New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

I read Twilight out of sheer curiosity. It wasn't fabulous, but it wasn't terrible either. I understand why it's popular but I don't agree with it being listed as one of the best books of the decade.

So last weekend I saw a paperback copy of New Moon at Half Price Books. For half the paperback price I was willing to check out the second book in what is now deemed The Twilight Saga.

Like Twilight, New Moon is a quick read. At 400+ pages it takes less than many 200 page books. The plot is not particularly deep. Once again, I understand the appeal of the stories as young adult romance books. At the age of 14 I would have loved these books. But I have to honestly say, reading the second, I can't understand the universal female appeal of these stories. They're not even remotely deep. Escapism, yeah, I can buy that. Great literature, not even remotely.

***SPOILER ALERT***SPOILER ALERT***

If you plan on reading these books and you don't want to know what happened, stop reading now. To really talk about this book I have to give away the plot.

At the beginning of the book Edward and Bella are watching Romeo and Juliet and discussing what they would do if one of them were to die. I should have guessed right then where the book was going. What can I say, I'm a little slow - but better prepared in case I pick up Eclipse which opens with the characters discussing Wuthering Heights.

There are two basic storylines in this book. The first is werewolves. Okay, so the main premise of the first book is vampires so continuing in the world of the arcane is not that unexpected. But it seems to0 cliché. I understand that Meyer is setting up a long-standing tension for her novels. However, it was rereading a lot of the first book. Stress over realizing they're not human, trying to hide the differences from the world, spending WAYYYY too long figuring out what is going on. There are about 40 pages when I kept thinking, is the character really this dumb? I read the first book, she was there. If she was open enough to vampires how can she be so clueless about the werewolves.

The second storyline is the continuation of the love story. As I said, I should have seen it immediately. There is a moment when Bella jumps off a cliff and dives into the sea. Think Romeo and Juliet - Yep. Edward thinks she's dead. He runs off to kill himself, Bella has to save him. Happy reunion. The end. I might have actually liked the story better had Meyer not self-consciously pointed out that she was ripping off classic literature.

The sad reality? I will most likely read the next two books in the series. I'm not a masochist, but they are light fluffy entertainment. I already have Twilight the movie on y Netflix list. If nothing else I like to see what gets people's attention and what makes a *good* book these days. But, I will also continue to rant at how transparent the stories are.