New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Someone had already told me that Edward disappears for a lot of New Moon, but I wasn’t prepared for just HOW much of it he’s gone for - the entire novel basically. Once he went in the second chapter or so... I was all annoyed. Not because I like the character a whole lot, but because I thought the book would be 1) boring without him and his family vamping it up and 2) I knew Bella would be a psychotic basket case without him and would fall down and spontaneously die or something.
I was right on one count - Bella certainly WAS even more of an annoying, whiney little twit that usual, contemplating suicide, going through the motions of life etc etc blah blah kill me now. What I can’t comprehend is why a female author, in this day and age, could even THINK of writing her female lead character so damn passive, needy and totally defined by her boyfriend. The girl falls apart without Edward and it disgusted me.
Not to mention that she’s really just not a nice person on the whole. Here’s where I come to the book being really not boring point, it was good because of Jacob. This character is amazing and so vivid. I love everything about him. The only thing I didn’t really like was him falling in love with a girl who was using him make herself happy. A girl who contemplated being his girlfriend just so she could ‘stake her claim on him’ as she says in the book, and keep him for herself.
What is so special about Bella that he wants her? I just cannot see it. I see hardly any good traits in her. She’s selfish, weepy, clingy, utterly stupid sometimes and reckless. I just cannot for the life of me like this character. And I really freaking tried, because she’s the main character, the one whose thoughts and feelings we hear, when we get no one else’s. I just can’t though.
But I love Jacob Black. For once, the author’s constant and repetitive descriptions of Jacob didn’t annoy me like they did with Edward, mostly because I thought Jacob was HOT and I loved it every time she went on and on about said hotness. I loved how he just kept getting taller and taller, and more and more muscular. I love that he’s Native American, I have a HUGE thing for them, they are a gorgeous race of people.
I was even more excited about the character when he became a werewolf. I love Jacob being a werewolf more than Edward being a vampire. I think it’s way cooler. I hate that Edward’s body is so cold and hard as marble. He’s so perfectly beautiful, like Michelangelo’s David or something. It just doesn’t evoke anything in me… but Jacob does. His skin actually got warmer when he started turning into a werewolf. I love that, I love that everything about him is more heated, more passionate, more raw, and just more everything now.
For the first time in a long time, I am actually fangirling and lusting after a fictional character. The boy is just plain hot. I find Bella and Edward so bland and uninspired. My God, what were all the Romeo and Juliet references about? They are NOT Romeo and Juliet, I think the author thinks a bit too much of her own creations. And calling Jacob Paris? Gimme a break. Jacob’s worth a million of Bella and Edward put together.
Of course, Edward turns up again at the end of the novel and he and Bella go running back to each other after their pointless separation. And Jacob’s left broken hearted, never mind the fact that because Bella runs with vampires and wants to be one, she’s automatically her best friend’s sworn enemy. And she’s made this deal for the Cullens to make her a vamp… but the werewolves have the right to attack the Cullens if they even so much as bite someone in Forks. Catch 22.
I just have to say, I wish the novel weren’t in the first person, and that it wasn’t only from Bella’s POV. I wouldn’t mind switching to Jacob, I would love it, even Edward’s POV would be a break from Meyer’s relentlessly boring Mary Sue. I love this series, despite how much I hate the character it’s set around. I don’t really know how that’s possible. But I want the next book NOW and I want more Jacob Black NOW.
Oh and no spoilers for the next book please!!!