New Moon (novel)

On Bella Swan's eighteenth birthday, Edward Cullen, the vampire she loves, and his family host her a birthday party at their residence. While unwrapping a gift, Bella receives a paper cut. Edward's adopted brother, Jasper, is overwhelmed by the scent of her blood and attempts to attack her. Trying to protect her, Edward and the Cullens move away from Forks, but in an attempt to encourage Bella to move on, Edward tells her it is because he no longer loves her. With Edward's departure, Bella suffers severe memory loss and depression for several months.

In the months that follow, Bella learns that thrill-seeking activities, such as motorcycle riding and cliff-diving, allow her to "hear" Edward's voice in her head through her subconscious mind. She also seeks comfort in her deepening friendship with Jacob Black, a cheerful companion who eases her pain over losing Edward. Sometime after losing Edward, Bella starts to enjoy Jacob's company and friendship. After spending some time with Bella, Jacob starts experiencing some unexpected and drastic changes in his mood swings, body, and personality. As Jacob undergoes a very long, painful, and life-altering transformation, Bella and Charlie become concerned. A few weeks later, Bella notes that Jacob isn't as happy-go-lucky as he once was. She isn't so comfortable with Jacob's recent changes, and shortly thereafter, she discovers that Jacob has unwillingly become a werewolf and that there are other tribe members who are werewolves too. Jacob and his pack protect Bella from the vampire, Laurent, who was a part of James' coven, and also Victoria, who seeks revenge for her dead mate, James, whom the Cullens had killed in the previous installment. Jacob starts developing physical emotions towards Bella, but she doesn't feel the same after experiencing a life-changing breakup with Edward. This makes him horribly sad and envious of Edward. Jacob then saves Bella from drowning after jumping off a cliff and almost kisses her in the events following.

Meanwhile, a series of miscommunications leads Edward to believe that Bella has committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. Distraught over her suspected suicide, Edward flees to Volterra, Italy to provoke the Volturi, vampire royalty who are capable of killing him, though they refuse, deeming his mind-reading ability to be too valuable. In contrast to Edward's rash reaction to the news of Bella's death, Alice Cullen cleverly makes a surprise visit to Bella's house, which overwhelms Bella. Bella asks a series of questions, and Alice tells her that she saw Bella trying to kill herself. As Alice's visions about Edward change rapidly, Alice and Bella are unable to clearly understand whether Edward is or will be safe. They rush to Italy to prevent Edward from revealing himself to humans so the Volturi are forced to kill him, arriving just in time to stop him. Before leaving Italy, the Volturi tell Edward that Bella, a human who knows that vampires exist, must either be killed or transformed into a vampire to protect the secret. When they return to Forks, Edward tells Bella that he has always loved her and only left Forks to protect her. She forgives him, and the Cullens vote in favor of Bella being transformed into a vampire, to Rosalie and Edward's dismay. However, Jacob sternly reminds Edward about an important part of their treaty: if the Cullens bite a human for any reason, the treaty is over and the wolves will attack. When Bella reminds him that it's none of his concern as being a vampire is what she wants, Jacob reveals it is his business as she doesn't understand what's going to be at stake for her and the Cullens. Before he can continue warning her, they hear an angry Charlie asking Bella to get inside the house at once. Jacob apologizes to Bella once more before leaving, and the story concludes with Charlie grounding Bella for running off to Italy.

• Bella never confronted Sam in his werewolf form in the novel, but rather in his human form, which Emily later explains everything to her. The film, has her confronting him in his wolf form.
• Unlike in the film where Charlie grounds Bella after she runs off to Italy, Charlie grounds her after he sees her with Edward at their house in the novel's conclusion.
• In the novel's end, Edward never proposed to Bella, but rather walked her in the house to explain everything to Charlie. The film omits this.
• In the novel, Edward doesn't try to stop Jane when she attempted to her abilities on Bella and failed. In the film, he does and gets hurt mentally.

After Meyer finished writing Twilight, she found herself writing multiple, hundred-page epilogues, and has said, "I quickly realized I wasn't ready to stop writing about Bella and Edward."[13] She began writing a sequel, which was entitled Forever Dawn and skipped over Bella's final year of high school.[14] While Meyer was still writing Forever Dawn, she learned that Twilight was going to be published and marketed as a young-adult novel.[14] Wanting the next book to be aimed at a similar audience, she decided to write a new sequel, New Moon, which took place during Bella's senior year of high school.[14] Therefore, Meyer started writing the outline of the book and thinking of what her characters would do, and claims that she "swiftly regretted asking them for the story." She didn't like the idea of Edward leaving at first and tried to think of other plot options, but, in the end, she said that "she accepted the inevitability of it."[14]

Meyer wrote New Moon in five months. She found the editing process "much longer and more difficult than the same process with Twilight." Also, unlike Twilight, which Meyer intended not to publish at first, she recognized that New Moon was going to be published and had what she described as a "horrible feeling much like stage fright" while writing. However, Meyer considers Jacob to be her favorite gift the book gave, as she liked the character a lot and wanted to expand his role and presence.[14]

The confrontation with the Volturi in the clock tower at the end of the book was the first scene Meyer wrote. She did not want to use a real city as the location for the Volturi's residence, as she did with Forks.[15] She decided to name her city "Volturin"[16] and chose a location in Tuscany, Italy because it matched her vision of the city being "very old and relatively remote." However, when consulting a map, she found that there was a city called Volterra in the area where she had planned to place her imaginary city. Therefore, she chose Volterra and called it "a pretty creepy coincidence."[15]

The first draft of New Moon differed significantly from the manuscript published. Originally, Bella never found out that Jacob was a werewolf, and as a result, the seventy pages following Bella's discovery of Jacob's nature were missing. The epilogue was also different in title and content.[17] Meyer found it difficult to write Bella's pain over Edward's departure and often cried while writing those parts.[14] She mentioned that she never suffered a heartbreak like Bella's, so she couldn't draw inspiration for her pain from personal experiences, but based it on how she thought she would feel if she lost a child,[18] while insisting that it came from her character, who is "much more open—to both pain and joy." She claims that "the way she chose to cope with it" was unexpected.[19]

According to Meyer, the story was inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.[20]

The cover art of New Moon was designed by Gail Doobinin and photographed by John Grant. Meyer has expressed on numerous occasions that she had no hand in choosing the cover,[21] and said that she does not like it. She described it as "a very lovely ruffled tulip that means nothing at all".[21] Originally, Meyer suggested a clock image for the cover as she saw "time" as one of the most important themes of the novel. However, the artwork team that designed the cover chose the image of a tulip losing one of its petals, aiming to represent Bella losing a drop of blood.[22]

When Meyer finished writing the book, she wanted a title that referred to a time of day to match Twilight. As it reflected the mood of the sequel, she titled the novel New Moon, "the darkest kind of night, a night with no moon", to refer to the darkest period of Bella's life.[14]

A film adaptation of New Moon was released on November 20, 2009.[12][37][38] It is the sequel to 2008's Twilight, which is based on the previous novel written by Meyer. The film starred Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.[39] In late November 2008, Summit Entertainment greenlit the sequel, which was directed by Chris Weitz with Melissa Rosenberg returning as the screenwriter.[40] The majority of the film was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.[41]

Quotations related to New Moon (novel) at Wikiquote

• Stephenie Meyer's official New Moon website
• The Twilight Series' official website