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Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer is Twilight... From Edward's PoV...
When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella's side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward's version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.
This unforgettable tale as told through Edward's eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward's past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger?
I just want to give people an idea of what they're getting into when reading this review: I made a DNF list purely for this book, as it is the first one I literally could not bring myself to finish. If I could give it a zero star, I would. I only read this book because I did enjoy Twilight at 12 even if I grew to hate it, liked The Host, and I had hope for Midnight Sun and thought I could bare with reading it along with my friend.
I was wrong. Oh so wrong.
Let me start with this thought: I like the idea of having another character's PoV of a book's events. However, that is *all* it is -- an alt PoV of the exact same events as the original book -- there is... An issue. Ever hear of Ender's Shadow? It's an alternate PoV story of Ender's Game from Bean's PoV. We have the same general plot as Ender's Game, but Bean experienced so many different events that Ender wasn't part of and really built on what was happening in the background of Ender's Game.
Midnight Sun...
Look, the appeal of the plot of Twilight was a normal girl uncovering this strange guy is a vampire and then the whole struggle of adjusting to that, learning about it, and then trying to survive a vampire attack at the end.
But Midnight Sun is a vampire just... watching a normal girl? And thinking about her all the time? Seriously, I got 150 pages in and the entire plot was just "Edward obsessing with Bella." Sure, Bella was obsessing with Edward, but the vampire thing actually added an intrigue to that.
Bella... Is just a human girl... Yeah, where's the intrigue?
Let's go over the aspects of Midnight Sun that I was hopeful for that it then proceeded to completely ruin.
Edward's mind reading: Okay... Awesome... Everyone is just obsessing over Bella... And Jessica was apparently a hateful brat the entire series... Got it...
Humanity vs Monster: Has some moments, but it's ruined by the fact it is monologuing for pages upon pages of emo-ness. Also, Edward shockingly is a lot less human than I thought, and although I can say I was intrigued to see if that would be changed by Bella... I couldn't bring myself to care after all the emo monologues...
Understanding why Edward liked Bella: He literally just randomly starts to because she's fragile and breakable... And all her good traits are painfully told to us.
The Vampire Family Dynamic: Really nothing added from the original. The most interesting scene in the entire 150 books was the fact half the family wanted to kill Bella after the truck incident so she couldn't blab... And the conflict is solved by convenient Alice visions.
Maybe Figuring Out How Edward Didn't Think He Was A Creep Watching Bella: He admits he's no better than a peeping tom, but watches her anyway, claiming he is above human laws... All because he is so convinced she's going to attract a meteror to her? This is supposed to be an excuse to see her, I think, but, again... Why???
There were things I thought I would genuinely like about Midnight Sun, but it was all done so horribly that I just wanted to chuck it in burning dumpster fire.
I try to see why people would like a book, but here, I literally could not. It was a draggy, wordy mess of Edward non-stop obsessing over Bella for a reason that never felt real. I am 90% convinced this book's purpose is to show how amazing Bella is. Edward is unheathily, *toxically* obsessed with Bella, and this book doesn't deserve to be seen as romantic.
I hated this book. I adamantly hated this book. It gave me a headache to read and made me hate books for the mere week I tried to read it. Which star means "shouldn't even exist?"
ATTEMPT #2... ish?
I'm not putting the summary for this trash book up again. The book itself is still a 0/5, but I got my revenge. I no longer have a DNF book list! My pride managed to win out (and by that I mean my pride tortured me). I listened to all of the Midnight Sun Audiobook.
There were some more interesting parts as the book went on, and it did get a lot more bearable after Edward just accepted he loved Bella. Still hated it, but it was better.
BUT OH MY GOSH THE AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR! If you have watched the Percy Jackson movies, it is the actor for Luke, or if you watch Supernatural, it is Adam Winchester. AND HE NEEDS MORE AUDIOBOOKS! THIS DUDE ALMOST MADE ME LIKE EDWARD! And it is proving very hard to go on to other audiobooks purely because they don't quite compare to the way he read ;-; He gave me chills during scenes that should have made me roll my eyes.
The book is a 0/5. The audiobook is a 2/5. The narrator is a 7/5. I need more of him.
