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

~ (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.

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

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 21st edition (August 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316160199
• ISBN-13: 978-0316160193
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,093 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #343 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #23 in	Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
  #30 in	Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

• This is item 2 in The Twilight Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 125 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)

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.

229 of 290 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)

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 ..."

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars did you catch that romeo and juliet reference?, August 17, 2007

By	Mara E. (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

There's a certain melodrama to New Moon that makes its previous installment, Twilight, pale in comparison. Bella Swan's life is particularly complicated these days, what with the teenage angst and emotional turmoil. Not to belittle teenage angst, but Bella's version of it could be called Shakespearean if not for the giant billboards plastered all through the narrative that insist This Is Like Romeo And Juliet FULL STOP We Are Just As Emotionally Complicated And Tragic FULL STOP.

The comparisons to Shakespeare beat the readers over the head repeatedly. This is a tragic relationship, we got it. We don't need a constant analysis of Romeo and Juliet, nor do we need a play by play concerning which character in New Moon most accurately compares to Paris.

One point in New Moon that could be applauded would be that the story's topaz-eyed, bronze-haired, god-like Edward Cullen is absent for the majority of the book. Quite a bold move by the author, although it's wasted seeing as how the portions without Edward involve Bella acting like her life has literally ended. Instead of growing up and learning to exist without a perfect, beautiful boyfriend to guide her through life, Bella absolutely shuts down. Her only mild attempts to live occur only when she has Jacob to take on Edward's role, which suggests Bella is only fully functional when she has a man to please and be pleased by. This is particularly damning. Bella herself is easy to insist everything wrong be her fault, that she is simply too imperfect to deserve the attention she receives from the men in her life (hilarious, considering how many boys have fallen for her since the start of Twilight) and that she is just so painfully plain and human that she is nothing -- that her life is nothing -- without Edward by her side. She is incapable of being alone, of growing to support herself when no one else can. She is so dependent on Edward (and, to an extent, on Jacob) that whatever dangerous situation she intentionally (as her life means nothing now, without Edward) puts herself in that her own subconscious will tell her her actions are stupid and she should save herself not in her own voice, but in Edward's. This is shaky ground, as Bella lacks character anyway, striping her subconscious and replacing it with Edward's voice makes her seem less of an independent woman, much less a person.

There is no personal growth in New Moon for Bella or Edward. If anything, these two characters regress. The character that does make massive strides in terms of character development is Jacob Black, who will most likely be doomed to playing Edward's second fiddle and arch enemy.

Stephenie Meyer's third book in the Twilight series, Eclipse, comes out August 7th. While Edward and Bella continue their angst-ridden obsession with immortality and death and each other, one wonders if Jacob isn't the only thing worth reading about.