Teen Melodrama...Now with Werewolves!: A Review of New Moon

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As I continue to find myself reading the Twilight series with my wife for a family book club, one of the tougher challenges has been for me to drop my jaded views of these novels and approach them with a bit more of an open mind. This has not been an easy task for me, but I will say that Ms. Meyer’s plot, world building, and characterizations significantly improved from the first book. That makes this sequel a little more interesting than the first one.

Starting off not long after the events of the first novel, Edward makes a rash decision to leave Bella and cut her off almost completely.  As Bella tries to imagine a world without Edward, her best friend Jacob helps her out and may even start to fill the void in her life.  But he starts undergoing a transformation of his own that will test their friendship as well as the relationship Bella has with Edward and his vampire family.  

Before tackling what is good about this book, let’s talk about what is not.  For starters, the break up between Edward and Bella consumes much of the novel.  Indeed, this is the main driver of the plot of the entire novel, Bella’s failed attempts to try to move on from Edward.  Her dark reflections on the end of the relationship and her new daredevil attitude is very melodramatic.  The fact that it is so consuming for much of the novel, especially the first half, is particularly annoying.  And Edward’s reasoning for the break, which he explains at the end of the novel, is so asinine as to be ridiculous.

Now, what is good about this novel?  For starters, Ms. Meyer’s character building has gotten much better, particularly with Jacob.  Jacob was a relatively small side character in the first novel, but he develops in such ways that he has instantly become the most interesting character in the series so far, and I’m not just talking about his transformation into a werewolf.  The relationship between Bella and Jacob propels the action of much of the novel in the middle act and feels completely justified.  

Ms. Meyer’s narrative plotting has also significantly improved.  In the first novel, the climax came on suddenly and ended just as quickly.  There wasn’t a lot of room in the first novel to develop just how much danger Bella was in.  In this novel, there is a much greater build-up to the climax and it doesn’t come out of the blue either.  There is also this tension throughout the novel with Bella’s spiraling behavior, Jacob’s transformation, and Edward’s near-suicidal decisions in the climax that was lacking in the first novel.  There is a greater sense of the danger Bella, and even Edward, is in in this novel.  The only exception to this is the B-plot with Victoria.  While she is becomes a greater threat in this novel than in the previous one, she never actually makes an appearance and her plot is resolved (though not really) off-screen, just like James was killed off-screen in the previous novel.  It’s a loose end that could’ve been wrapped up in a better way before heading into the third act.

Lastly, the world-building has gotten much better.  Whereas the first novel was spent almost entirely on developing Edward and Bella’s relationship and introducing Edward’s family, Ms. Meyer expands the novel to introduce the Quielet werewolves and the Volturi royal family.  The Volturi’s introduction is particularly chilling and Bella, perhaps for the first time, truly begins to realize just how dangerous vampires can be.

Overall, this sequel is an improvement interims of characterizations, plot, and world-building.  However, the teen melodrama at the beginning ultimately drags down what could have been something much better.  While I wouldn’t say I am a fan, I will say that these books seem to be improving.  Hopefully the third novel will improve things even more.

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