Official synopsis: 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? In Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer transports us back to a world that has captivated millions of readers and brings us an epic novel about the profound pleasures and devastating consequences of immortal love.
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Way back in 2008 when Stephenie Meyer revealed that there had been a leak of a book she had been working on from Edwards point of view I remember being sad that we weren't going to get it anymore. We got those initial 12 chapters that she had written but she said she didn't know if she would ever return to working on it. Fast forward to 2020 when Midnight Sun was finally released! Does it add anything to the world of Twilight? Hm... marginally. There are some things that have been expanded upon. Behind the scenes knowledge so to speak.
I feel like to do a full blown review would be pointless seeing as everyone is reading it so I won't go too deep into it but I will say that I curse my FOMO. I hate missing out on the big things, big releases that I wouldn't necessarily feel the need to partake in. I mean yeah, I enjoyed the original series back in the day, but you have to admit it hasn't aged very well. And this book only showed just how creepy Edward really is. Within seconds he was thinking about ripping Bella apart, even a whole classroom full of teens just because he didn't want to leave any witnesses to his rampage... Then all of a sudden he can't decide if he wants to kill her or protect her... The obsession... it isn't cute...
The highlight of the book? Rosalie. She was ace. The rest... Meh. It was just too long. A few weeks before the release of the book I saw a video on youtube where Meyer was talking to a book tuber back in 2019 and she said that it was long, that she had been writing it because her mum wanted it and she'd just gotten to the meadow scene and it was already longer than Twilight itself. Edward just overthinks things too much and I had to keep stopping myself from reading because it was just too much. There just wasn't enough new info to warrant 750+ pages in my opinion. If anything I feel like this has only dampened the flame that I once held for Twilight as a fifteen year old reading it for the first time.
And now there is word that there will be 2 more books to come... In the same video I mentioned earlier she said that she has plans for some books about Jacob and Renesme and I pray to god these aren't the two books she has planned because it just gets creepier, but you know my FOMO is going to make me read every single word. Argh. Why can't I just miss out for once. Argh!
It got a 3 out of 5 simply because it did bring back some nostalgia, but I didn't like it enough to go any further than that.