About the
book!
Author: Stephanie
Meyer
Country: United
States
Language: English
Series: 2nd
book of the Twilight Saga
Genres: Young adult, romance novel,
vampire fiction
Publication date: September
6, 2006
Pages:
563
The author:
Stephenie
Meyer
Stephenie
was born in 1973 in Connecticut. In her childhood she spent five years in
Phoenix, Arizona. Later she graduated from Brigham Young University with a
degree in English literature. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband and her
three sons.
Her
novels from the Twilight Saga: “Twilight”, “New Moon”, “Eclipse” and “Breaking
Dawn” are international bestsellers. Her latest book (also from the Twilight
Series) “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner”
She
not only wrote Twilight books, she also published “Prom Nights from Hell” and
“The Host”.
Summary
On
Bella´s 18th birthday she is worried because she now is older than
his boyfriend, who is a vampire and frozen in his age. That’s the reason why
Bella´s biggest wish is that Edward transforms her into a vampire too.
To
celebrate Bella´s birthday, Alice invites her to the Cullen´s house. By opening
a present Bella cuts her finger and blood drops down on the floor. Jasper is
the youngest vampire and not that long used to the smell of human blood.
Immediately he smells Bella´s blood and starts running toward her to suck her
blood. In the last second Edward can push his girlfriend back and prevent
Jasper from hurting Bella.
With
a heavy heart Edward tells Bella, that he leaves Fork with his family. It would
be too dangerous for her to live with him. It should be as he was never there.
Edward leaves, but Bella has to promise that she won´t do stupid things.
Months
are passing by and Bella´s life is falling apart without Edward. She is totally
isolated and every night she has nightmares. As her father wants her to move
back to her mother she starts meeting Jacob, her old friend. He is totally
happy with that and Bella feels much better when they both are together. Bella
recognizes that when she does something dangerous she starts hallucinating and
thinks she can hear Edward´s voice. This makes her feel lively. So she starts living
on the edge of her life. But then all of a sudden Jacob gets ill and doesn`t
want to speak to Bella anymore. The reason is that he transforms into a
werewolf like all males in the Quileute
tribe.
In
Bella´s desperation she even goes cliff diving. As the waves are so wild and
high she can´t get out of the water and nearly drowns. But Jake safes her life at
the last moment. At home Alice waits for Bella. Because of her special ability
she has seen Bella commiting suicide by cliff diving. But she is very glad to
see Bella alive.
Edward
finds out about Alice´s vision and decides to go to Italy. The Volturi live
there. They are the most ancient vampires and because vampires are deathless, they
go to the Volturi to get killed, if they want.
So
Edward wants to beg them to kill him because he does not want to live without
Bella anymore.
Alice can also see this in advance and so she and Bella go to Italy too, to
keep Edward from getting killed. A race against time starts. In the last second
Bella can prevent Edward from showing himself in the sun. If all the people in
the street had seen his shining skin and recognized that he is a vampire, he
would have broken the only rule as a vampire. And for sure he would have had to
die. Edward is extremely happy to see Bella at his side alive. But it has not
been done yet. The Volturi fetch Bella. She knows too much about vampires and
they want to kill her instead of Edward. But Bella promises to become a vampire
soon and Alice confirms that by showing the Volturi her vision of Bella being a
vampire. So they are released.
The
story ends with a treaty between Bella and Edward. Edward transforms Bella into
a vampire on condition that she marries him…
Characterization
Isabella
Swan 18 years old
She is very fair-skinned girl, with
straight, long, dark hair and brown eyes . Prominent
cheekbones, a thin nose and a narrow jaw with a pointed chin. Her lips are a bit
out of proportion, a bit too full for her jaw line. She's five foot four inches
tall, slim but not muscular at all.
Bella is described as clumsy and stubborn. She
is also a terrible liar but she demonstrates good acting ability. Bella is a
very graceful and thoughtful person too.
Isabella Swan had moved to Forks to her
father, because her mum decided to move around with her new boyfriend. There
she meets Edward. He is different and from the first moment on she feels safe
by his side. She is so much in love with Edward and can´t live without him….
Edward
Cullen, vampire
He is very charming, polite and very
stubborn too. He is also very protective to Bella. As he is nearly
“indestructible”, he does everything to safe Bella.
Edward became a vampire when he was 17
years old and he will never turn older. He has been 17 years old for 109 years
now! Each vampire has these character qualities: He is pale-faced, his eyes
switch colors. It depends of his mood. Edwards’s body is ice-cold. His skin
sparkles in the sunlight and he never ever sleeps.
Edward only drinks animal blood and he has a special
ability to read minds, except Bella´s. And that makes her so special for him.
Edward, like all vampires, possesses
superhuman strength, speed, and agility, and is described as being inhumanly
beautiful.
He sees himself as a monster and his
biggest wish is to be human.
Jacob Black, werewolf
Jacob has a russet skin, black hair and dark
eyes. He is very muscular. He is a Quileute Native American. He
lives in a reservation and goes to school there too. Towards Edwards’s cold
body, he has a body temperature of 42°C, because in “New Moon” he becomes a
werewolf. Werewolves are the biggest enemy of vampires. That´s why he hates
Edward. Jacob has been Bella´s best friend since their childhood. He develops a
crush on her. This is another reason why he does not like Bella´s vampire
boyfriend.
Carlisle
Cullen, vampire
Carlisle is 23 years old. He has blond
hair, is slender but muscular. He also has all character qualities vampires
have. After 390 years working as a doctor he is now used to the smell of human
blood. As he has been working for such a long time, he is very rich. He only
drinks animal blood too. He has a vampire wife called Esme. Together they have
five adoptive children: Edward, Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper. Carlisle
transformed all of them into vampires to save them, because their lives had
been in danger!
Carlisle once was part of the Volturi…
Alice Cullen, vampire
Alice also plays a main part in the book “New
Moon”. She is the wife of Jasper and the adoptive daughter of Carlisle and
Esme. Her hair is dark and all in all she is very short. She
loves and cares for Bella like a sister. Alice is also very close to his
brother Edward. She enjoys shopping and throwing parties. Some vampires have special abilities. She possesses one. She is
some kind of a fortune teller. She is able to see what is going to happen in
the future.
Charlie Swan
Charlie is Bella´s dad. He works as a
police officer in Forks. His biggest hobbies are fishing and hunting. He had
lived alone before Bella moved to his house, because Charlie split up with
Bella´s mum. He does not like Edward at all because he thinks that Edward has a
bad influence on his daughter. But he really appreciates Bella´s friendship to
Jacob. The reason is that Charlie´s best friend is Billy, the father of Jacob.
The
Volturi, vampires
The Volturi live in
Volterra,
Tuscany (Italy). They are regarded
as "royalty" by other vampires because they have lived for over 3000
years and act as police. Especially they pay attention that their existence as
vampires remains a secret. They consist of several vampires with special skills
and power. When a vampire makes a mistake or wants to die, he has to go to the
Volturi. He/ She will be punished by them with the death...
Extract of the book „NEW
MOON“
page
358 and 359
(scene:
Bella jumps off the high cliffs)
The
wind blew stronger now, whipping the rain into eddies around me.
I
stepped out to the edge, keeping my eyes on the empty space in front of me. My
toes felt ahead blindly, caressing the edge of the rock when they encountered
it. I drew in a deep breath and held it…waiting.
“Bella”,
I heard him saying. I smiled and exhaled.
Yes? I didn´t answer out loud, for
fear that the sound of my voice would shatter the beautiful illusion. He sounded
so real, so close. It was only when he was disapproving like this that I could
hear the true memory of his voice-the velvet texture and the musical intonation
that made up the most perfect of all voices.
“Don´t
do this,” he pleaded. You wanted me to be human, I reminded him.
Well, watch me.
“Please. For me.” But you won´t stay
with me any other way. “Please.” It was just a whisper in the blowing rain
that tossed my hair and drenched my clothes – making me as wet as if this were
my second jump of the day. I rolled up onto the balls of my feet.
“No
Bella!” He was angry now, and the anger was so lovely. I smiled and raised my
arms straight out, as is I were going to dive, lifting my face into the rain.
But it was too ingrained from years of swimming at the public pool – feet
first, first time. I leaned forward, crouching to get more spring…
And
I flung myself off the cliff. I screamed as I dropped through the open air like
a meteor, but it was a scream of exhilaration and not fear. The wind resisted,
trying vainly to fight the unconquerable gravity, pushing against me and
twirling me in spirals like a rocket crashing to the earth.
Yes! The word echoed through my head
as I sliced through the surface of the water. It was icy, colder than I´d
feared, and yet the chill only added to the high.
I
was proud of myself as I plunged deeper into the freezing black water. I hadn`t
had one moment of terror – just pure adrenaline. Really, the fall wasn´t scary
at all. Where was the challenge?
That
was when the current caught me. I`d been so preoccupied by the size of the
cliffs, by the obvious danger of their high, sheer faces, that I hadn`t worried
at all about the dark water waiting. I never dreamed that the true menace was
lurking far below me, under the heaving surf.
It
felt like the waves were fighting over me, jerking me back and forth between
them …
My opinion:
I
didn´t like the Twilight movie because everybody was only talking about the
actors of the movie and the whole new vampire thing. Everyone read the books
and couldn´t wait, till the next movie would start in the cinemas. I thought
that was stupid! I wasn´t even interested in going to the cinema for watching
the first and the second Twilight movie. A few friends recommended me the
books of the Twilight Saga and so I decided to read the second one, “New
Moon”. But now, after reading it, I´ve changed my opinion about the new “cult”.
I´ve also read the last book “Breaking Dawn” which is my favorite book but I´ve
chosen “New Moon” because it is so different from the other Twilight books. Suddenly
I fancied the whole story with the vampires and the werewolves. I have to admit
that the book is very fascinating and absorbing. I could
really imagine the thoughts of Bella, who tells the story in the book. It is
very thrilling too. I could feel with her. After I had read the book, I watched
the movie. It is not that bad, but it was short. Some parts are not contained.
But that’s typical for all movies… But also the soundtrack of the movie is
fantastic!
So
I jumped to the conclusions:
The book tells the real story not the movie!!! Those
who have only seen the film do not really know what the story is all about.
The
book “New Moon” is really worth reading!!!