If Stephanie Meyer's first book about the love-life of a teenage would-be vampire is about the struggle of beginning an unlikely relationship, then the second is about the pain of losing it.
In New Moon Meyer centres the plot on the angst of teenage break-up. The international best-seller Twilight introduced readers to Bella Swan, a teenage girl who has the fortune to fall in love with the most attractive boy in school, only to discover that Edward Cullen is a vampire. The book concludes with Bella's first foray into the shadowy world which Edward inhabits almost resulting in her brutal death. In New Moon Edward quickly comes to the conclusion that though he loves Bella desperately, he cannot keep her safe and so must leave town forever.
The emotional pain that Bella suffers is clearly a reflection of that suffered by every teenage girl " or boy, for that matter " who has been left by the person they considered their perfect partner. However since Edward and Bella were obviously made for each other, that pain is allowed to cast the book's central character into the most prolonged depression, and ultimately result in reckless behaviour that borders on the suicidal. It is unclear whether or not Meyer thinks her character's reaction to her abandonment is regrettable, or she simply realistic. Whatever the case, it serves for an unhealthy example for emotionally distraught teens.
One of the more helpful elements to enter into the narrative is the entrance of Jacob Black, a childhood friend, who provides significant emotional support for beleaguered Bella. Jacob has his own problems " not the least being his discovery that he is a werewolf " but by far and away the greatest is the confusion surrounding his own relationship with Bella. I think Meyer does teenagers a service by highlighting the problem Bella creates by deciding to make a "best friend' of a boy roughly her own age. She may be able to keep her romantic life focused on her absent vampire, but Jacob is not similarly afflicted. Or rather, Jacob is afflicted, but by the "just friends' mentality that is naïve at best, selfish at worst. After all, what else would you call a relationship that asks for total access to a person, but requires only limited commitment?
Once again Meyer's books deal with some heady theological issues that every teenager should grapple with " though the author seems determined to stay on the sideline when it comes to answers. Edward, the immortal vampire who fights to abstain from drinking human blood, wonders whether he is numbered amongst the damned. His stepfather, Carlisle Cullen, argues for the essential goodness of his soul:
"Edward's with me up to a point. God and heaven exist " and so does hell. But he doesn't believe there is an afterlife for our kind " [However] I look at my son. His strength, his goodness, the brightness that shines out of him " and it only fuels that hope, that faith, more than ever. How could there not be more for one such as Edward?"
It's an argument that is as old as the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9f). How could God be anything but happy with such a good person? However it is a perspective that can only exist so long as the characters compare themselves against the standards set by the worst creatures of the vampire world, and not the perfection that God requires.
The truth is that the key character of New Moon, Bella, places very little value on her soul. She even tells Edward that she would be happy to lose it if it means remaining with him. The here and now are where she is convinced she will find her greatest happiness. In that respect she is a fair representation of generation, and a strong rebuke to the Christian community. How could the good news of Jesus' payment for sins really matter to a world that has not been adequately warned about the judgement to come?
