Heffa Lump is just a typical, pale and interesting seventeen-year-old, who doubts that anyone will ever see her true beauty. But then she moves to Spatula and meets Teddy Kelledy, an impossibly gorgeous boy who eats rare meat, is super-strong and never goes out in sunlight. Could he — just maybe — be a vampire? (Hint: totally).
New Moan, as the title (and above description) suggest, is a parody of The Twilight Saga. Rather than just parodying New Moon specifically, it parodies the first and second books in the series, as well as the movies. It also includes copious amounts of Breaking the Fourth Wall and Medium Awareness.
Has a sequel called Breaking Yawn.
Contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight/Genre Shift: Heffa's father, Chump Lump, takes over narration for Chapter 7, which is written in the style of a gritty Film Noir detective drama.
- The Cameo: Winnie the Pooh appears early on as one of the students at the Spatula Academy of Fictional Excellence, and later on (under the pseudonym "The Bear") in Chapter 7. A number of other fictional characters (such as the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, The Famous Five (searching for Kim Jong-il's warheads) and Baby from Dirty Dancing) also make cameos as students at the Academy.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: All the chapter titles are "double meaning" phrases - for example, "moist", "a little prick", "the first time", etc. (All in lowercase in the book).
- Medium Awareness: The characters aren't only aware of being characters in a novel, they are attending the "Spatula Academy of Fictional Excellence", a school that trains them in how to become good fictional characters, complete with different syllabuses for different genres of fiction.
- Mondegreen Gag: Teddy recites a poem for Heffa that ends with the line "My love always, even when you're eighty." Heffa is touched by the sentiment, but when she calls him on saying it later, he replies that he actually said eighteen, and is in fact repulsed by the prospect of being with Heffa when she's 80.
- Older Than They Look: Parodied with Teddy, who looks like a normal highschool teenager, but is actually... thirty years old.
- Heffa, on the other hand, is older than she acts.
- Nominal Importance: Most of the extras at the Academy don't even have names. At one point, Heffa gets rid of one trying to ask her out by simply asking for his name, which he is unable to give.
- Punny Name: Most of the minor characters have this, for example, Chip Boardnote , Justin Case, Wanda Mensional and her brother Tudor Mensional and Piper Thinne.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse - Heffa certainly thinks she is this.
- Strangled by the Red String: This is explicitly discussed and lampshaded in the book:Teddy: I'm very powerfully drawn to you. I don't know why, perhaps it's because you're the narrator?
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Many examples, but one moment with Teddy jumps to mind. "I don't know who this "Angel" person is. I have never heard of him, and I have certainly not watched his DVDs for inspiration about how best to stalk young human girls."
- And the very next lines:Teddy: [Normal vampires] like long leather coats and tacky silver jewelry, and they live to hunt humans and drink their blood.Heffa: Like Spike?Teddy: Stop talking about the TV series I have definitely never ever seen and which has not influenced Stephfordy Mayo in the slightest, all right?
- And the very next lines:
- Stealth Pun/Take That!: A school named "Choose Your Own Adventure High" is mentioned early on. Heffa remarks that they have "a ninety-per-cent non-completion rate".
