New Moon

New Moon\ \ By Stephenie Meyer \ Little, Brown Young Readers\ Copyright © 2006 Stephenie Meyer\ All right reserved.\ ISBN: 0-316-16019-9 \ \ \ Chapter One\ Party \ I was ninety-nine point nine percent sure I was dreaming.\ The reasons I was so certain were that, first, I was standing in a bright shaft of sunlight-the kind of blinding clear sun that never shone on my drizzly new hometown in Forks, Washington-and second, I was looking at my Grandma Marie. Gran had been dead for six years now, so that was solid evidence toward the dream theory.\ Gran hadn't changed much; her face looked just the same as I remembered it. The skin was soft and withered, bent into a thousand tiny creases that clung gently to the bone underneath. Like a dried apricot, but with a puff of thick white hair standing out in a cloud around it.\ Our mouths-hers a wizened pucker-spread into the same surprised half-smile at just the same time. Apparently, she hadn't been expecting to see me, either.\ I was about to ask her a question; I had so many-What was she doing here in my dream? What had she been up to in the past six years? Was Pop okay, and had they found each other, wherever they were?-but she opened her mouth when I did, so I stopped to let her go first. She paused, too, and then we both smiled at the little awkwardness.\ "Bella?"\ It wasn't Gran who called my name, and we both turned to see the addition to our small reunion. Ididn't have to look to know who it was; this was a voice I would know anywhere-know, and respond to, whether I was awake or asleep ... or even dead, I'd bet. The voice I'd walk through fire for-or, less dramatically, slosh every day through the cold and endless rain for.\ Edward.\ Even though I was always thrilled to see him-conscious or otherwise-and even though I was almost positive that I was dreaming, I panicked as Edward walked toward us through the glaring sunlight.\ I panicked because Gran didn't know that I was in love with a vampire-nobody knew that-so how was I supposed to explain the fact that the brilliant sunbeams were shattering off his skin into a thousand rainbow shards like he was made of crystal or diamond?\ Well, Gran, you might have noticed that my boyfriend glitters. It's just something he does in the sun. Don't worry about it ...\ What was he doing? The whole reason he lived in Forks, the rainiest place in the world, was so that he could be outside in the daytime without exposing his family's secret. Yet here he was, strolling gracefully toward me-with the most beautiful smile on his angel's face-as if I were the only one here.\ In that second, I wished that I was not the one exception to his mysterious talent; I usually felt grateful that I was the only person whose thoughts he couldn't hear just as clearly as if they were spoken aloud. But now I wished he could hear me, too, so that he could hear the warning I was screaming in my head.\ I shot a panicked glance back at Gran, and saw that it was too late. She was just turning to stare back at me, her eyes as alarmed as mine.\ Edward-still smiling so beautifully that my heart felt like it was going to swell up and burst through my chest-put his arm around my shoulder and turned to face my grandmother.\ Gran's expression surprised me. Instead of looking horrified, she was staring at me sheepishly, as if waiting for a scolding. And she was standing in such a strange position-one arm held awkwardly away from her body, stretched out and then curled around the air. Like she had her arm around someone I couldn't see, someone invisible ...\ Only then, as I looked at the bigger picture, did I notice the huge gilt frame that enclosed my grandmother's form. Uncomprehending, I raised the hand that wasn't wrapped around Edward's waist and reached out to touch her. She mimicked the movement exactly, mirrored it. But where our fingers should have met, there was nothing but cold glass ...\ With a dizzying jolt, my dream abruptly became a nightmare.\ There was no Gran.\ That was me. Me in a mirror. Me-ancient, creased, and withered.\ Edward stood beside me, casting no reflection, excruciatingly lovely and forever seventeen.\ He pressed his icy, perfect lips against my wasted cheek.\ "Happy birthday," he whispered.\ I woke with a start-my eyelids popping open wide-and gasped. Dull gray light, the familiar light of an overcast morning, took the place of the blinding sun in my dream.\ Just a dream, I told myself. It was only a dream. I took a deep breath, and then jumped again when my alarm went off. The little calendar in the corner of the clock's display informed me that today was September thirteenth.\ Only a dream, but prophetic enough in one way, at least. Today was my birthday. I was officially eighteen years old.\ I'd been dreading this day for months.\ All through the perfect summer-the happiest summer I had ever had, the happiest summer anyone anywhere had ever had, and the rainiest summer in the history of the Olympic Peninsula-this bleak date had lurked in ambush, waiting to spring.\ And now that it had hit, it was even worse than I'd feared it would be. I could feel it-I was older. Every day I got older, but this was different, worse, quantifiable. I was eighteen.\ And Edward never would be.\ When I went to brush my teeth, I was almost surprised that the face in the mirror hadn't changed. I stared at myself, looking for some sign of impending wrinkles in my ivory skin. The only creases were the ones on my forehead, though, and I knew that if I could manage to relax, they would disappear. I couldn't. My eyebrows stayed lodged in a worried line over my anxious brown eyes.\ It was just a dream, I reminded myself again. Just a dream ... but also my worst nightmare.\ I skipped breakfast, in a hurry to get out of the house as quickly as possible. I wasn't entirely able to avoid my dad, and so I had to spend a few minutes acting cheerful. I honestly tried to be excited about the gifts I'd asked him not to get me, but every time I had to smile, it felt like I might start crying.\ I struggled to get a grip on myself as I drove to school. The vision of Gran-I would not think of it as me-was hard to get out of my head. I couldn't feel anything but despair until I pulled into the familiar parking lot behind Forks High School and spotted Edward leaning motionlessly against his polished silver Volvo, like a marble tribute to some forgotten pagan god of beauty. The dream had not done him justice. And he was waiting there for me, just the same as every other day.\ Despair momentarily vanished; wonder took its place. Even after half a year with him, I still couldn't believe that I deserved this degree of good fortune.\ His sister Alice was standing by his side, waiting for me, too.\ Of course Edward and Alice weren't really related (in Forks the story was that all the Cullen siblings were adopted by Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme, both plainly too young to have teenage children), but their skin was precisely the same pale shade, their eyes had the same strange golden tint, with the same deep, bruise-like shadows beneath them. Her face, like his, was also startlingly beautiful. To someone in the know-someone like me-these similarities marked them for what they were.\ The sight of Alice waiting there-her tawny eyes brilliant with excitement, and a small silver-wrapped square in her hands-made me frown. I'd told Alice I didn't want anything, anything, not gifts or even attention, for my birthday. Obviously, my wishes were being ignored.\ I slammed the door of my '53 Chevy truck-a shower of rust specks fluttered down to the wet blacktop-and walked slowly toward where they waited. Alice skipped forward to meet me, her pixie face glowing under her spiky black hair.\ "Happy birthday, Bella!"\ "Shh!" I hissed, glancing around the lot to make sure no one had heard her. The last thing I wanted was some kind of celebration of the black event.\ She ignored me. "Do you want to open your present now or later?" she asked eagerly as we made our way to where Edward still waited.\ "No presents," I protested in a mumble.\ She finally seemed to process my mood. "Okay ... later, then. Did you like the scrapbook your mom sent you? And the camera from Charlie?"\ I sighed. Of course she would know what my birthday presents were. Edward wasn't the only member of his family with unusual skills. Alice would have "seen" what my parents were planning as soon as they'd decided that themselves.\ "Yeah. They're great."\ "I think it's a nice idea. You're only a senior once. Might as well document the experience."\ "How many times have you been a senior?"\ "That's different."\ We reached Edward then, and he held out his hand for mine. I took it eagerly, forgetting, for a moment, my glum mood. His skin was, as always, smooth, hard, and very cold. He gave my fingers a gentle squeeze. I looked into his liquid topaz eyes, and my heart gave a not-quite-so-gentle squeeze of its own. Hearing the stutter in my heartbeats, he smiled again.\ He lifted his free hand and traced one cool fingertip around the outside of my lips as he spoke. "So, as discussed, I am not allowed to wish you a happy birthday, is that correct?"\ "Yes. That is correct." I could never quite mimic the flow of his perfect, formal articulation. It was something that could only be picked up in an earlier century.\ "Just checking." He ran his hand through his tousled bronze hair. "You might have changed your mind. Most people seem to enjoy things like birthdays and gifts."\ Alice laughed, and the sound was all silver, a wind chime. "Of course you'll enjoy it. Everyone is supposed to be nice to you today and give you your way, Bella. What's the worst that could happen?" She meant it as a rhetorical question.\ "Getting older," I answered anyway, and my voice was not as steady as I wanted it to be.\ Beside me, Edward's smile tightened into a hard line.\ "Eighteen isn't very old," Alice said. "Don't women usually wait till they're twenty-nine to get upset over birthdays?"\ "It's older than Edward," I mumbled.\ He sighed.\ "Technically," she said, keeping her tone light. "Just by one little year, though."\ And I supposed ... if I could be sure of the future I wanted, sure that I would get to spend forever with Edward, and Alice and the rest of the Cullens (preferably not as a wrinkled little old lady) ... then a year or two one direction or the other wouldn't matter to me so much. But Edward was dead set against any future that changed me. Any future that made me like him-that made me immortal, too.\ An impasse, he called it.\ I couldn't really see Edward's point, to be honest. What was so great about mortality? Being a vampire didn't look like such a terrible thing-not the way the Cullens did it, anyway.\ "What time will you be at the house?" Alice continued, changing the subject. From her expression, she was up to exactly the kind of thing I'd been hoping to avoid.\ "I didn't know I had plans to be there."\ "Oh, be fair, Bella!" she complained. "You aren't going to ruin all our fun like that, are you?"\ "I thought my birthday was about what I want."\ "I'll get her from Charlie's right after school," Edward told her, ignoring me altogether.\ "I have to work," I protested.\ "You don't, actually," Alice told me smugly. "I already spoke to Mrs. Newton about it. She's trading you shifts. She said to tell you 'Happy Birthday.'"\ "I-I still can't come over," I stammered, scrambling for an excuse. "I, well, I haven't watched Romeo and Juliet yet for English."\ Alice snorted. "You have Romeo and Juliet memorized."\ "But Mr. Berty said we needed to see it performed to fully appreciate it-that's how Shakespeare intended it to be presented."\ Edward rolled his eyes.\ "You've already seen the movie," Alice accused.\ "But not the nineteen-sixties version. Mr. Berty said it was the best."\ Finally, Alice lost the smug smile and glared at me. "This can be easy, or this can be hard, Bella, but one way or the other-"\ Edward interrupted her threat. "Relax, Alice. If Bella wants to watch a movie, then she can. It's her birthday."\ "So there," I added.\ "I'll bring her over around seven," he continued. "That will give you more time to set up."\ Alice's laughter chimed again. "Sounds good. See you tonight, Bella! It'll be fun, you'll see." She grinned-the wide smile exposed all her perfect, glistening teeth-then pecked me on the cheek and danced off toward her first class before I could respond.\ "Edward, please-" I started to beg, but he pressed one cool finger to my lips.\ "Let's discuss it later. We're going to be late for class."\ No one bothered to stare at us as we took our usual seats in the back of the classroom (we had almost every class together now-it was amazing the favors Edward could get the female administrators to do for him). Edward and I had been together too long now to be an object of gossip any more. Even Mike Newton didn't bother to give me the glum stare that used to make me feel a little guilty. He smiled now instead, and I was glad he seemed to have accepted that we could only be friends. Mike had changed over the summer-his face had lost some of the roundness, making his cheekbones more prominent, and he was wearing his pale blond hair a new way; instead of bristly, it was longer and gelled into a carefully casual disarray. It was easy to see where his inspiration came from-but Edward's look wasn't something that could be achieved through imitation.\ As the day progressed, I considered ways to get out of whatever was going down at the Cullen house tonight. It would be bad enough to have to celebrate when I was in the mood to mourn. But, worse than that, this was sure to involve attention and gifts.\ Attention is never a good thing, as any other accident-prone klutz would agree. No one wants a spotlight when they're likely to fall on their face.\ And I'd very pointedly asked-well, ordered really-that no one give me any presents this year. It looked like Charlie and Renee weren't the only ones who had decided to overlook that.\ I'd never had much money, and that had never bothered me. Renee had raised me on a kindergarten teacher's salary. Charlie wasn't getting rich at his job, either-he was the police chief here in the tiny town of Forks. My only personal income came from the three days a week I worked at the local sporting goods store. In a town this small, I was lucky to have a job. Every penny I made went into my microscopic college fund. (College was Plan B. I was still hoping for Plan A, but Edward was just so stubborn about leaving me human ...)\ Edward had a lot of money-I didn't even want to think about how much. Money meant next to nothing to Edward or the rest of the Cullens. It was just something that accumulated when you had unlimited time on your hands and a sister who had an uncanny ability to predict trends in the stock market. Edward didn't seem to understand why I objected to him spending money on me-why it made me uncomfortable if he took me to an expensive restaurant in Seattle, why he wasn't allowed to buy me a car that could reach speeds over fifty-five miles an hour, or why I wouldn't let him pay my college tuition (he was ridiculously enthusiastic about Plan B). Edward thought I was being unnecessarily difficult.\ But how could I let him give me things when I had nothing to reciprocate with? He, for some unfathomable reason, wanted to be with me. Anything he gave me on top of that just threw us more out of balance.\ As the day went on, neither Edward or Alice brought my birthday up again, and I began to relax a little.\ We sat at our usual table for lunch.\ A strange kind of truce existed at that table. The three of us-Edward, Alice, and I-sat on the extreme southern end of the table. Now that the "older" and somewhat scarier (in Emmett's case, certainly) Cullen siblings had graduated, Alice and Edward did not seem quite so intimidating, and we did not sit here alone. My other friends, Mike and Jessica (who were in the awkward post-breakup friendship phase), Angela and Ben (whose relationship had survived the summer), Eric, Conner, Tyler, and Lauren (though that last one didn't really count in the friend category) all sat at the same table, on the other side of an invisible line. That line dissolved on sunny days when Edward and Alice always skipped school, and then the conversation would swell out effortlessly to include me.\ Edward and Alice didn't find this minor ostracism odd or hurtful the way I would have. They barely noticed it. People always felt strangely ill at ease with the Cullens, almost afraid for some reason they couldn't explain to themselves. I was a rare exception to that rule. Sometimes it bothered Edward how very comfortable I was with being close to him. He thought he was hazardous to my health-an opinion I rejected vehemently whenever he voiced it.\ (Continues...)\ \ \ \ \ Excerpted from New Moon by Stephenie Meyer Copyright © 2006 by Stephenie Meyer. Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. \ \

\ Publishers WeeklyNot since TV's Buffy "the Vampire Slayer" Summers battled demons in the halls of Sunnydale High has a teenager faced the number of monsters that Bella Swan does in Meyer's melodramatic sequel to Twilight. Bella's vampire boyfriend Edward and his unusual clan are joined by an ancient pack of werewolves-also with connections to Bella-in a story that's got romance, adventure, thrills and even a quick detour to Italy. Thanks to Kadushin's (who also read Twilight) consistently smooth delivery and her plausibility as a teen navigating heartbreak, hormones and confusion, listeners are likely to hang on for the many fever-pitch moments of suspense here, even if the lengthy tale could have used some pruning. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Children's Literature - Leslie Wolfson\ What's a girl to do when her choices of guys to date are either a vampire or a werewolf? Teenaged Bella does not seem to make wise choices when it comes to boyfriends in this sequel to Twilight. The original book focused on Bella's relationship with her "good" vampire boyfriend, Edward. Nevertheless, in this novel, the vampires only appear in the beginning and the end; in the middle, the action grinds to a halt. The story starts out with Bella and Edward splitting up; Bella spends the next 100 pages or so mourning his loss. Gradually, the sullen teen rekindles her interest in a friend, Jacob Black, who lives on a nearby Indian reservation. Still depressed over Edward, she initially resists Jacob, and just about the time she wonders if she might be falling in love with him, she finds out he is not quite who or what he appears to be. The last portion of the book primarily focuses on Bella in a race against time, trying to locate Edward. Edward believes that Bella has died when she has not--ala Romeo and Juliet--and he is determined to end his vampire existence. Readers who have not read Twilight may find some of the references to previous relationships and plotlines hard to follow. This is an overly long novel with a minimum of action. The ending makes it clear that there is another sequel to follow.\ \ \ VOYAReaders return to the Pacific Northwestern hamlet of Forks in Stephenie Meyer's sequel to her debut novel, Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005/VOYA October 2005). Human Bella remains incredibly enamored with her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, and continually hints at her desire to become a fellow nosferatu. A disastrous birthday celebration leads to the Cullens' exodus from Forks, leaving behind a devastated Bella. Morose and depressed, she discovers that reckless activities elicit auditory hallucinations of Edward chastising her to stay safe. Bella's new friend, Jacob Black, helps bring her out of her melancholia. As their friendship begins to shift into something deeper, Jacob himself undergoes an unexpected metamorphosis. Misunderstanding and miscommunication lead to Bella's flight from Forks and into the clutches of the Volturi, an influential vampire family in Italy. From its orchid-embossed cover to the epilogue, vampire aficionados will voraciously consume this mighty tome in one sitting, then flip back and read it once more. It maintains a brisk pace and near-genius balance of breathtaking romance and action. While certainly better written than its predecessor, it may leave the reader wishing for something different-a more empowered and self-assured heroine, comic relief to balance the perpetually brooding Edward, fewer references to the vampires' innate beauty. Meyer is at work on the third addition to the Forks saga so there is hope these transformations can occur. Despite the flaws, expect this book to remain checked out by its legions of fans as they await the third novel's release. VOYA CODES: 4Q 5P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Every YA (who reads)was dying to read it yesterday; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Little Brown, 563p., Ages 12 to 18. \ —Angelica Delgado\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 9 Up-Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005), Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step. Vampire fans will appreciate the subsequently dour mood that permeates the novel, and it's not until Bella befriends Jacob, a sophomore from her school with a penchant for motorcycles, that both the pace and her disposition begin to take off. Their adventures are wild, dare-devilish, and teeter on the brink of romance, but memories of Edward pervade Bella's emotions, and soon their fun quickly morphs into danger, especially when she uncovers the true identities of Jacob and his pack of friends. Less streamlined than Twilight yet just as exciting, New Moon will more than feed the bloodthirsty hankerings of fans of the first volume and leave them breathless for the third.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsAll is not well between demon-magnet Bella and Edward Cullen, her vampire Romeo. An innocent papercut at Edward's house puts Bella in grave danger when various members of the Cullen family can barely resist their hunger at the smell of blood. The Cullens promptly leave town, afraid of endangering Edward's beloved, and Bella sinks into an overwhelming depression. Months later, she finally emerges from her funk to rebuild her life, focusing on her friendship with besotted teen Jacob from the reservation. Bella's unhealthy enthrallment to Edward leads her into dangerous and self-destructive behavior despite her new friends, and supernatural complications are bound to reappear. Bella's being hunted by an evil vampire, and Jacob's adolescent male rage turns out to be incipient lycanthropy: It seems many Quileute Indians become werewolves in the presence of vampires, their natural enemies. Psychic miscommunications and angst-ridden dramatic gestures lead to an exciting page-turner of a conclusion drenched in the best of Gothic romantic excess. Despite Bella's flat and obsessive personality, this tale of tortured demon lovers entices. (Fantasy. 13-16)\ \