Spoilery Book Reviews

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

Back of book

I could see how easy it would be to fall into loving Bella. It would be exactly like falling: effortless. Not letting myself love her was the opposite of falling – it was pulling myself up a cliff face, hand over hand, the task as gruelling as if I had no more than mortal strength.

When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have only heard 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?

My thoughts

Firstly, this book is long. Longer than Breaking Dawn (by 56 pages) and almost double the length of Twilight, despite it only covering all the same material with nothing new. I guess that's my second point about this book: there is nothing new. Going into it I guess you already knew that, since it's a flipped POV of a book that already exists, however as I was reading, I realised the characters spend such little time apart, there is very little room to do anything in this book. Other than angst.

To set the record straight, I really enjoy reading this book. I had thought that perhaps I had grown out of loving the Twilight series, having first read them when I was 12 (and read them countless times since), and perhaps I had matured past being able to love the series. Yet when I bought this book as soon as I saw it, I blitzed through it. Even reading it again for this review, the pages flew by. Each time I pick up the Twilight series now, I wait for myself to dislike it, grow bored, find all the literary issues that everyone has for it, but instead I am immersed totally into the sunless greenery of Forks only to emerge disappointed that vampires don't exist.

Back to the angst. To get to the enormous word and page count, Edward does a lot of thinking. Endless thinking, most of it going back and forth between ecstatically loving Bella, and self-hatred for loving her, consequently endangering her. Sometimes Edward also slips into a memory of his past, an attempt to add something literally new into the book, however since we are already familiar with Edward's character, mostly the storytelling just adds to the word count. One new aspect his thinking did reveal, was a much less veiled discussion around intimacy. Edwards' thoughts were so expansive they were able to explore how he felt physically attracted to Bella, marvel at his human desires, and be astounded every time Bella proved she was also attracted to him.

Things don't go wrong until ¾ the way into the book (page 580ish), leaving only a quarter of the book for action, plot thickening, and real events (not just mental chatter). This is the part where Edward and Bella split ways, and we are reading new content. Yet I didn't enjoy that part. It felt dry and lacklustre; the details just bored me. Many parts of this book are 'boring' scenes that didn't need to exist ("Favourite ice cream?" / "Cookie dough."), however I enjoyed seeing into Edward's tumultuous thought process, living through his vacillating joy and self-hatred. I didn't enjoy hearing every possible question Edward had to ask Bella and all her answers. In some ways, this book could be an excellent learning tool for teaching people how to edit overwritten pieces, how to analyse what scenes add to a story and what do not. One piece I did particularly enjoy, was Jasper's role in this story. Him feeding off the joy he felt from Bella and Edward, but also how much he influenced perceptions during the confrontation scene, and how he focussed Edward during the race to reach Bella. Jasper is so overlooked in the series I feel but this book made me know him and love him a little more.

I am trying to be critical of this book, yet it's hard because I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the endless pain and struggle of Edward loving Bella yet trying to follow his very strict moral compass. At the end of the day, this book can get away with being a 'bad' book, (overwritten, lengthy, nothing new, scant plotline) because it is written for the fans. It is written for an audience who already love the series, the characters, the writing style, and just want to be able to immerse themselves in that world for longer. So of course, it reads a little bit like a feel-good fanfiction, because that's essentially what it is.

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this book, and despite the giant page count, it never felt too long or tedious to read for me. However, this book is written with a specific audience in mind, for people who are already fans of Twilight and simply want more, and it delivers. For readers that are not hooked into this world, I believe it will come across as overly long, with large "filler" or very pointless chapters that further our knowledge of the characters without adding to the story. I wouldn't recommend people who are not fans of the Twilight series to slog through this book. If you're already deeply in love with the original series, then this book can do no wrong.

TL:DR

If you're already a fan of Twilight, chances are you'll love this book too. If not, then probably skip this one.