New Moon is the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series. You absolutely have to read Twilight before you begin reading New Moon, or you are going to get a bit lost, and you will miss out on why certain things that happen are so incredibly important. New Moon is a good book, but it simply does not stand alone. (Click here to read my review of Twilight. )

There is no choice but to read the Twilight Series in order. In my experience working as someone who sells books all day, I have found that for the most part, series that require readers to read them in order don’t sell as well as the ones that allow you to jump around. There is the risk that readers will finish one book, and need the next one, but not be able to find it at their local bookstores, and so, will drop the entire series in frustration. What is saving the Twilight Series is the incredible fan base that has amassed around it. Perhaps it is “the next Harry Potter” after all?

Some of what I am about to write may be considered a “spoiler”, so, if you are one of those fans who has not read New Moon yet, and desperately wants to shield yourself from any and all mentions of what happens in this book, then… proceed with caution. Fear not, however, I won’t give away the best stuff.

When I think of the book New Moon, in my head, it’s really called “Bella goes Emo”. As I was reading this book, I found that there were a lot of other adults who, to my complete surprise, were not only reading this series, but loving it as much as I was. And, for the vast majority of them, New Moon was their least favorite of the three. The adults had not been teenagers for many years, and so, just couldn’t relate to how Bella reacts to the stressful event that takes place at the beginning of the book. (more on that later). Their main reaction was : “Oh, Please! Get over it, already!” I didn’t have quite the same response, because, for whatever reason, I can think of events in my own life where I reacted in the same overly dramatic way that Bella is doing. I realize that I am in the minority on this view, at least when it comes to readers who are over age… twenty five, or so.

For the most part, New Moon seems to have an “expiration date”, much like the book The Catcher In the Rye does. Read The Catcher In The Rye when you are in high school, and you think Holden Caufield is a genius, and can’t believe that right here in print, is a person who “gets” you, (even if his slang is archaic). Read that same book when you are in college, or older, and you fight the urge to just smack Holden upside the head, he’s so damned annoying! In New Moon, most adult readers just want to grab Bella, and shake her, and scream “Just snap out of it already!” I think teen readers, however, will find a kindred soul in what Bella is thinking.

Why does Bella go “emo”? Lots of reasons, actually. She has a birthday, and is now eighteen years old. This makes her “older” than Edward, (who stays seventeen forever), and starts Bella having nightmares of someday looking like Edward’s Grandmother, instead of his girlfriend. Bella become determined that she will become a vampire, but, Edward is not sure this is the best choice, and is making Bella wait before she is changed into one. The two lovers want to spend the rest of their lives together, but there is much tension, arguments, and negotiation about when Bella can become a vampire. She wants to do it right now. Edward doesn’t want her to lose out on “human experiences”, and is putting things off. Later on, you find the deeper reason why Edward is so hesitant.

So, at the beginning of the book, the irrepressible Alice, who is not only Edward’s “sister”, but also now Bella’s closest female friend, throws Bella a birthday party. This is despite Bella’s protests, because she doesn’t want to celebrate being older, and also is uncomfortable being the center of attention. The party is held at Edward’s house, and his entire vampire family are in attendance, giving presents. Tragedy strikes when Bella, klutz that she is, accidently gives herself a paper cut while opening a gift. This one small drop of blood throws one of Edward’s siblings into a frenzy. Bella nearly gets attacked and eaten by a vampire, more blood spills as she falls over the table, bad things happen.

What becomes crystal clear is that there is danger in being the only human around all these vampires, despite everyone’s good intentions. Without going into too many details… let’s just say that in one dramatic and devastating conversation… Edward leaves Bella. He doesn’t do much explaining about his reasons, and Bella thinks the worst. She believes he doesn’t love her after all, and basically curls up into a ball, and becomes nearly catatonic for about three months. Yeah, three months of Bella just going through the motions, but not really living, convinced that her life really is over.

Meyer, fortunately, spares the readers three months of this new moody, emo, Bella, and instead gives us three blank chapters in between when she freaks out, and when she starts to come back. Not expecting this, I was convinced I had picked up a damaged copy of New Moon. I even went to the bookstore I work at, and flipped through several other copies of the book, both in paperback and hard cover, trying to figure that out. All of the copies had the same three blank chapters, which should have clued me in that the book was supposed to be printed that way. However, it took me asking several other book sellers who had already read the book to convince me that yes, all copies should have three blank chapters. I found this to be confusing and frustrating, because I spent all this time trying to figure out what was wrong with my copy of New Moon, when all I wanted to do was sit down and read what happened next.

It’s hard to explain how devastated Bella is by Edward leaving her. This fan video does a pretty good job of setting the mood. It shows the actor that will be playing Jacob in the Twilight movie.

Eventually, Bella’s dad, Charlie, is beyond frustrated with Bella, who won’t snap out of it. He starts hating Edward. He threatens to send Bella back to live with her mother, not knowing what else to do, unless she starts hanging out with her school friends again, and, well, basically gets a life. He suggests she go see Jacob, knowing that the two are good friends. Bella agrees, but only because she is holding on to a tiny little hope that someday, Edward will come back to her. If she moves away, will he be able to find her? So, Bella fakes it for a while, and appeases her father.

This is where Bella starts going crazy. She finds, quite by accident, that when she does something dangerous, she can hear Edward’s voice in her head. She starts doing crazier and crazier things, just to hear that voice, even though later on, it makes her feel so much pain. Most of this book, Bella is both figuratively and literally “holding herself together”. One day, Bella comes across some free motorcycles, and she decides to bring them to Jacob, who she knows can fix them up and also teach her to ride.

She and Jacob spend nearly all their time together, becoming closer and closer. It’s clear that Jacob likes Bella as “more than a friend”, but Bella just isn’t over Edward yet. Jacob knows this, and is patiently waiting, being everything Bella needs right now. She finds herself becoming happy again, when she is around Jacob, and thinks of him as her own, personal, “sun”. They seem to be on the path to romance, eventually. It was at this point in the series that I started to like Jacob with Bella better than Edward with Bella. Jacob is warm, and happy, truly does want the best for Bella, and, now that he has hit this amazing growth spirt, is also a very strikingly handsome guy. What’s not to like?

Of course, this is when tragedy strikes, once again. Bella does something incredibly stupid, that should have gotten her killed, because she’s still broken, and somewhat suicidal, without Edward. This time, Jacob becomes her Knight in Shining Armor, and saves her life. Considering that Bella first fell for Edward when he saved her life, this should be enough for Bella to finally fall for Jacob. It might have worked if the vampires didn’t decide to come back, at that moment.

Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! What happens is that Alice, who sees the future, has a vision of Bella nearly dying, but doesn’t see the result of that action. Why not? Because Jacob saved her, and, it turns out Jacob is a Werewolf, and Alice can’t “see” anything that has to do with the werewolves. Remember that tribal story Jacob told Bella in the first book? This is what it all meant. There is a whole pack of werewolves in his tribe, and, of course, werewolves and vampires are enemies, so… more tension to come. Meyer gives the reader lots of back story on all of that, and it’s fascinating.

So, Alice “sees” Bella nearly die, and nothing more, and this leads Edward to believe that Bella is, in fact, dead. In true overly dramatic emo-teen fashion, Edward has run off to Italy to provoke the group of the oldest and and most powerful vampires in existance, in the hopes that they will kill him. He doesn’t want to exist in a world if Bella is not there. It’s Romeo and Juliet for the modern age, um, if Romeo was a vampire.

Bella immediately drops Jacob, and rushes off with Alice, in the hopes of saving Edward. She breaks Jacob’s heart in the process, and I think that sucks. What follows is a really high speed and intense chase, followed by a very suspenseful outcome. Does Bella get there in time to save Edward? You have to read the book to find out. (However, unless you are living under a rock, you already know that two more books follow this one… so there’s a clue). By the end, Bella is in more danger than she started out the book in, which can only lead to more problems in the next book.

New Moon is not my favorite book in the Twilight Series, but I did enjoy it enough to want to get a copy of the next book, Eclipse. Despite the heaping pile of teenage angst, I really want to find out who Bella ends up with. Does she stick with Edward, her first love, despite the constant drama? Or go with Jacob, who makes her happy and makes life easier, but whom she doesn’t love the way she loves Edward? I know who I want her to pick.