After a talk with an old childhood friend, Jacob, who lives in the Reservation, she discovers Edward’s true identity as a vampire. Bella explains to him, she doesn’t care because she loves him. Edward finally confesses everything to her, explaining about his family and how he came to be a vampire, he tells her of his extra ability to read people’s minds, though he cannot seem to read hers. Alice can see into the future and Jasper has the power to alter people’s emotions. While out with the Cullens, Bella comes across a clan of nomad vampires, James, Victoria and Laurent. James catches Bella’s scent and is determined to kill her for her blood.
As Edward leaves with Bella they get as far away as they can and the rest of the family attempt to catch James. They start a frantic run for their lives as James tries to track her down. James tricks her into leaving Alice and Jasper and coming to meet him and when she does he attacks her. Edward saves her and kills James, ripping him limb from limb.
New Moon continues the story of Edward and Bella. In the beginning, everything is fine and Bella’s life is perfect, except for the fact that she is getting older. She pleads to Edward to bite her, making her a vampire as well and in turn, making her immortal. Edward is totally against the idea because of the life he leads and he does not want that fate for Bella. Tragically, Edward decides to leave Bella for, what he thinks, is her own good. Bella is heart-broken and goes into a deep depression for many months. Her father decides on an ultimatum, either she lightens up or he will send her back to her mother in Florida. She seeks refuge with her old friend, Jacob and becomes extremely close to him, though nothing could ever fill the gaping hole that Edward has left. After she rashly purchases some second hand motorcycles she secretly takes them to Jacob to fix up, he agrees and they bond during the project.
When he finishes he calls her and they go out to test drive them, but when Bella is ready to start up the motorcycle she hears Edward’s voice, he is warning her not to do it. She eventually puts the pieces together and begins doing dangerous and risky things just in order to hear his voice again.
Once, when Jacob takes Bella to the cinema he begins to feel very sick and after about a week Bella starts calling him and is surprised to find that Billy (Jacob’s father) is against the idea of her coming round. She grows irritated at him and decided to go down to the reservation. She gets the shock of her life when Jacob is with the infamous “La Push” gang to which Jacob held angry grudge. When he sees Bella, Jacob leaves them and walks away to talk with her. After an argument Bella discovers that Jacob is a Werewolf and the gang are also, that’s why they had all been acting so weird.
Bella is taken aback by the news but grows to accept it eventually and rekindles her friendship with Jacob. Bella sees the gang cliff-diving and is intrigued by the danger and makes Jacob promise he will take her.
When Jacob becomes busy with his new friends, Bella decides to take herself up on the idea and throws herself off the edge, listening to Edward’s rage intently as she falls. When she hits the water, the current takes her under she is drowning when Jacob saves her. After she is checked over in the hospital she comes home to find Alice there. She is shocked and overjoyed to have her vampire friend back but melancholy about the fact Edward is absent. Everything changes when Alice has a vision of Edward trying to kill himself, after being misinformed about Bella’s cliff-diving. They begin a chase to get to Edward in Italy before he attempts to take his life.
New Moon is written in the first person, form Bella’s point of view and that is one of the many reasons that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Another is also the way it is written, Stephenie Meyer isn’t patronising towards her readers as she has a very specific audience of teenagers. She uses complex but appropriate language to describe things and feelings in a way that other novels such as Harry Potter and Diary of Georgia Nicholson lack. Though, it does make sense as, using the language she does she can widen the audience to older people. Meyer describes feelings and facial features in such depth that she could maybe take up a whole page just saying how someone reacted to something. One of the main reasons I liked the novel was the way it was set out. The book was comprised of may small things leading up to a climax at the end, each chapter has one small thing that happens or a conversation that leaks a vital piece of information, which means that you cannot just stop there, you have to read just one more chapter.
The fantasy throughout the book could have easily made it a shambles but the way everything is explained it makes it perfectly believable and being set in present time it studies other people’s personalities and reactions. It makes you think yourself about how you’re treated in life and it debates on the subject of acceptance throughout.
Unlike other fantasy books similar to Twilight, it doesn’t have to change things because of the simplicity and no ordinary object has any hidden meaning which also contributes to its believability.
The book was beautifully written, studying the complexity of late teenage relationship and the trials and tribulations Bella and Edward must conquer to be together and the lengths they will go to just to hold each other’s hand. During the book, it frequently refers to the similarity between their and Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, with Jacob being referred to as Paris.
The tale is dripping with drama and pain with every word and I am eager to read the next two.
