Review: NEW MOON by Stephenie Meyer

Rating: 3/5 stars

I liked Twilight better than New Moon, but I guess that's because I liked Edward and he was hardly in New Moon, and he was kind of a jerk anyway. You could probably say I'm "Team Edward," although to be fair, so is Bella. So I don't even know why "Team Jacob" is a thing; she doesn't even like him like that. I like Jacob, but I like him as Bella's friend, not as her boyfriend. However, Jacob's personality got a little belligerent in this book, which is to be expected considering his transformation, but he just acted like two separate people at times. Likewise, Edward was pretty stupid to leave Bella all alone, thinking she would be safe (safer, at least) without him around, considering he already saved her life twice in less than a year. It just seemed like everyone got new personalities in this book, and they didn't always make the most sense. (I don't even want to discuss Jessica. . . .)

Despite my aforementioned qualms about New Moon, I did enjoy the book. I'm glad we got a detailed view of the werewolf life, and many of my questions were answered. I'm also pleased that we learned about the Volturi and the vampire laws, etc. Again, many lingering questions were answered. It is always very satisfying when an author answers my questions throughout a series instead of leaving them all for the last thirty pages of the last book.

One thing I loved about this book was the Romeo and Juliet motif throughout the book and the irony that Edward and Bella kept talking about Romeo and Juliet and then their own story ended up paralleling that in the play. I thought that was clever.

Another thing I enjoyed, which also applies to book one, was the presence and importance of parents in this book. Bella's parents, her dad especially, are vital characters to the story. We also have Jacob's dad, Billy, and the Cullen parents, Carlisle and Esme. I see far too often YA stories that don't include parents hardly at all in the plot, but the reality is that your mom and dad are huge parts of your life when you're still in high school. I loved that Bella got grounded and got in trouble. I also loved the awkwardness between her and Charlie. That's all so realistic and it really added depth to the story.

I am secretly really excited to read the rest of this saga. I can't remember if I've seen the Eclipse movie or not, so I actually don't know what will happen in the next book.

Review: TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer

Rating: 4/5 stars

I originally read Twilight ten years ago when it was at the peak of popularity and everyone and their mom was reading it at that very moment. The book was gifted to me by a friend who was in disbelief that I hadn't yet read it, and so I did. And I hated it. It took me six months of trudging through the story until I finally finished it. I don't know if it was my refusal to conform to popular opinion that made me hate the book, or if it was the actual story itself, the writing, or some other factor, but I feel like I didn't give the book a fair chance, especially since I did actually love the movies. Now that a decade has passed and I have somehow acquired all four books (they were all gifted to me), I feel like it is time that I revisit this series with a more objective perspective and actually read all four tomes this time.

I wasn't actually planning on starting this series until next year, as there are some other books I was trying to read first, but when I happened to pick up Twilight one night just to look at it, I ended up reading the whole first chapter. I must've subconsciously missed being in Washington or wanted a romance story because I just kept on reading from there.

I probably don't need to summarize this book since its popularity has led everyone to know at least the gist of the story.

It would be very easy to critique this novel and list out its flaws. I could go on about minor plot holes, about Bella and Edward's relationship seeming hasty and unfounded, about Bella being naïve and not seeing the danger in Edward, but I don't want to dwell on that. I enjoyed this book, purely for its entertainment value (hence the high rating), and I'm choosing to put aside its aforementioned flaws because I'm sure those have been critiqued enough already.

I want to mention a few things, though, that stood out to me:

Edward says and does a lot of things that could be construed as stalker-ish and manipulative, or in other words, emotionally abusive. I would've said that that's the case if I hadn't already read this book and seen the movies and know that he's actually a good guy, but he does tell Bella multiple times that he's dangerous, that he's the villain, that he's not good for her, and he follows her everywhere. I just feel like his character is portrayed concerningly wrong for who he actually is.

I know that a lot of people don't like Bella because she is so weak and dependent on Edward; people like the "strong female character" instead. But you couldn't have strong females without the weak ones. I actually find that I relate quite a bit to Bella, and I like her. She's klutzy and meek, but I'm the same way. However, I completely don't understand why she didn't tell Alice and Jasper about the phone call in the hotel room. (By the way, why did they not use cell phones except for at the most convenient time in the book? It would have made more sense if they had them from the beginning. They're in high school and don't have phones and I was just very confused by that.) Alice and Jasper could have helped Bella concoct a plan. And Bella says that's she's accepted that she won't see Edward again, but how is she okay with this? Earlier in the book, she said she lived for Edward. Anyway, I thought that this scene leading her to confront James alone was the only stupid thing Bella ever really did.

The scene in the ballet studio is the climax of the book, but somehow it felt anticlimactic. I think the movie did a much better job at interpreting it, with Edward having trouble stopping sucking Bella's blood out. That makes so much more sense since he has such a strong allure to her. But in the book, he has no problem stopping and there is no suspense of if she'll live or not.

And lastly, how did Charlie feed himself before Bella arrived? He's utterly hopeless at cooking.

I actually enjoyed Twilight this time around. I was sucked in to the story, something I didn't expect to happen, and the romance had me giddy. I will say, though, that the writing is rather elementary, not being distinctive of Meyer's style yet but still amateur. This is her debut, after all, so I do hope that it will improve over the course of the series, especially since I read The Host and felt her writing was much more developed there.

This review wasn't as objective as I hoped it would be, but my enjoyment of the book kind of overshadowed my desire to analyze every aspect of the story. I'm okay with that though.

Review: THE ICE HOUSE by Laura Lee Smith

Rating: 4/5 stars

Caution: For erudite audiences only.

That was seriously my first reaction to this book once I finished it. There are so many sesquipedalian words in this book that I had to read it with a dictionary on hand to look up new words every few pages. At first, I thought that the author is very intelligent and has a large lexicon, but when the book ended and I counted 91 words that I needed to define, I decided that Smith probably wrote this book with heavy assistance from a thesaurus. The "thesaurus writing" was severe for the first quarter of the book, but it mellowed out after that. Although, I still did really enjoy the writing style in this book and the fact that it challenged me intellectually with all the new words. The way she writes had me engrossed in the story. There were times where the story took a tangent for half a chapter, but I didn't even notice because the way she described the small town of Little Silver and the maintenance of the machines in the ice house had me enthralled and I was seriously interested in what was happening, even if it wasn't pertinent to the plot.

After having had to look up a lot of words, I realized that there were quite a few regional Scottish words, but there were also quite a few words specific to North American dialects. This led me to two conclusions: the American author is writing about a Scottish man and therefore attempts to include Scottish words to give credence to the story, but she still uses American-specific words because she is American; or, the Scottish man in the story has lived in America for many years and has picked up dialects from both countries and therefore the author uses words from both countries for his character. I am not sure which of these theories is true, if either, but it was just something that I noticed while reading.

At first, I didn't really want to read this book (I can't remember why I requested it in the first place), but once I reluctantly started I couldn't get enough. The author's style pulled me right in, as did the plot. Not to mention the unique setting. I've never read nor heard of another book that's set in an ice factory. And I actually learned a lot about that business while reading this novel. I think The Ice House was thoroughly researched, in mechanics, in medicine, and in the scenery. It felt real, like real people having real conversations, and that's something I loved about the book. You know far too often that characters fall flat and confabulations (to use a word from the book, meaning conversations) feel forced and stiff, but I didn't see that happening here. The characters, especially Johnny and Pauline, were fluid and they experienced trials and growth throughout the novel. And Chemal was my favourite character, of course.

The Ice House follows Johnny and Pauline, owners of an ice-manufacturing plant. The ice factory has just been served a lofty fine by OSHA for a recent accident that occurred in the building. Amidst trying to combat the possibility of the factory being permanently shut down, one of the protagonists experiences a sudden seizure, which leads to a potentially devastating diagnosis. While all this chaos is happening down in Florida, Johnny's estranged son, Corran, is up in Scotland experiencing some turmoil of his own. We read from multiple perspectives in this book, which I found to be an asset to the story; I loved the limited viewpoint each character offered and how the details in each person's life connected to create the satisfying revelations by the end of the book.

Ultimately, I don't think the book sounds overly interesting from an outside viewpoint, but the writing style had me hooked the whole way through, and I was actually quite absorbed in the plot. I became attached to these characters and I became emotional in their struggles. Every piece of this story is important and rich with detail as the narrative is woven together. Laura Lee Smith is an author that I will definitely keep on my radar because I would love to read more works by her after enjoying this one so much.

"I think most of us take for granted that the foundations of our life are solid."

By the way, I looked up Loch Linnhe in Scotland, where Corran lives, and look what I found. There's a ferry line that shares his name. This can't be a coincidence.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.