New Moon: Unhealthy Coping to Breaking Up

Mumu digs into the unhealthy relationship of Twilight’s protagonists, as they continue to revisit the series as an adult!

TITLE: New Moon

AUTHOR: Stephanie Meyer

GENRE: Vampire Romance Dark Fiction

PAGES: 563

FORMAT: Paperback Book

PRICE: US $10.99/ CAN $11.99

Delving back into the Twilight Saga; the second book, New Moon, is all about unhealthy coping with breaking up with one’s partner. Don’t get me wrong; as a teenager, I loved these kinds of stories-protagonist and all. Now, reading this back as an adult, the way Bella and Edward’s relationship works-well, let’s just say it’s unhealthy at best. At worst, it’s an obsession from both parties.

At this point in the story, they have been together for about 1 high school year. Never separated, Edward even arranged his classes to be with hers. This also changes the dynamic for Bella and her friends; some left due to the circumstances of Bella acting crazy in the first book, and others learned to sit with Edward during lunch. All in all, pretty tame high school romance. There is a red flag of Edward and Bella moving their classes together, but at the same time, not too over the top. 

However, it became apparent that, after Edward broke up with Bella, how unhealthy she was attached to him. She acted like he died, the pain not numbing at anything. Edward isn’t dead, at least not physically (he’s a vampire, he’s undead, but that’s not the issue), he had to move away and wanted to cut contact with Bella to keep her safe. However, instead of talking to her about it, he just told her he didn’t love her anymore. Now, I don’t know about the rest of the readers here, but one person saying ‘I don’t love you anymore’ to a hormone-filled female teenager obsessed with being with that particular person; he should have been aware she would act irrationally. He’s older than her; been around for 107 years give or take. Has he learned nothing by forever being in high school?!

Bella ends up doing extreme things, for she realized that when she did something highly dangerous, she could hear Edward’s voice in the back of her mind. She has ridden motorbikes without a helmet; nearly got killed by a vampire; even went cliff diving by herself. BY HERSELF. She was doing everything to get close to death, so she could hear Edward’s voice. Let me repeat that: she was doing every single thing, in her power, to get close to death for one reason. So she could hear Edward’s voice. 

Thank goodness, her best childhood friend, Jacob Black, showed up to rescue her. He shows up for her a lot during this time; to the point where she considered moving on from Edward and being with Jacob. It’s a good choice, a more relationship-healthy choice, in my opinion. That all turns around when Alice comes to see if Bella is OK; she can see the future and saw Bella dying from cliff diving. 

Now, the story switches from checking on Bella to saving Edward. Alice confided in another of her family, and that family member told Edward that Bella was dead. Which made him go to the extremes of ending his own existence to be with her. He was unhealthily obsessed with her, just as Bella was unhealthily obsessed with him. As a teenager, I always thought it was romantic- to want to die for one’s love. As an adult, my loved ones would want me to live on without them; that even though I would put my life on the line for them, they would do the same for me. That’s not this story. Edward broke up with Bella, hurting her heart; she goes crazy, and nearly dies to hear his voice; now she has a choice to save him from killing himself because he thinks she’s dead.

Bella didn’t have to choose Edward. She could have chosen Jacob. Instead, she went to save Edward. I guess I can understand; obsession is like a drug, one taste and Bella is hooked. Apparently, the same goes for Edward, too. 

It’s shown, time and again, how unhealthily attached they are to one another, going so far as to want to die to be with them, even when neither of them is dead. In truth, I blame Edward for most of this. Many events wouldn’t have transpired if he didn’t tell her that he didn’t love her anymore. He should have been more honest with her from the start. Then again, Bella is an 18-year-old teenager who has raging hormones-maybe it’s a combination of the two things. Regardless, this relationship was never healthy, not even from the start.

Mumu the Tricked loves to read and write. It’s easier to sit still and work with their eyes and hands than move around some days. They are hoping to become a successful author and book reviews are quite fun, too. Thank you!

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.