Product Description

"Shoot," I muttered when the paper sliced my finger; I pulled it out to examine the damage. A single drop of blood oozed from the tiny cut. It all happened very quickly then. Edward threw himself at me, flinging me back across the table... I tumbled down to the floor by the piano, with my arms thrown out instinctively to catch my fall, into the jagged shards of glass. I felt the searing, stinging pain that ran from my wrist to the crease inside my elbow. Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm-into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires. Legions of readers entranced by Twilight are hungry for more and they won't be disappointed. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy's reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1324 in Books
• Brand: Little Brown Company
• Published on: 2006-08-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 608 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316160193
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

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

Review
All is not well between demon-magnet Bella and Edward Cullen, her vampire Romeo. An innocent papercut at Edward's house puts Bella in grave danger when various members of the Cullen family can barely resist their hunger at the smell of blood. The Cullens promptly leave town, afraid of endangering Edward's beloved, and Bella sinks into an overwhelming depression. Months later, she finally emerges from her funk to rebuild her life, focusing on her friendship with besotted teen Jacob from the reservation. Bella's unhealthy enthrallment to Edward leads her into dangerous and self-destructive behavior despite her new friends, and supernatural complications are bound to reappear. Bella's being hunted by an evil vampire, and Jacob's adolescent male rage turns out to be incipient lycanthropy: It seems many Quileute Indians become werewolves in the presence of vampires, their natural enemies. Psychic miscommunications and angst-ridden dramatic gestures lead to an exciting page-turner of a conclusion drenched in the best of Gothic romantic excess. Despite Bella's flat and obsessive personality, this tale of tortured demon lovers entices. (Fantasy. 13-16) (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Vapid Vampires finally get shunted aside, but all for naught.
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 ..."

Shoot me, shoot me now *spoilers*
You end the book hating the character of Bella more then you could have ever thought possible. She comes off as two things throughout the book. First a bit of a bitch to one her father, for ignoring him for months then running off to Italy with only a note to tell him where she is. Also for obviously jerking Jacob around by his heart strings throughout the book.

The second thing? She comes off as very much not in her right mind. She goes catatonic for a week and into a zombie trance for months because Edward left her. I'm sorry I refuse to believe one's soul mate leaving them would warrant a reaction like that. She's obsessive about Edward to a degree that if it weren't for the fact he's equally as obsessed, we would have a set of psychotic stalkers on our hands. Instead it's true love, ain't that just the most darling message?

Edward comes off as a dick for leaving Bella, who is very much not in her right mind (she goes catatonic for a week then goes zombie trance for months?), and honestly seems very suicidal. He constantly tosses around the idea of suicide so much and how he's going as soon as she goes, you get the idea that he's going to cut her brakes, just so he can off himself.

Any actual plot was procrastinated off to the very end, when Alice deus ex machina's in and tells Bella about suicidal Edward. Then it's off to Italy, a narrow save of Edward (who could have seen that coming?), and the Volturi lovingly shoving it down our throats that Bella is the most special snowflake of the lot.

And I very much appreciated the Romeo and Juliet comparisons being shoved down my throat every other chapter. Ms. Meyer, I'm sure you've read it (because Bella is so obviously a young Mary-Sue version of yourself), the main things I took away was a cautionary tale of feuding and how it will destroy what you care for most.I never saw the true love of the play, and it always seemed like a plot point more then anything, for the rest of a more interesting story to go off of. Hey maybe New Moon is more like it then I thought... except with the lacking of a more interesting story.

In review what does her brand of true love tells us what? You can't live without your man. It's perfectly okay to drop entire lives for someone you love. It's perfectly okay to commit suicide just to hear your ex's voice. It's perfectly okay to go comatose because you where dumped.


I only have one question after being forced to read this book. Why. Ms. Meyer, Why?

The Vampires May Glittler, but it's only Skin Deep
This book perturbed me. A lot. Though I did enjoy Ms. Meyer's first installation of this series very much (even though the vampires glitter. go figure.) this one fell quite short of even being engaging. The Fault line? The protagonist. Where in Twilight Bella is her own person, intelligent, competent and refreshingly mature for her age, in New Moon she is selfish, codependent, bored, boring, stupid, irrational and just all around irritating. Instead of being someone who makes things happen, most of the book's major events transpire as a result of Bella's odd gravitational pull for danger. This gets old. Very old. Mostly, it is Bella's irreverent and irate actions that pull the story down and drown the reader. After a certain event (avoiding spoilers here) near the start of the book, Bella simply dissolves into a puddle of pathetic mush. Why should I give a hoot about her if she doesn't even give a hoot about her?? Never once did I feel an ounce of pity for her. Truthfully, she had more than enough for herself. Get a grip Bella! Pick yourself up! Be a strong character! DO something for crying out loud!
If I could smack her, I would.

P.S.
This book's saving grace was Jacob Black, the only character I could sympathize with. Don't worry Jacob, you're not missing much...