Thoughts On Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

| Published: August 2020 by Little Brown Books |
| Genre: YA Paranormal Romance |
| Themes: Vampires |
| Length: 768 Pages |
| My Rating: ⭐ ⭐ |

Hi Readers

The book we never thought would be, and it finally arrived in our hands just over a week ago now. For a lot of us it’s a 700 page chunk of teenage nostalgia, taking us back to the time when we obsessed over vampires, shapeshifters and a girl named Bella.

Just when we thought we were done with Twilight, Stephanie Meyer announces she’s completed writing Midnight Sun and is publishing it. And we all knew we’d be diving back into this world one more time.

Midnight Sun has been known about for a good 12 years now. Back in 2008 a draft of it was leaked and Twilight fans went crazy over it. Unfortunately this didn’t impress the author, who never spoke of it again. Until she saw how 2020 was going and decided we all needed a little help getting through the year.

What Is It About?

In 2006 a book called ‘Twilight’ was published, and since then has become one of the most talked about YA books. Midnight Sun is Twilight (book one) in Edwards POV. In this we go into the mind of a vampire who is struggling to control his thirst and not kill the girl he will come to love.

What Did I Think?

I went into this kind of knowing what my thoughts about it would be. It’s Twilight from Edwards perspective, it’s a story I already know very well. This isn’t going to be amazing, just something that’s fun to read. I was pretty much spot on.

This isn’t groundbreaking. It doesn’t add a whole lot of depth to Edward, it doesn’t make me think he’s less of a creep for breaking into Bellas room and watching her sleep (no matter how hard he tries to justify it). And it does feel repetitive as it is basically a book I read 2 months ago, just 300 pages longer.

Which is ridiculous, frankly. This book needed some serious editing because it was far too long. Honestly, I was bored for a lot of it. Like the original books, Stephenie Meyer likes her inner dialogue a bit too much.

But, as I knew I would, I had fun. I liked every moment when Edward was interacting with another Cullen. That family dynamic was something I was looking forward to and I did really enjoy seeing more of them. What we learnt:

– Jasper is brutal
– Alice is sweet but a little annoying (I’ll get to that)
– Rosalie is queen and the only sane one
– Emmett is my favourite
– Esme is the most supportive mum
– Carlisle …is Carlisle

I think each character could have had a bit more depth added to them. I don’t know if anythng we learnt was anything we didn’t already know. But I had fun reading them all the same.

Except for Alice. I don’t know, I love Alice, but her gift kind of ruined this whole book. It was just used too much and got really annoying. Even though we all know this story, her just telling the characters (and us) what was going to happen just meant there was no build-up.

I guess the biggest issue this book has is that the original wasn’t really very good either. As adults now, we’re able to see the more problematic content in these books and be a bit more critical of that. I also know that if it wasn’t for the nostalgic connection I have with these books, I never would have made it past the first chapter.

But I really appreciate what this book has done for me and others. It’s given us something to look forward to. This reminds me of a time when I was young and carefree so I really can’t knock it for that.

But unless you’re a really big fan of Twilight, you probably won’t get anything out of this.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

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