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Surprise, surprise! I’m still reading Stephanie Meyer‘s work despite my incessant complaints about her Twilight. New Moon is in the Boy-Loses-Girl stage of the classic formula for love stories. Taking advantage of Edward’s sudden disappearance, in comes best friend Jacob Black, who hides another supernatural secret of his own. Well, the title of the book already tells you what that secret is…

Yes, the theme of the series is still highly juvenile (think “High School Musical: Vampire Edition”) and there still isn’t a lot of action, but it’s a vast improvement from Twilight.

Here’s the thing: Jacob is surprisingly warm — both in the literal and figurative sense. He is the complete opposite of Edward, who is jaded, hard and cold as marble. “Jake” is a mass of contradictions and highly unpredictable — reckless, passionate, explosive. I actually found myself getting highly intrigued. Until Meyer just up and shifted the story back to Edward at the last minute. Not that I’m totally against having Edward back. I just wanted to see more of Jacob. The way Meyer created his personality, one would’ve thought he was meant for bigger things.

I’m also not about to argue over who’s better because as far as I’m concerned, Edward and Jacob have their own sets of adorable flaws. It’s Bella Swan, the protagonist, I’m getting sick of. She’s just too…shoujo-esque. Think Usagi Tsukino (of Sailormoon) and Miaka Yuki (of Fushigi Yuugi). Still very Mary Sue.

I suppose I’ll have to forgive Meyer because it looks like she meant for New Moon to introduce Jacob Black. We’ll see more of him in Eclipse. We also get to know the Volturi, the powerful vampiric royal family that were mentioned briefly in the first book.

As for my major peeve…

Frustratingly enough, Meyer still insists on coming up with antagonists that aren’t really there. Victoria, for instance, who’s supposed to avenge her lover James (killed in Twilight), is just mentioned so many times without her actually appearing. I want confrontation, woman! Give it!

Rating: 7/10