Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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144 of 172 people found the following review helpful:
A Dalliance with Wolves, September 27, 2006
4.5 stars
In my review of Twilight, I said that the book had more in common with "Catcher in the Rye" and "Pride and Prejudice" than it did with any vampire novels or stories. That still holds true, although be certain: I'm not comparing Twilight or New Moon to these books in terms of literary quality. There are few that match either.
In New Moon we miss the vampires for most of the story, and Bella spends time with her friend Jacob, an Indian fated with becoming a werewolf, and fated to hate all "bloodsuckers", regardless of whether or not the bloodsuckers took human lives. (Btw, that little bit is cleared up at the end...what exactly their treaty entails. It's interesting, kind of, but I have to wonder if the author thought of it as the story was being written, and that it wasn't planned when the "treaty" was first mentioned. I suppose it doesn't matter.)
If you're reading this story because you like vampire stories, you will be disappointed. Edward's only around for a bit less than 1/3 of the book. When he is around, however, his presence is appreciated. One thing that the author didn't do this time, and it was similarly appreciated, was to have Bella writing down every single thought that she had regarding his absolute perfection (remember, this is a first person narrative).
While spending time with "the wolves", Bella goes through some interesting growth patterns. I say interesting, because I'm not entirely certain that I followed them or that if I understood them that I agreed with them. That said, I've never been a teenage girl, and the author has been a teenage girl, so I have to bow to her experience in this.
Many readers will look at Bella's behavior during her "dalliance with wolves" as bizarre and entirely unbelievable. I don't think they were. For anyone that has had the absolute love of their life torn from them, with the *absolute* belief that this love would not return, and if you happen to be emotionally immature to top all of this off, your behavior wouldn't be too far off from Bella's. I'm not saying exactly like Bella's, just not too far off.
Again, this is not a vampire story. The fact that vampires were not around in this book as often as some may have liked did not lessen the quality of the story. What was missing, though, was the urgency, and the mystery. For example, we never knew why, in Twilight, Edward recoiled upon first seeing Bella until the very end. We had a reaction, and a resolution, and during that time we had lots of questions. That type of immediacy was missing here. Everything was rather straightforward.
When Edward lies to Bella, we know that he is lying, and we know that there will be resolution. The problem is that we know he's lying, and we know the resolution won't be too surprising.
I did enjoy the unique take on werewolves, but I felt that since we had seen so much of the vampires in the first book, that we should have seen and felt more of the werewolves in this book.
One thing that I found particularly frustrating was the similarity of emotion that both Jake and Edward have for Bella. Yes, Bella is a clutz, and she definitely needs protecting. But to have two main characters, in two separate books, respond to her in a nearly identical manner (both fearing for, and being vocal about, her need to be less careless), is tough to buy.
There were some hints of future issues between the Cullens and Jake's clan. I hope we see them. And I hope that this story can survive the necessary metamorphosis - at some point, it will need to be less about Bella's intense love for Edward, and more about the actual situations surrounding them.
This may sound like a negative review. It's not. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've seen others that gave Twilight 5 stars give this 1 or 2 stars, and I've questioned that. I think that given the nature of this story, readers need to be more aware of what this story is really about. See the first paragraph of this review for that.
I'm anxiously awaiting the third book. There are a lot of possibilities, and I can't help but wonder which possibility the author will choose, and how she will resolve whatever roadblocks her choices give her.
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127 of 153 people found the following review helpful:
Can't even wait to finish the book to write a review, August 19, 2006
I just received my book in the mail two days ago and I have been devouring it ever since.
The book begins with seeing Bella become very comfortable with Edward and his family. I was delighted to see Alice's character take on more depth as we began to see more of her personality, but this may quickly turn into disappointment for some, when she is whisked away all too soon. Bella is given a birthday party and accidentally gets a paper cut. This leads to a tense moment when one of the family members cannot contain themselves and makes a leap for Bella. Edward is forced to protect her, but this makes it all to clear that keeping Bella close to the family puts her at risk. Edward begins to withdraw himself emotionally in order to (we readers know what is going to happen, but Bella seems to be in denial)leave her.
Naturally, Bella's grief is heartwrenching to read. Any girl who has felt the pain of lost or unrequited love will shed a few tears during this chapter. It is hard to get over being furious at Edward's behavior at the begining of the book, but this simply shows you how easy it is to get pulled into almost believing these characters are real.
Bella becomes seriously withdrawn from the world after his departure and considering their strange and magical relationship, this is to be expected. I do miss Edward's presence-he was such a strong character in Twilight- but I did something I never do, I flipped to the back of the book to assure myself of his return. Ms. Meyer realizes how addicted her audience is to Edward, so he does make token appearances in a roundabout way. Bella begins to hear Edward's voice warning her when she puts herself in harm's way and in this way Bella begins to court danger.
Jacob, the young native American from Twilight, makes a reappearance in New Moon. He becomes a very close friend of Bella's and helps her through her depression. His character takes the place of Edward and he becomes a major player in this story. He is also the complete opposite of Edward's sophisticated, wordly one. Jacob is lovable, akward, attractive (in a regular way) and warm-blooded. His story is one of interest and I don't believe any reader who has already read Twilight, will be surprised at the turn of events in which Jacob is involved.
The book is certainly excellent, as Ms. Meyer is a fabulous writer, but I do find myself impatiently turning the pages and skimming ahead to see when one of the Cullens' family members will appear. Even with those minor faults, I still find myself staying up way too late to finish another chapter. I have read half the book in the past two days instead of working on lesson plans for my class, during the first week of school, no less. This is a real indicator of just how wonderful New Moon is.
My ultimate disappointment will be when I am finished and must wait another year for the next book to come out. I don't believe Stephenie Meyer can whip these out fast enough to appease her growing leagues of fans. This is a very desirable position to be in for a writer and this should guarantee many Bella and Edward stories in the future.
*Update
The ending was very good and the reader finds out some interesting information concerning Bella and how special she really is. The twist adds a new dimension to the novel it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. There is no complete closure for a few important issues and obviously this leaves it wide open for the third novel in the series.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
An empty shell of a formerly good book, November 1, 2006
I just finished New Moon and I have to say it was a disappointment. Maybe it's because I loved Twilight so much, but I feel like Stephenie Meyer just threw Bella to the wolves in this novel, literally. When the Cullens leave town, Bella becomes a broken shell of herself and has no idea how she can possibly go on living without Edward. Slowly she begins hanging out with Jacob Black in La Push and trying to put Edward's memory behind her. But she does so for about 300 pages. Alright already. I get that she loves him. That was part of what I loved so much about the first book. But I could do without 300 pages of her whining about the hole in her heart and how she'll never love again, but might have to settle for one of the other men who keep falling at her feet (and for what I have no idea, since she offers little in the way of emotion besides depressed and unhappy throughout this novel). It's pathetic, and I would never have expected that I would be so disappointed after loving Twilight so much. Quite frankly Bella is nothing without Edward, and his absence for most of this book is part of the reason I disliked it so much. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, I'm going to need Bella to either become a vampire in the next book or for it to be about someone else I would care about like one of the other Cullens or Jacob Black. It's stringing us along to keep this relationship moving at a snail's pace and I can't really forgive Stephenie Meyer for that right now.
** Amended to add - Okay, I feel better about this the next day and I must clarify my review by saying that New Moon is still well-written and worth the read for those who loved Twilight, but be prepared to be frustrated. **
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