Book Review: "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer's sequel to Twilight begins with a slightly pessimistic quote from Romeo and Juliet. In an early scene, our familiar lovers are sitting together watching the 1960's film of said play, and Edward makes some remarks complaining about how Romeo can be a little stupid. Then, in a sort of hypocritical way, he moments later is talking with alarming nonchalance about how he has considered what it would take for him to kill himself if he ever wanted to - in the case that something happened to Bella.
Edward and Bella are certainly comparable to the tragic couple because of all the obstacles that make it hard for them to be together. There is the danger that Edward's dietary inclinations put Bella in even though it's his choice to be a "vegetarian" vampire, which means there must always be a cautious lack of physicality in their relationship. Edward has to literally handle a human with care; if he forgot for a moment she's not as strong and durable as he is, he could accidentally crush her hand trying to take it. Then there's the inevitability that Bella will age while Edward doesn't. She is perfectly willing to give up her present life and become one of his kind, but Edward won't hear about it. (As it's revealed to her early in this book, Edward personally believes that vampires have lost their souls.)
But the Romeo and Juliet comparison can be extended, perhaps, to include their sometimes obsessive dependence on each other. I once read an article analyzing Romeo and Juliet that explained how even long before they die in the end, both of the characters show almost every one of the warning signs people are now advised to look for in people who may be suicidal. In Shakespearian tragedies we permit such ridiculousness because it's just drama to give you a good cry, all about love rather than the nature of individuals, just like it's somewhat permissible how Edward and Bella's lives have become all about each other because - shit - it's just fantasy. Vampires simply do not fall in love fleetingly or temporarily, and Bella seems unable to relate much to anyone normal therefore has never felt nearly as close to anyone else before. It's not the kind of real-life relationship you can pscho-analyze anyway.
So what a surprise indeed when the second volume of their story actually has them each having to learn that maybe, although it's difficult, cripplingly devastating, almost impossible, for them to live without each other, just maybe they can. But should they? Shakespeare knew how to write a tear-jerker with pretty words, but his tragic heroes are not quite the fleshed-out kind of human characters whose actions we can learn a lot from, and in many ways their fates seemed destined and out of their control. Can't a love story be more compelling if it's more about choice - especially a very difficult one? Oh, yes. I'm definitely impressed.
Some of the most tantalizing mysteries in Twilight actually remained unanswered questions by the end. There have been several things seeming to hint that there is something unusual about Bella for a human, and maybe not just to Edward. For instance, Edward has a unique gift for a vampire that makes him able to read others' minds, and Bella is the only person he's ever encountered whose mind he cannot read at all. As I started New Moon, I began to think maybe this is the kind of mystery not meant to ever be given a definite explanation, such as all the questions about what is behind the veil in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that I actually would have been disappointed to ever have answered. In Twilight, after Bella kept thinking of herself as boring and compelely ordinary-looking, Edward finally told her, "You don't have a very good perception of yourself," and later on she turned this on him and said he was the same way. Perhaps the way Bella is an exception to Edward's mind-reading abilities, no matter what the real explanation might be, is very fitting for his flaws. Edward seems to be better at reading people than understanding himself, and maybe in Bella's case it is more like looking into a mirror than into someone else's mind for him to try to hear her thoughts. Almost everyone's heard some variation of the advice that you have to love yourself before you can have success loving someone else. But Edward, even though he rejects his nature by not drinking human blood, just thinks of himself as a monster without a soul.
This is their problem. Neither Edward or Bella has any comprehension of how much the other actually cares about them. So when he leaves her, it is in one way absolutely shocking and in another way almost boringly predictable. Naturally, Bella is only shocked, and foolish enough to buy the reason he gives her. And naturally, Edward is sorry but brushes over the seriousness of what it will mean for her. "You're human," he says, as if it makes her lucky in comparison to him. "Time heals all wounds for your kind."
He is certainly right that Bella has a normal human reaction to this kind of loss - normal for a reaction to the most traumatizing kind of death of a loved one imaginable. For months afterwards, Bella practically becomes a shell-shocked zombie, her despair not helped by the fact that she doesn't even have anyone she can talk to about what's wrong with her. Edward's family disappearing from the town of Forks makes the story take a very interesting turn that feels like a disorienting step backwards. Bella's life in Forks is perfectly normal again, and it seems like we are right back to where we started at the beginning of the first book before Bella knew anything about vampires. She even feels like she might forget that Edward was real if she moved back away.
In Edward's long absence, Bella surprises herself by becoming best friends with Jacob Black, the son of her father's friend who lives on the Quileute reservation. Jacob is extremely loveable and about as unlike Bella's ethereal ex as he could be, refreshingly normal and with a very youthful carelessness, not to mention proper body heat. Jacob's feelings for her have been apparent since the few times they encountered each other in Twilight. But unlike Bella's classmate Mike, for which friendship with her is frustratingly never enough, Jacob somehow understands the pain Bella is in and expects nothing from her. With his never-failing ability to cheer her up, he is exactly what she needs through her prolongued state of shock and mourning, but maybe could even be more than a helpful anesthetic. He represents the possibility of life after and without Edward, and I think even the most enthusiastic fans of her former relationship can possibly feel as torn as she does about what is better for her as she and Jacob grow ever closer and Edward seems more and more like something from a long-ago life.
But of course, this return to normalcy in Bella's life doesn't last long. At the same time she learned about the existence of vampires in the previous book and realized what the Cullen family are, she also learned a little about werewolves. The Quileute people have old myths about wolf men who are mortal enemies of what they call the "cold ones." After having since become quite familiar with the reality of "cold ones" like the Cullens, Bella discovers the explanation for a lot of strange things that have been happening in the forests lately when she is suddenly thrown into the very different world of those other mythical creatures that it turns out are also quite real. This she starts to feel very conflicted about, as if feeling torn between immortality and a human existence is not difficult enough. Among werewolves, she has the bad reputation of a "leech-lover" and is made to feel almost like a spy who's betraying Edward and his family by hanging around with them. Unbelievable things are now second nature to Bella, and there are actually some great moments of humor that are only possible because she is comfortable enough for others to casually joke about these things around her instead of having their time taken up by making sure she isn't going to throw up.
I've seen a lot of criticism of these books for the kind of behavior they seem to support and even glorify, especially in regards to the kind of relationship Edward and Bella have. This is kind of funny to me, because as I've gotten through this volume I've found it increasingly clear that this is not a story with role model kind of heroes who act in ways you should be impressed by. It's about people who . . . well . . . fuck up. Badly. Maybe they won't go so far as to end up dramatically spilling their own blood Shakespeare-style, but Edward and Bella are already making being in love with each other even harder than it has to be, and they seem to be well on their way to taking down some other people's hearts with them as well. Ultimately, they are likeable characters for owning up to and taking responsibility for their mistakes. But having already continued with the series and read the third book, Eclipse, I can vaguely say, without giving anything specific away, that we've only begun to learn from these tragically flawed heroes.