Bianca Harkless
Editor-In-Chief
For a long time I have been meaning to finish my review of the Twilight Saga by none other than Stephanie Myer. For this issue of Book Buzz, I will be discussing the second, and arguably the worst, book in the original series, New Moon.
To start out, this book is riddled with red flags and toxic behaviors displayed by almost all of the characters. This book takes place after prom from the first book, where Edward tells Bella that he will not be leaving her anytime soon. And, it turns out, that, like many other things in the series, that was a lie, and he ends up leaving her on the ground in the middle of the woods. In the time passing, we can assume that she did not do much. From October to January, the book does not tell us what she does, but rather just says the name of the month and nothing else. From there, her father, Charlie, one of the best or worst characters in the series, depending on how you look at it, tells her that he can not handle her almost catatonic state and is sending her back to live with her mother. At least, if she does not stop sulking about the Cullen’s leaving.
And that is all in the first couple of chapters. That also is not me picking and choosing what I want to put in the story to make it look bad, rather those are the literal main plot points. As the book progresses, we see Bella rekindle her friendship with Jacob Black, who she has known since childhood. As the two grow closer, Bella realises that she can still hear Edward’s voice and see hallucinations of him. This usually happens if she puts herself in dangerous situations, like riding a motorcycle, or in its most extreme form, jumping off a cliff into the freezing ocean below.
When Bella jumps off the cliff, she almost drowns, giving Alice, Edward’s sister who can see the future, a vision of Bella dying when she does this, causing her to fly back to Forks to check on the girl. When Alice finds a not dead Bella she is relieved, but when Edward calls the Swan residence after hearing about Bella’s ‘death,’ Jacob picks up the phone and tells Edward that Charlie is at a funeral, which unstable Edward takes as Bella’s. Because he is Edward and lives for the melodrama, he decided that he is going to ask the Volturi, a coven of extremely powerful vampires, if they will just kill him. When they refuse, he decides that he will show himself as a vampire to everyone at an upcoming festival, forcing the Volturi's hand. Of course, Bella cannot let Edward do this, so accompanied by Alice, leaves a note for Charlie telling him that he should not worry and that she will be back, she just had to go to Italy, and jumps on a flight.
Once she gets there, Alice steals a bright yellow Porsche 911 Turbo, which is arguably the best part of this whole freaking book, in order to get her to him the fastest. Long story short, she saves him and they have a lowkey fight with the Volturi, who is lead by Aro, Caius, and Marcus. It is there that they force Edward and Bella to give them a date for when she will be turned into a vampire, because without her being one, she is a safety risk to all of them. They all go back to Forks, and the Cullen’s (minus Rosaline and Emmet) are moving back to town. Now is Edward’s time to control who Bella is and is not friends with by telling her that she can not be friends with Jacob, and this sparks a series of highly entertaining insults between the two of them.
I do not think I have to say that this book is not good. Just of the small, undetailed synopsis I gave, I feel like there is really nothing to take out of this book that was actually good. There are much better books in the Twilight Saga. Honestly, this book just fails to meet any expectation that a normal book would. All of the characters are horrifically toxic and seem to only care about themselves at the best of times.
Between Bella and Edward’s melodrama to the parental neglect by Charlie, I can confidently say, do not read this book. If you are reading all of the books, watch the movie. You will spend less time hating everything about it. Until the next time, when I review the absolute best book in the franchise, Eclipse, I hope you have a better time than Bella or Edward do!
Image Credit: Glen Noble on Unsplash
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