When a male confesses to not hating Twilight, of course he receives an intervention. A buddy of mine gave me some very good arguments for why I should hate Twilight, and I don't disagree with him. In fact, I'm having a very hard time justifying why I didn't blatantly hate the book. It has everything I should not like, and yet I didn't hate it... I'm told Anne Rice told the same story with much more maturity and insight, minus the angsty teenage romance, preserving vampires as a genuine, monstrous threat, and yet I didn't hate the book. I realize the main character is pathetically passive and helpless, Edward loves her for no good reason, Bella is stupid and useless to the point of being unlikable, and yet I didn't hate the book! In fact, I liked New Moon better than Twilight. 
 If Twilight was all about finding a boyfriend and being head over heels in love with him, New Moon is all about how girls handle breaking up with their boyfriends. Every action has an equal but opposite reaction, and as giddy as Bella was about having a loyal, loving vampire boyfriend, she is just as broken up when he leaves her. His reason is almost noble: just him being there puts her in harm's way, so to keep her safe, he leaves Forks. He never asks her if she's willing to live with the danger; he just makes up his mind anyway. Stupid and melodramatic, but I can see how Edward might need a break from rescuing Bella from herself all the time. 
 Bella becomes paralyzed with grief from the breakup. She pines away for four whole months, becoming a zombie, unable to handle the reality that her beloved Edward, who didn't love her for any reason other than her blood scent made him love her, is gone. 
 This is pathetic. Really, it is. She doesn't even try to see Edward's point. Instead, she simply folds into herself and broods for four whole months. I honestly don't believe his absence justifies such a huge reaction. Again, Edward's only motivation for loving Bella was her scent. Bella's only motivation for loving Edward was the fact that he is interested in her, he's beautiful--in short, because he loves Bella for no good reason! 
 In Twilight I was willing to believe that she was beguiled by his vampire charm and under his spell and that's why she still yearns for him. The book implies that's how vampires lure their prey, so that must be what Bella is going through. Twilight hinted at this, but in New Moon it seems clear that... this is just who she is. I think if the book established this is why she's so obsessed with Edward, she'd be a hell of a lot more likable, but that's reaching. It's who Bella is. No vampire charm needed. 
 So she pines away, and then she starts hearing Edward's voice in her memory whenever she does something reckless and dangerous. She decides to start riding a motorcycle just to be reckless so she can hear Edward's voice again. She finds a couple old motorcycles on the side of the road, and remembers there's one person who can rebuild them: Jacob. 
 Ah, Jacob. He's the reason I enjoyed reading New Moon! He's the reason I read the entire middle-third of the book with a glimmer of hope in my heart for Bella! 
 Bella spends time with Jacob while he rebuilds the motorcycles for her. They share experiences, they do things together, Bella even laughs! They share a running joke between one another, and it's cute! I mean it, it made me smile! Jacob and Bella build a real relationship! Bella actually becomes a happy person! 
 This is way more than she had with Edward! Much, much more! There's actually a reason for Jacob to be interested in Bella, she actually has a reason to be interested in him! She's not as klutzy all of a sudden, she's laughing and enjoying herself! Instead of comparing herself to the perfect vampire and feeling horribly inadequate, she's on equal terms with Jacob, and it suits her a hell of a lot better! 
 Granted she's there for a very selfish, emo, illogical purpose, but it morphs into something beneficial, which is interesting and good! I wondered if Bella could be on the way to redeeming herself. 
 But nope. She's afraid to let go of the pain of losing Edward, probably because she's afraid to be happy without him. She's afraid to move on with someone else, like she should. She takes the wonderful relationship she builds with Jacob and throws it back in his face. 
 He actually asks her for a relationship. Not sex. A relationship, a commitment! Bella responds by leading him on, then pushing him away, then pulling him close because she "needs him," but she doesn't want to commit to him. Bella wants to use Jacob for emotional support, but she refuses to give him anything back, and it's not even sex he's after! The girl wants all the benefits of emotional support, but doesn't want to commit to him, and it's the guy who wants the serious relationship, not the girl. Is that bad writing or clever role reversal? 
 And I'm sure everyone knows Jacob is a werewolf, so there's no spoiler in giving that away. Why is Bella upset at Jacob for pushing her away after he first changes when she pushed him away first? 
 So then it comes out that a vampire named Victoria is hunting Bella, and the pack of werewolves have been the only thing keeping her safe. She is recruited to help lure the vampire close so the wolves can kill Victoria. 
 I love these werewolves... all big teenage boys bursting with muscles walking out of the woods bare-chested. Funny, and oh yeah I can understand why people hate these books. It's just so wrong to take terrifying creatures of the night and turn them into hot boys who are fighting over the ugly girl who doesn't deserve it. 
 But... men have been reimagining monsters into the image of beautiful women for male fantasy fulfillment for generations. Well, this book takes monsters and reimagines them into beautiful men for female eye candy. Again, payback hurts, don't it boys? 
 The solution to their problem should be simple: set Bella in a distant field, have the pack wait in the shadows for the vampire, and kill the bloodsucker as soon as she makes a move for Bella! It should be that easy, but the werewolves don't do this. They keep hunting for her while Bella goes about normal life, visiting the La Push reservation a little more frequently. They don't let Bella help, like Jacob proposed. I don't understand why they wouldn't. It would end the hunt a lot quicker. 
 So instead the werewolves hunt Victoria the hard way, keeping what she wants deep behind their lines. Even as these werewolves risk their lives to hunt the vampire that's stalking Bella, our protagonist broods over the loss of her boyfriend. Bella can't stand to be around Sam and Emily, two lovers on the reservation. Every time she's around them she's only reminded of what she and Edward once had and has to get away from them. First thought is: Bella, it's been months, get over it, Edward never really loved you, you never really had anything with him, the relationship you've built with Jacob is ten times stronger so stop teasing him and commit to a relationship damn it! 
 This seems very childish and wimpy but... from what my mother told me, it's like this. Girls handle the loss of a lover much differently than boys do. She hated being around older, happily married couples because all she could feel was the loss of her happy marriage. Whenever the pastor started preaching about things like unconditional love and marital commitment, she left the church to cry. 
 As stupid and illogical as her behavior is--and that we can't explain it away as being under the spell of a vampire--it's not supposed to be logical. Logic is not involved; emotions are running in high gear. Correct me if I'm generalizing, but isn't this how little girls think? 
 To drive that point home, while the werewolves are patrolling for Victoria, Bella decides to jump off a cliff into the ocean just to hear Edward's voice in her mind again. Bella, Bella, Bella... Jacob and Edward really are too good for you. 
 She is a very frustrating main character. She is pathetic, she is useless, she is helpless, but the reason I can read this and not hate it is because as insufferable as Bella is, being in such intimate touch with her thoughts characterizes her very well. It enables me to roll with her unjustified angst. She's still unlikable and I hate her intellectually, but thanks to the narration I believe that she believes what she does makes perfect sense. It's a bit like reading a book from the point of view of the villain. You might hate the person and what he does, but because you know what he's thinking, you believe in what he believes. Reading about Bella is like that. Even though I hate her, I accept her as a flighty, emotionally unstable, needy, teenage girl. 
 It's for the same reason I can't hate Al Bundy, or Homer Simpson, or Hyacinth Bucket. Outside the context of the sitcom, these are unlikable people! They are annoying, stupid, pathetic, insane losers--so much that we shouldn't like them, and yet we can't help but care what happens to them! I enjoyed reading Twilight and New Moon because I don't like the main character. 
 Honestly I am curious about this world of vampires and werewolves Twilight sets up, and that's why I'm reading. Edward's history is interesting. Dr. Cullen's history is interesting. His goal is admirable and I enjoy those sections of the story. The werewolves are also interesting--I would love to know more about this mental connection the pack shares, and just what kind of influence the alpha has on them. That's a really cool idea, but Bella is in the way of the story! I know she is and I should resent seeing this hidden world through her eyes, but I don't because Bella's pathetic brooding and self-destruction is fascinating, too, but for all the wrong reasons. 
 The conclusion of the book is disappointing. Ripping off Romeo and Juliet? Really? Is that the best the book could do? 
 It is interesting to find out Bella is immune to other vampires' talents as well, but her incessant whining about how she wants to become a vampire with Edward is irritating. To be fair, Edward doesn't make a good argument for why he wants her to stay human, but their relationship is built on such a weak foundation compared to what Bella had with Jacob I can't understand why she is so hellbent on it. 
 Of course, Bella wants it both ways. She wants Jacob as a friend and Edward as a lover, and she doesn't see why this could be a little unfair to both of them. 
 So far the series totally fails in its most important point: Edward and Bella are in love. I don't believe it. Jacob and Bella built a much stronger relationship in New Moon. Jacob brings out the best in her: humor, energy, life, sunshine! When Bella is with Edward, all she does is whine about wanting to be a vampire with him. She seems to make Edward more angry and frustrated than happy. Their love is not convincing. Meanwhile, with Jacob, they were both laughing and happy and sharing experiences together! To anyone else, it's a no-brainer what she should do, but not to Bella, and watching her make the wrong choices again and again is oddly addictive. 
 This series is so weak choosing to focus on the teenage angst and not the werewolves and vampires. The whole concept would be much better if Bella were like this because she is under a vampire's charm! Everything in the story would work--her angst, her brooding, her pining away, her helplessness--EVERYTHING would make sense and it would portray her as a sympathetic character destroying herself over this Edward! 
 But it's not. Bella really is an angsty teenager obsessed with a boy for no good reason. She's her own worst enemy, and this is fascinating to watch in another way altogether. It's the wrong reason not to hate a book, but it's the truth.