**If you are sensitive to discussion of suicide, be warned some paragraphs discuss how carelessly it is portrayed in this book**
Back of the book
"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.
"No!" Edward roared...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.
For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realise their troubles may just be beginning...
My thoughts
In fear of repeating myself too much, this review will be shorter (I enjoy reading this series despite my trash talk).
I think New Moon is better than Twilight as more things happen. It has a stronger plot, despite that plot consisting of Bella hallucinating Edward yelling at her for doing stupid shit. There is an effort at the end of the book to draw meaning from the hallucinatory episodes, that it was a 'sign' Edward truly loves Bella and that some part of her knew all along. The effort is not subtle and reads terribly. Edward and Bella's behaviour when they were apart from each other just highlights their dependency and how unhealthy their relationship is. Labelling all of that 'true love' is bad taste.
The second feature making New Moon an improvement upon its predecessor is Jacob. If you started the series at this book, you would love Jacob and have no feelings for Edward. So much of the attraction to Edward is assumed, instead of written in. Whereas the relationship between Jacob and Bella is written much better and draws me in more. Jacob is immediately lovable, so by the end of the book you really feel his pain, making you wish Edward would disappear and Bella would just move on.
I just want to throw in one sentence about the hypocrisy of how "dangerous" it is for her to be around newborn werewolves, as if their danger is somehow worse than what a vampire (or six) presents. I'm sure I'll have more to comment about double standards by Eclipse.
This book is dark. It casually mentions suicide, which is not a casual topic, and doesn't handle it well. If a book is going to throw around the word suicide, it needs to do it well, acknowledge it properly, explore it thoughtfully. In this book it's a throwaway line to emphasise how empty Bella's life is. I feel there are many other ways Bella's heartbreak over Edward could have been emphasised without needing to mention suicide. Correlating a break-up with thoughts of suicide is BAD and if you're going to do that in a book, please explore all the reasons it is COMPLETELY NOT RIGHT instead of writing it off as accepted fact.
(It appears I feel strongly about this).
I think this is the first time when reading New Moon that I have thoughtfully noticed the suicide mention and realised how problematic it is. Bella says she didn't kill herself because of what it would do to her parents but has no such qualms when it comes to turning into a vampire, which would also equal her apparent death to her parents. The glaring fact that her parents cease to have value to her when Edward is in the picture is ghastly, and hypocritical. I think I could write a whole essay on this topic, so the short of it is; Stephenie Meyer should not dabble in suicide themes.
In conclusion, New Moon has a stronger plot based on really silly stuff, and makes you fall in love with Jacob, more than Edward. The book mentions dark themes carelessly and if Bella and Edwards' relationship didn't seem problematic before, it's clearly unhealthy now. I would not recommend this to young, impressionable readers, unless you are ready to have conversation with them about how Edward and Bella's relationship is unhealthy and that wanting to kill yourself after a break-up is so not okay.
TL:DR
Even Stephenie Meyer loves Jacob more than Edward (at least the way she writes about him). Hallucinations do not equal true love. This book should come with a disclaimer: relationships portrayed within are UNHEALTHY, if you want to kill yourself after breaking up with your boyfriend, please seek help.
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Spoilery Book Reviews
No FicciónBook reviews written by me. All reviews will contain spoilers. Some books are ones I have read millions of times and are my well known favourites. Some books are really random and bizarre picks for me that were complete surprises.
