Brought to you by OBS Staff member Krystal

Book Two: Twilight Saga

Summary
It’s nearing Bella Swan’s 18th birthday and her devoted boyfriend, Edward Cullen and his family, decide they want nothing more than to throw her an extravagate party to celebrate. All is well in Bella’s life, she has a man she loves and his family accepts her despite the fact that they are vampires and she a human.

Happiness can’t last forever though, for a single drop of blood while unwrapping a gift, causes Bella’s life to be put in danger. In order to protect the one he loves, Edward has to leave the woman he loves, leaving Bella heartbroken and depressed.

Months pass as Bella passes the day in zombie-like behavior, but when she finds out that thrill-seeking activities, such as motorcycle riding, allow her to “be with” Edward, she doesn’t hesitate. Comforting her through all this time is her best friend, Jacob Black, but even that happiness can’t last forever. As Jacob grows farther from her with his secrets and Bella tries desperately to cling to some small happiness, Bella’s world turns upside down when Alice brings news of Edward.

Review
I have to admit straight away that my opinion here is going to be bias. My favorite books of the Twilight Saga are by far New Moon and Eclipse. Why you ask? There’s hardly any Edward in New Moon, how could you like it more than Twilight? Well it’s pretty simple in my mind… action.

When Stephenie brought us Twilight we were blown away by the realism of the world in which vampires existed. Most of us women saw a little of ourselves in Bella as we saw the world through her eyes. So what did New moon do differently?

Well for starters Stephenie decided it was time for a little conflict in her books. Right away we have the conflict of interest… should Edward stay with Bella and risk her safety or should he leave. Stephenie opted for some depressing, albeit needed, alone time for Bella. The worlds not all bad though. A character, which originally was intended to be only minor, blew us away as Bella’s devoted puppy dog; in more than one way.

So why do I love New Moon over Twilight? Could it be just Jacob’s presence? Maybe, but I think what ultimately made this book good was the love triangle between Edward, Jacob and Bella. By the end of this book she has to make the choice between the boy she’s known since childhood and the man who made her soul burn bright. In my opinion Bella’s choices in Twilight came so easy… her only hurtle was finding out what Edward was and then things were mostly ok, minus some vampire stalking action. In New Moon everything is action and conflict. From the birthday party all the way to Edward’s rescue in Italy, everything in Bella’s life is dark, tense, and on unsteady ground. This left me with some page turning madness as I tried to read another page before my train stopped in San Francisco.

Overall, one of the best books in the series. So read it if you haven’t.

Also look out for the movie reviews by our staff and other fans here.

This week’s poll is centered around the New Moon! Last Thursday night was the midnight premiere and I’m sure 90% of Twihards were there to see it, if not you have seen it since. So OBS wants to know what you thought of the movie, did it live up to your expectations, was it better than Twilight, so please vote and let us know!

“What did you think of New Moon”?

• GREAT! Better than Twilight
• Not as good as I thought
• Liked it for the most part
• Twilight was better
• Needed more Edward
• Less Edward, more Jake
• Could of been better
• I don’t really care either way

You can VOTE right here on the News Blog, just look to your right >> and under “POLLS” is the question along with the answers, just click one and view the results!!

If you would like to discuss this more, and give your reasons why you choose who you did, please come join the fun debate on the OBS Forums.

Also check back with OBS every Wednesday, and get to answer the “Poll of Week”!!

Wanna voice more about New Moon, give your personal review of the movie? Do you have any opinions about the directing, acting, effects, etc? Well OBS Forums has a special section for you to do all those things and more! You can check it out HERE

All month long OBS has been giving you nothing but New Moon, we have made all of our original features surround New Moon the book, movie, and actors! So this is the 3rd part of our Top 5/10 ‘New Moon’ Edition! This week’s edition includes, the top 10 quotes from the novel of ‘New Moon’. Which hopefully we will hear the on-screen Bella, Edward, Jacob, Alice, etc speak these infamous words.

Also, with this movie coming out, there has been a tremendous amount of merchandise from Summitt, like all the t-shirts, necklaces, key chains, posters, etc. Well we have put together a top 10 list of our favorite ‘New Moon’ inspired jewelry made by fans, these costume pieces can be bought from the sellers site provided!

Lastly, we have a top 10 list of Romeo & Juliet quotes that coincide with ‘new Moon’. Bella made several references to the tragedy that Shakespeare wrote, so we wanted to point out many of the obvious quotes in the play that can fit into the tone of ‘New Moon’.

Top New Moon Quotes – Amanda

“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.” (Bella, pg. 10)

“Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm – into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires.” (Bella, pg. 29)

“Time Passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.” (Bella, pg. 93)

“You can have my soul. I don’t want it without you – it’s yours already!” (Bella, pg. 69)

“I bet she’s tougher than that. She runs with vampires.” (Embry, pg. 329)

“I don’t know if she’s going to get over it – I’m not sure if it’s in her nature to heal from something like this. She’s always been such a constant little thing. She doesn’t get past things, change her mind.” (Charlie, pg. 398)

“How strongly are you opposed to grand theft auto?” (Alice, pg. 439)

“I think she’s having hysterics. Maybe you should slap her.” (Alice, pg. 486)

“It doesn’t count until she’s conscious, Rose.” (Emmett, pg. 498)

“Bella, I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist.” (Edward, pg. 509)

“How can I put this so that you’ll believe me? You’re not asleep, and you’re not dead. I’m here, and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away. When I told you that I didn’t want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy.” (Edward, pg. 510)

“Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars – points of light and reason. …And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything.” (Edward, pg. 514)

“Your hold is permanent and unbreakable,” he whispered. “Never doubt that.” (Edward, pg. 524)

Top 10 Fan-Made ‘New Moon’ Jewerly 

So your a major Twilight fan? Tell me about it. When looking for the perfect thing to show your love for the Twilight Series, you probably go to all the merch hot spots, Hot Topic, Barnes and Nobles, Walmart, ect. I bet you didn’t know that you can find some of the best jewelry online. Weather your a undercover Twi fan or a full blown out there fan there is something out there to suit your addiction. A lot of these pieces have a quaint little charm to it. Not everything here is super flashy and screams Twilight, most things are nice classy. Here are some of my favorite pieces.

Top 10 Quotes from Romeo & Juliet that can apply to ‘New Moon’

1. Act II, Scene I: “O blessed blessed night! I am afear’d Being in night, all this is but a dream Too flatt’ring sweet to be substantial”

Bella not believing Edward, “I knew I was dreaming” (510)
 
2. Act 1, Scene 4:“I fear too early, for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revel’s, and expire the term…By some vile forfeit of untimely death”

Alice, as she and Bella drive to Volterra.
 
3. Act 1, Scene 2: “One fire burns out another’s burning”

Edward to Bella, “Don’t’ worry. You’re human-your memory is no more than a sieve. Time heals all wounds for your kind” (71-72)
 
4. Act 1, Scene 2: “When devout religion of mine eye maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires, And those who, often drown’d, could never die, Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars”

Edward at the end “When I told you that I didn’t want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy” (510).
 
5. Act 5, Scene 1: “Ah me! How sweet is love itself possess’d, when but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!”

When Bella realizes she enjoys seeing the hallucinations.
 
6. Act 1, Scene 4: “Patience perforce with willful choler meeting Makes my flesh tremble in their difference greeting. I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall”

Jacob, when Alice arrives.

7. Act 1, Scene 4:“I am too sore enpierced with his shaft To soar with his light feathers, and so bound I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe. Under love’s heavy burden do I sink”

Bella, full of holes.

8. Act 2, Scene VI: “Then love-devouring death do what he dare,-It is enough that I may but call her mine”

Edward to Jacob, at the end.
 
9. Act 2, Scene 1: “My true-love passion…Therefore pardon me, And not impute this yielding to light love, Which the dark night hath so discovered.”

Edward: “Before you Bella, my life was like a moonless night..” (514) 

10. Prologue: “Two households, both alike in dignity…from ancient grudge break to new mutiny”

Quileutes and the Cullens

What did you think of our lists? Did we miss some good New Moon quotes? How about New Moon Jewelry, do own some yourself? Do you see the similar situations in Romeo & Juliet and New Moon?

This week’s poll is centered around the New Moon soundtrack! I picked few of the bigger songs from the list, and we want to know which of them is your favorite? Have you already learned all the words to that song, memorized the video, etc. ?

“Which is your favorite song from the New Moon soundtrack?”

• Meet Me On The Equinox – Death Cab For Cutie
• Satellite Heart – Anya Marina
• I Belong To You [New Moon Remix] – Muse
• A White Demon Love Song – The Killers
• Slow Life [with Victoria Legrand] – Grizzly Bears
• Friends – Band Of Skulls
• NONE – Like Twilight soundtrack better!

I voted for ‘NONE’ and please don’t kill me!! Well first off all, I’m not too familiar with the soundtrack yet and it’s hard for me to pick one, because I need to hear it up against the scenes in the movie. Also, I think Twilight’s soundtrack was esqusite, all the songs made perfect sense, and were beautiful to the movie and mood.

You can VOTE right here on the News Blog, just look to your right >> and under “POLLS” is the question along with the answers, just click one and view the results!!

If you would like to discuss this more, and give your reasons why you choose who you did, please come join the fun debate on the OBS Forums.

Also check back with OBS every Wednesday, and get to answer the “Poll of Week”!!

This is a special edition of ‘Poll of the Week’, each Wednesday of November we will have a poll that has to do with New Moon. So check back every week to answer our ‘New Moon November’ question   

What are you doing to get ready for New Moon? I’m re-reading the series, but that always brings up questions. So I figured I can’t be the only one. So here are a few little known facts about New Moon.

BOOK

New Moon was not the original sequel. The original, called Forever Dawn, skipped to time now covered by Breaking Dawn. When Twilight was published, Stephenie Meyer realized she needed to go back and cover Bella’s high school experience and how she got to where she was.

New Moon is the only cover without meaning. Stephenie had no input on this cover like she did with the other three.

Stephenie Meyer has said that she loosely based some of the action in her books on classic: Twilight had the feel of Pride and Prejudice, Eclipse like Wuthering Heights, and Breaking Dawn like Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. New Moon felt like Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Islode, because she wanted to address what happened when the love of your life, the person you are meant to be with, leaves you.

Stephenie Meyer on Bella’s pain in New Moon: “So where does Bella’s pain come from?  It comes from her.  Even if I had experienced the loss of a true love, I know that my reaction would not have been like Bella’s.  She is a much less cynical person, much more open—to both pain and joy.  When writing New Moon, at first I didn’t know how she would respond to having her true love taken from her.  I was honestly surprised by the way she chose to cope with it.”

Stephenie Meyer’s favorite line in New Moon is:  “I was like a lost moon—my planet destroyed in some cataclysmic, disaster-movie scenario of desolation—that continued, nevertheless, to circle in a tight little orbit around the empty space left behind, ignoring the laws of gravity” (pg. 201, American Paperback version).

All the new Werewolves in New Moon got their names from people Stephenie knows. Jacob and Paul are her brothers, Seth is her son, and she has sisters named Heidi and Emily.

Stehenie Meyer did not know about the real city of Volterra when writing the book. She had the idea for the clocktower scene in her head (it was the first scene she write) and made up a name for the town. When she looked at a map of Italy where she wanted her city to be placed, she found a city named Volterra, which was close to the name she made up. It got even creepier when she looked at pictures and found a clocktower.

During the vote on Bella’s mortality (pg 535), Edward walks into the other room and there’s a crash. It was Edward breaking the 60 inch plasma TV.

Thanks to Twilight Lexicon and stepheniemeyer.com for help!

MOVIE

Unlike Twilight, New Moon was shot in Vancouver, Canada. This as to avoid over-crowding at the set (even though fans found them anyway) and because shooting in Canada is cheaper.

Real wolves were used in some scenes of New Moon, though I’m not going to tell you which.

The werewolves tattoo was designed to give a visual sense of being bound together. Chris Weitz also developed a crest for the Volturi since the Cullen’s had their crest.

When they were casting the wolf pack, Chris Weitz insisted that they hire real Native American actors. They had to provide proof of their heritage.

What do you think? Did that answer some questions, or did you know everything already?

So put your thinking caps on and come up with the amount you think ‘New Moon’ can pull out this weekend at the box office, this is just considering from the Midnight premiere to Sunday’s last show. So Monday is when we find out the exact amount and then we will announce a winner of this contest!