emotions, and soon their fun quickly morphs into danger, especially when she uncovers the true identities of Jacob and his pack of friends. Less streamlined than Twilight yet just as exciting, New Moon will more than feed the bloodthirsty hankerings of fans of the first volume and leave them breathless for the third.–Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-11. "Which is tempting you more, my blood or my body?" Things are heating up between Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, in this sequel to the immensely popular Twilight (2005). Then Bella is injured at her birthday party, and the Cullens' reaction to her blood sends Edward's family packing. Bella is inconsolable until she discovers that reckless behavior allows her to hear Edward's warning voice in her head. To keep him close, she decides to live as dangerously as possible, acquiring two motorcycles and developing a close friendship with Jacob, who helps her rebuild them. Romantics will miss Edward's presence, but the suspense created by a pack of werewolves bent on protecting Bella from a vindictive vampire will keep them occupied until the lovers can be reunited. The writing is a bit melodramatic, but readers won't care. Bella's dismay at being ordinary (after all, she's only human) will strike a chord even among girls who have no desire to be immortal, and like the vampires who watch Bella bleed with "fevered eyes," teens will relish this new adventure and hunger for more. Cindy Dobrez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (May 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316024961
• ISBN-13: 978-0316024969
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,084 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Love & Romance
  #9 in	Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
  #11 in	Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

• This is item 2 in The Twilight Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

221 of 280 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Vapid Vampires finally get shunted aside, but all for naught., January 2, 2007

By	Laura Jennings "garrick40" (Kempner, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) (Hardcover)

In the first book Bella was dreamless, hobby-less, and hopeless. Now she becomes a lush for adrenaline because her precious vampire boyfriend dumps her. One can only wish she'd succeed instead of making the reader suffer along with her for 500 pages. Bella's self-confidence and self-worth rest on the whims of a boy, and a vampire at that, and that's hardly a good message for any girl to take away from the book. You get sick of hearing Bella whine about the hole in her chest.
The werewolves are actually decent, and one embellished the most also achieves what neither Bella nor Edward can: actual reader interest. Jacob Black has a hobby! He has some legitimate angst! He is flawed! And he and Bella actually have chemistry that goes beyond "You are my sun, my moon, my stars, my love!" Jacob strikes me as the kind of guy one could actually LIVE with for the rest of one's existence, morning breath and all. But don't expect Bella to actually LISTEN to any of this logic.
Perhaps more jaded sorts, such as myself, shouldn't read this. I am not a romance reader; I'm a fantasy buff and a stickler for character logic. I just kind of ended up in the wrong kind of territory. It baffles me that shallow, blah characters like Eragon and this series can become bestsellers hand over fist. I think in order for these books to work for me I'd have to believe in the happily-ever-after for these characters, and all I find myself thinking is "Okay, what are they going to DO for the rest of eternity? Stroking each other's ego's over how beautiful they are would get really old really fast ..."

82 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Seriously?, July 5, 2008

By	Bronwen Johnson "Book Shucker" (Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) (Hardcover)

Before the rabid fans of Stephanie Meyer come for me and trash my first review on this website I would like to add an adendum. I am a twenty-two year old Undergrade, and I enjoy a little "brain popcorn" every so often. Warning! Spoilers ahead.

I labored over a decision to buy and read the Twilight series for weeks. After asking/begging for information over the series at my local B&N reading reviews here on Amazon, and my Library Patrons I decided to give it a try. I read Twilight and was hooked, I finished it in about 2 days and moved on to the next two in the series. Then, I labored over wether I should write a review of this book or not. Funny, the laborous process should have been my first hint.

I want to ask Meyer, if she lost inspiration, had something traumatic happen, or just lose her drive to write these books? I was never interested in Edward as a character, or love intrest for Bella. By the time I finished New Moon I could care less about either of them and was just hoping Jacob would find a new, more interesting girl to suit him.

Bella is uninteresting, incredibly Emo (and not in an artistic way), and so Co-Dependent that you just want to bash her head in so that you can be done with it. Watching her stumble, bumble and "live" without Edward is incredibly painful and embarassing just to read about, let alone be caught reading about in public. She is so disgustingly set on Edward and his disgusting, vapid, rather uninteresting and beautiful family that her own life gets put on hold.

Perhaps if this book was written and released in the 80's, or prior to "Girl Power" this wouldn't be such an issue. But to market this kind of literature to a demographic is 13 to 20 year old Teens and Young Adults is just plain irresponsible! Sending the message that being incredibly selfish and leading someone on to deal with your own pain is both unforgiveable and sickening. The fact that Bella is so interesting in putting herself in harms way just to hear Edwards voice is just plain unbelievable at best and if you want me to believe that little miss "I don't want other people to realize that I exist" wants to cliff dive, I've got a bridge in Wichita to sell you.

Don't get me started on the forced, horrible literary refrences to Romeo and Juliet. The analogies, allusions and personifications of people were enough to make me tear my hair out.

So there you have it. If you're upwards of twenty something, read classic literature and/are a fan of the Bard, have self esteem and don't need a "man" to complete your life do not pick up these books and if you must, borrow from your local library.

179 of 228 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars quick....somebody get this girl a man!, October 20, 2008

By	Geneva (arizona) - See all my reviews

As soon as I finished reading "New Moon" I wanted nothing more than to be able to contact Stephenie Meyers (a face-to-face interview would be preferable!) and ask what the hell she was thinking when she decided to make Bella Swan such a co-dependent, pathetic excuse for a character. I mean come on, its only so obvious that many young, impressionable girls are reading the "twilight" series and (god forbid) thinking that they need a man in their life or else there's nothing left to live for. And by the way, I know some of you are probably wondering why I've read not only "New Moon" but "Eclipse" as well, after writing a less than wonderful review for "Twilight" but ill get to that later. First, lets go over the basic plot of "New Moon" and ill tell you why I especially despise Bella in this book.

At the beginning of "New Moon" Bella and Edward are happily in love (atleast as far as I can remember) until an unfortunate event happens during Bellas birthday party at the Cullens house, in which Edward realizes that his being near his dearly beloved puts her life in danger. So then.....*dramatic pause* Edward decides to leave, for Bellas own good (gasp!) and doesn't plan on ever coming back (oh no!) and worst of all, before leaving he acts as if he hates Bella and informs her that he no longer loves her (is it really so?!) for months afterwards, Bella turns into a catatonic headcase, barely able to function without her beautiful Edward around. She can't eat, can't listen to music, and can't even watch TV because something on it might remind her of Edward. (Rolls eyes) she makes pretty much no effort whatsoever to help herself and let her friends cheer her up, and she might have never recovered if not for....Jacob Black. Jacob Black, aka the werewolf (by the way, werewolves are enemies with the vampires which I just had to mention because I love how Bellas future best friend happens to be an enemy of the love of her life) Bella starts hanging out with Jacob more, and slowly starts to complain a little less about the "massive hole in her chest"....etc etc (skip ahead to the best parts) but of course Bella can't get Edward out of her head, especially when she realizes that she hears his voice when she is in danger, so then what does she do? Starts purposefully putting herself in ridiculously unecessary dangerous situation, even practically committing suicide just so she can hear his voice. Of course, the vampires find out and Alice Cullen informs Bella that Edward thinks that she is dead and so he decides that he no longer has a reason to live and decides to pay a little visit to Italy, in hopes that the volturi will play a role in ending his life as a vampire. So of course Bella immediately hops on a plane to Italy, and of course gets there just in time to save Edward. And then of course he ends up going back with Bella, realizing that he can't bear to live without her....blah, blah, blah! (Oh and I do love Edward, atleast until I read Eclipse, so I'm not trying to diss him I just couldn't help but roll my eyes at his dramatics in this book)

Ok, so now that I've finished with my summary of the book, here are some more things I'd like to add. Feel free to stop reading at anytime, really as I'm aware that I've written quite a lot already and I'm sure much of what I've said has probably angered many of you twilighters.

first, let me start off by saying that I did understand Bellas depression in this book (I just can't believe the extremes that she took it to) after all, I'm 19 and I've had my heartbroken before. But come, practically going into a catatonic state for not just weeks, but months and months, because your boyfriend left you? (And yes I understand that its definitely not easy to get over someone, especially someone that you love. I know this takes quite a bit of time) and not even being able to watch TV? And not being able to function in general, until another guy comes along? (Yep another great message there, girls: remember that having a man in your life is the only thing that will make you happy!) and seriously... are we really supposed to believe that Edward no longer loves Bella? And better yet, are we really supposed to believe that Bella really believes that Edward no longer loves her? Please. And worst of all is the fact that Bella was intentionally hurting herself in order to simply hear Edwards voice. Yet ANOTHER great message for young girls (missing your man? go jump off a cliff and commit suicide and hopefully that'll get his attention! Life without him isn't worth living anyway!) and then there's the extreme and completely unecessary drama of Edward deciding to end his life over Bella, and Bella getting there just in time (but of course) to save his life! Now, I know I may be making a huge deal out of nothing, seeing as how this is just a book, but there are many books out there in which the characters go through so much worse (I.E. Losing a loved one to death or something of the nature) and none of them act half as bad and self-pitying as Bella Swan. Someone needs to give her a swift slap to the face and tell her to wake up and smell the sunshine and inform her that having a man isn't the most important thing in the world. Perhaps somebody should inform Mrs. Meyers about this as well. A bit harsh? Maybe, but reading these books just made me realize how much I hate reading about female characters with no backbone whatsoever. And really, I have nothing against Stephenie Meyers so don't get me wrong. I think she could be a very talented writer if she wanted to be (after all, I haven't met one person who has never heard of her book series) but I just don't agree with the way she portrays Bella (as you can tell) and I don't like the kind of message young girls will get because of that.

And as I said, yes its true that I didn't like "twilight" and had no intention of finishing it, but my sister (who is a huge fan by the way) didn't understand how I couldn't like these books, and persuaded me to atleast finish the first one. So I did, and I came to the conclusion that the second half of the book was only slightly more interesting than the first. And was I the only one rooting for that vampire to kill Bella? And yes, even despite my dislike for "twilight" I still decided to read "new moon" because you know what I realized? These books are like a bad soap opera, something you don't necessarily like, but can't help but get caught up in it all, if only to laugh and say to yourself "seriously, why does everyone love this so much?"

And just one more thing I'd like to add. I don't necessarily dislike "twilight" overall. Atleast not the idea of it. After all I like the cullen family, and the volturi are actually pretty interesting. I just think that Stephenie needs to make some HUGE changes with Bella (if only!) and add some events of actual interest to the pages of "twilight" (instead of just Bella describing how beautiful Edward is every other paragraph) and then maybe ill have some nicer things to say about it all.