 "It's a Twilight Thing" | 2009-11-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A23COTEM6CN9K5 |
| If you love the Twilight Saga, these are great collectibles. I love it! Though I only opened it to place the special ribbon book mark on my favorite page, admired it, then closed it & placed it w/ other collectibles to be admired. It was very affordable. I hope to collect all covers of all 4 books in the Twilight Saga. LOVE LOVE LOVES it! |
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 "Interesting events in the Twilight Saga, but not the best in the series" | 2009-11-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3OOBTY0A75K2N |
I loved Twilight and Eclipse. I greatly enjoyed Breaking Dawn. But the first time I read New Moon I liked it, but didn't love it. I have now re-read it and enjoyed it much more the 2nd time around.
In this book, Bella's frienship with Jacob evolves and she learns about the history of the Quilette people. During the time Bella spends with Jacob the reader is drawn into the dynamic of the "gang" of young men on the reservation who all seem to be changing to become the "protectors" of their people. I enjoyed reading about their lives and the "pack" mentality of the group. I was glad the "void" left by the vampires was filled by this story line.
But in the end, I loved reading about the Volturi and finding out about the powers of the vampires who act as the "enforcers" of the vamp community. Each vampire in Italy was unique and presented a new look into the history and lives of the vampires.
And of course I love Alice .... "How do you feel about grand theft auto?"
First time through I was disappointed the book was not about Bella and Edwards. Second tiem I read it, I appreciated the story line that leads Bella to better understand Jacob and his friends. |
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 "The weakest of the series" | 2009-11-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3MCR0Q0FRTXCB |
This book is the weakest of the Twilight series. My main problem with it is that one of the protagonists, Edward, disappears like five pages into the book. Sucks for Bella. I do agree with many posts on here that Bella appears weak and pathetic, etc., etc., but unfortunately, that is teen angst for you. Meyers characterizes some of these things as fatal flaws with some of her characters--they make poor decisions (I mean, don't we all?), and suffer the consequences. Bella being so totally into and dependent on Edward is one of those flaws. Edward being a ninny, and leaving Bella just to 'save' her from him is a poor decision as well, characterized by his intense desire to protect her from anything that might hurt her...even him (SPOILER, but this definitely plays out in Breaking Dawn, with the pregnancy).
Enter Jacob Black. So I am definitely a member of Team Edward, but Jacob is the perfect foil for both Edward AND Bella. In Meyer's explanation, Jacob is the only one who is flawless--has no character defects, except maybe caring too much about the people in his life, and accepting them-warts and all-for who they are. He provides protection, guidance, a shoulder to cry on, etc. He is clear about what he wants, and puts up with Bella in her indecisiveness and ultimately, choice to turn her back on him. Again, SPOILER, but I thought it perfect and ironic that he ends up with her daughter in the end.
Whatever you want to make of Edward and Bella's relationship, it is driven by passion; albeit the passionate and perhaps thoughtless actions of 17 and 18 years old, remember, but passion nonetheless. Jacob's entry into the triangle makes that passion play out even further - Jacob's passion and concern for Bella, and his passionate HATRED of Edward. So great.
So yes, New Moon was not my favorite of the series at all, but if Meyers purposely wrote Edward out of this chapter to bring the relationships around full circle and to conclusiveness later on, she definitely succeeded. |
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 "Not Giving New Moon To Nieces" | 2009-11-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A15W3YTG83X3P1 |
I've been reading a lot lately so sharing more reviews with you. I know I'm going to get blasted for my opinion of New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, but I just have to be honest.
When I first heard of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series, I wasn't much interested. Teen vampire love story. Uh huh. But everyone talked about it so much that when a copy of Twilight turned up on a shelf at my local thrift store, I thought, "Why not?" What was I losing for $0.45? Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice spoiled me. What a rich re-visioning of the vampire myth! So well told, beautifully written. And Louis! Ah who can forget Louis? Even Rice's later vampire novels could not compete with the place Interview has in my affections, although I found LeStat entertaining enough. How would Twilight compare?
Teen girl, something of misfit, falls in love with mysterious boy who just happens to be a vampire. As I read, I kept wondering why so many people were raving about the character, Bella. I didn't find her at all appealing. In part that could be due to her low self-confidence and habit of always putting herself down. But for me, the bigger issue was that she didn't seem to be about anything. I couldn't have told you what her values were or what she wanted out of life except for her obvious desire to be liked by the mysterious Edward whose handsome appearance is always foremost in her mind and her descriptions of him. The characters had the potential to be interesting but just weren't developed well enough for me to care about them. And Twilight was less a vampire story than a twist on Romeo and Juliet. As far as action and plot development, let's just say it was like watching a film in slow motion.
Now why, since I obviously wasn't impressed with Twilight, would I pick up the second installment, New Moon? I had no plans of buying it. Then I had a doctor's appointment scheduled and went searching for something to take along to read. Turned out I'd actually managed to get to the bottom of all the various waiting-to-be-read stacks around the house. I found one book I hadn't read but it was non-fiction of the sort requiring concentration; definitely not brain candy and I find brain candy is best for waiting rooms. Since I had to stop at the pharmacy on my way to the doctor, I checked the books on the their shelves. Nothing appealed to me and I was going to walk out but the thought of sitting in that waiting room for what might be a long while caused me to take a last look. I saw New Moon and snatched it up with a sigh. At least it wasn't heavy reading.
I don't know whether I was simply used to Bella or whether she was actually less annoying the second time around but I disliked her less. Except - and this is a big one for me - the girl was beyond hopelessly in love with Edward. Bella had lost all sense of herself as a person without Edward's presence. I hate that the young girls for whom this series is a favorite are reading this love story and perhaps learning how to obliterate themselves, how to vanish into the shadow of some male they choose as all important. Over and over again Bella and, yes, Edward, too was ready to give up everything if s/he couldn't be with the other. Is this really what we want our daughters to be learning? I think of friends who entered relationships that faltered and fell apart. What happens afterward? Those with a healthy sense of self pull their lives back together and go on, often to better things. Those who negated much of their self to mollify their partner usually fall apart when the one they thought of as "everything" no longer has use for them. The one left behind often is in a position of having, in essence, to establish a new self image.
Aside from the unhealthy lesson I see there, what else can I say about New Moon? Although the characters don't develop much more I did feel there was some improvement. There was more of a sense of the Cullens being a family with believable family loyalties based on interest in and concern for one another rather than just a connection as vampires. I liked the way Meyers wove in the legend of the werewolves. However, I found myself laughing out loud as I envisioned the "exploding" that took place as the Indians lads transformed to werewolves. This made me picture the old Incredible Hulk cartoons. The Volturi were an interesting touch - the veneer of civility over the horror one expects in a vampire story; now there was a vampire story to be told there. And there was, relatively speaking, more action than in Twilight.
All in all, perhaps satisfying brain candy for the pre-teen, teen set. However, my nieces won't be receiving copies from me. |
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| "This is the book for you if....." | 2009-11-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1U6IZJACAEEIL |
If you enjoy reading about a teen girl moping for many, many, many pages, this is the book for you.
And if vampires are not enough fun (?), how about werewolves? You got 'em. This is the book for you.
If you like animated corpses, this is the book for you. Edward is still like marble and stone, still cold and icy, and Bella loves it. It must be like sleeping next to a statue. Yes, he still sneaks into her room at night and they cuddle, and Bella still hides this from her father and lies a lot to him.
If you like teen love stories where the girl wants to give up her family, friends, soul, and humanity to be with her "man" (actually, the dead Edward turned vampire), this is the book for you.
All in all, it's poorly written, has a very contrived plot, is mostly boring, and has very harmful messages about love. If you like those things, this is the book for you.
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| "Better than the first book!" | 2009-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A204ZW3XHMWXGZ |
| This book was even better than the first book to me. The first book was awesome...don't get me wrong, but it was slow compared to this book! In this book the story really takes off. I was pissed off a little throughout the book, but isn't that what a good book does...gets your emotions going! This book is wonderful and I cannot wait for the movie to come out. I am reading Outlander right now, but will be putting it down soon to re-read this book to refresh for the movie! |
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