New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Posted by megmme on December 10, 2009
Verdict: D
Oh, the horror….
I’m going to be upfront about this…I didn’t like this book but I couldn’t stop listening. I have no idea why I couldn’t bring myself to push stop: the characters are completely and utterly shallow and annoying; the plot is sparse, forced, predictable and unbelievable (even with my pretty strong powers of suspension of disbelief); and they payoff is minimal since there are still two agonizingly awful books to go before the end.
So why did I even pick it up in the first place? I read Twilight over the summer and, honestly, didn’t think too badly of it. It was an entertaining read and even though I had the same character development issues as I saw in New Moon, I thought it was a decent page turner and the epitome of a great beach book.
Humorous train-wrecky trashiness aspect aside, I do have some serious qualms about this book. I think it presents a very twisted idea of true love to impressionable young girls. The suicide theme of New Moon is startling and something I would never want to put into the heart and mind of a young teen; you can point me towards Romeo and Juliet all you want but these two works aren’t anywhere close to the same league (and I’m not even a die-hard Shakespeare fan), so don’t waste your breath. Secondly, the “true love” depicted in the story is, in my opinion, far across the line into obsession. Edward and Bella have an incredibly unhealthy relationship (lies, secrets, obsession….) and present a poor model for someone who wants to have a long-lasting relationship with someone.
So, will I read the last two books? Probably–but I’m in no hurry. Perhaps this is the first book/series I’ve ever encountered that gives me that movie-thats-so-bad-its-good quality. Its easy to read, requires minimal effort, is pretty short and is laughably awesome. Even though I will read them myself I would never, ever suggest them to a young girl–this is trash best left to those a little older and wiser.
I realize I’ll probably anger some die-hard Twilight fans with my sentiments…but I do have one positive thing to say this for the Twilight “saga:” it gets people to read and I believe that is inherently a good thing. My hope is Twilight will leave them hungry for a true romance coupled with excellent prose and characters and maybe they’ll go searching for it. Heck, maybe they will even end up reading the real Romeo and Juliet.
Audiobook Details
The reader of Twilight and New Moon, Ilyana Kadushin, is absolutely excellent. With her beautiful voice, she does a remarkable job bringing the stale Twilight characters to life. I would highly recommend her as a reader. From her list of works on Audible.com, I see she is the reader for The Memory Keepers Daughter–a book I haven’t read but is on my TBR list. I’m looking forward to hearing Ilyana read something else.
Run time: 14 hours, 55 minutes.
December in a Nutshell « Audiobook Love said
[...] New Moon [...]