In Which I Suffer Through New Moon: Chapter 19 -- Race · 2:10pm Apr 7th, 2018

The first sentence of the chapter is this:

We made our flight with seconds to spare, and then the true torture began.

I object. This is a post-9/11 story. You do not get to your plane just in time. You have to wait to go through security, which can take a long time. And, yeah, they could’ve gone through security and just not mentioned it, but you know what? I’d’ve bought it if the sentence had begun with, “After getting held up in the check-in, we made our flight…” It’d at least acknowledge the wait. (I know I’m nitpicking, but I did a lot of flying a while back, and all the waiting was just the worst.)

So. On the plane, Alice explains the Volturi to Bella a bit more. Normally, vampires live alone, to the point that James’s coven was unusually large, even though it had only three people. After the Cullen clan, the Volturi are the biggest family of vampires in existence, with five vampires — Aro, Marcus, Caius, and two yet-unnamed females. But besides them, there’s also their guard: nine permanent ones, with others that are rotated in and out. They stay in Volterra and enforce the rules of vampire society. And if you think the rules of vampire society coming up for the first time only now is confusing, you’re with me. Technically, there’s only one rule: vampires keep themselves secret. Edward’s planning on breaking that one rule in the middle of their own city, a surefire way to bring down their wrath. In talking about this, Bella briefly says Edward’s name:

It was amazingly easy to say his name now. I wasn’t sure what the difference was. Maybe because I wasn’t really planning on living much longer without seeing him. Or at all, if we were too late. It was comforting to know that I would have an easy out.

CM + 1

“I doubt they’ve ever had a situation quite like this,” she muttered, disgusted. “You don’t get a lot of suicidal vampires.”

Is it just me, or is that attitude really disturbing? Her own brother is planning suicide, and Alice is like, “Well, that’s unusual.”

Later, Alice gets another vision; Edward’s contacted the Volturi, and they’re deliberating on what to do about him. Later still, another plot-convenient vision tells her that the Volturi decided not to kill Edward, so he’s going to aggravate them by walking into the sun. He’s going to commit suicide by cop via sparkling. Apparently, sparkling in the sunlight means everyone around him will know he’s a vampire, rather than a creepy guy with a glitter fetish. (Well, he is a creepy guy…) How do you connect those dots?

When they finally arrive in Florence, Alice steals a Porsche, the fastest car she could find on short notice. As they approach Volterra, Bella notices a festival being held. Rather coincidentally, it’s St. Marcus’s Day, celebrating a Christian missionary who drove the vampires from Volterra fifteen hundred years ago. Of course, “Father” Marcus was actually Marcus of the Volturi. Alice says he’s the source of superstitions like crosses and garlic repelling vampires, since he used them so effectively. Faking weaknesses? That’s clever. Straight-out-of-the-Evil-Overlord-List clever. Too bad we never hear anything about it again.

Alice gets one final vision: Edward’s going to step into the sun at noon, for maximum sun exposure and maximum sparklosity. Alice gives Bella some instructions: Edward will know if she’s coming, and if he hears Alice thinking about Bella’s survival, he’ll assume she’s lying and act more quickly. Bella needs to get to Edward so he can see her before he steps into the sun, and Alice can’t take her. Those instructions said, they finally arrive in Volterra.

Clinginess Meter: 64 x 4

You know a sign of bad pacing? When a chapter right before your climax is almost nothing but the characters traveling and exposition. It makes it easy to summarize, though. The only time extensive exposition during the climax is allowed is during mysteries, when the lack of information until the end is the point. And good mysteries will still keep the exposition down, anyway. Okay, there weren’t any vampires around, there was no way for Bella to learn this, but why dedicate an entire chapter to it? They’re racing to save Edward, the chapter should be fast. Instead, we get so much lecturing that Edward’s possible death doesn’t feel all that important. After all, if it was important, we’d get to it more quickly instead of spending so much time on all this talking and information-giving.

Fifteen pages of traveling and exposition. I hate this book.

Previous | Table of Contents | Next

Report Rambling Writer · 393 views · #new moon #whyyy #learning experience

Comments ( 4 )