More Confessions of a 31-Year-Old Male "Twilight" Addict

by Stephenie Meyer
-Twilight Series, Book 2-
(New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006)
Hardcover, 600 Pages, Young Adult Fiction

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.
- Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene vi, Lines 9-11

So, I thought it was all just a phase I was going through. That I really wasn't as into the (non-)lives of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen as I thought I was. I thought it was all over. I was wrong. I still can't believe just how into these books I really am. I am in constant denial. The books don't leave the house (I would never dare admit on campus that I read these books, let alone let someone see me reading them). I pretend I don't know what the seventh- and eighth-grade girls I work with are talking about when they debate the merits of Edward v. Jacob like it was the latest verdict handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, for some stupid reason, I can't stop reading these books.

I was up until 1:00 a.m. reading New Moon, trying to finish it, before I had to finally succumb to sleep. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was grab the book to finish before my wife and son woke up, so I could read without interruption. Is that bad? Are these the actions of an addict? Swap New Moon for meth or heroin and the essential thoughts behind the preceding sentences remains the same. "My name is Bryan Terry, I'm a 31-year-old male and I'm a Twilight addict. It's been twelve hours since I last read something by Stephenie Meyer..."

So, what did I think of New Moon? In my defense, it is not as compelling as Twilight was. (You can read all the sordid details in my review of that particular rock of literary crack here.) The first 100 pages or so drag on and on, but once Jacob Black and the other Quileute Indians enter the story things pick up a lot. From there the story takes off with the same compelling characters and simple plotting that was seen in Twilight but Meyer's writing has gotten better from Book One to Book Two. I can only imagine that it is much better in Book Three. This is the same thing that is seen in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. The writing starts out very simplistic in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and progresses to being very mature in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But it is still Meyer's characters that drive the story (and reader) to the last pages and beyond. I think that this is what makes these novels so addictive: the characters. Even though the plot is somewhat basic and almost formulaic, you read because you are fully-vested in who these people are and how they interact.

Also, in New Moon is where we get the beginnings of the soul-crushingly important and teen-girl obsession of Edward v. Jacob for the heart of Bella. I hate to admit that I am far more invested in this love triangle then I reasonably should be. (As mentioned on my blog.) Jacob is far too hot-headed and dangerous to be worthy of Bella. Edward, on the other hand, has much more self-control and a better sense of Bella's well-being than Jacob. Jacob thinks he knows what is best for Bella but he is too easily swayed by his "friends" to know for sure what is best for Bella. That's why I think that Edward is the best choice for Bella. And that is too honest and candid and embarrassing a confession than should be aired in public, but there you go.

These books really are horribly addictive. "Literary Crack," as I said in my review of Twilight. Also, New Moon introduces some very compelling new characters that were only hinted at in Twilight: a coven of ancient vampires in Italy known as the Volturi. I can only hope that we see more of the Volturi in Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Tomorrow I'll be returning New Moon to the teacher I work with and beg her to borrow her copy of Eclipse because, as was the case in reading Twilight, the teaser chapter for Eclipse contained at the end of New Moon has just whetted my appetite for more. I don't know what I'm going to do when I finish Eclipse and have to wait for Breaking Dawn to be released in Fall 2008. Sigh... I really need help...