New Moon

I have a confession to make, and I am not sure whether it is laughable or pitiful. I have never read Romeo and Juliet. Sure, I feel the need to excuse myself from this referential faux pas by assuring the reader that indeed I have read roughly a dozen other requisite works by Shakespeare, but understanding Shakespeare’s timeless tale about love matters when reading Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. After all, Meyer’s is explicit about the connection.

That said, I enjoyed this preternatural romance. Why? First, Meyer gives Bella Swan such a strong love-torn voice that I wish she could have both the vampire and the werewolf. And despite my woeful lack of Shakespearean trivia in this case, I am shameless to admit that in the 1990s I did gobble up the tales about the vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. That was enough literary reference to give me something to chew on. Finally, my most important personal motivation to quickly feast on New Moon is the anticipation that a half a dozen love-struck thirteen year-old girls are dying to discuss it with me as soon as we return from the Thanksgiving holiday. There is something gratifying about being among a community of young readers who are so hungry to share.

New Moon is adolescent literature, and not just because the heroine is a teenager. Truthfully, Meyer’s novel lacks some depth, and despite Meyer’s adroit skill of crafting a romantic reader’s purpose for continuing on, resolutions to Bella’s problems are too swiftly and neatly resolved. I also cannot help but to compare Edward to Lestat and lament that Edward’s inner angst about what kind of creature he is is not more thoroughly developed. The reader is not afforded the opportunity to deeply feel the agony that must lie in Edward’s conscience, what with the fact that he obviously must crave Bella on many levels. It doesn’t matter that Edward and his family are the equivalent to vampire vegetarians. It would be more gratifying if the reader could more truly feel from Edward either the void of damnation or the his sense of redemption of the soul.

These shortcomings are, however, easy to overlook, for Meyer’s does a fine job of building reader anticipation to continue on with the sequel. Right now, I long to know if and how . . . and what about . . . Oh, I am tempted to give away too much! That I crave to know more about what happens to the characters is the hallmark of a mighty fine read. I am only sorry that I have to wait until next year when Eclipse is available before I can follow up on the love story of Bella and Edward.