Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer Review – One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Guilty Pleasure

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series has a monopoly over teen vampires in my eyes, but is Midnight Sun really worth the (nearly) 700 pages?

The Twilight series never claimed to be a literary masterpiece and it’s best to read it with its pitfalls in mind. Midnight Sun has received many harsh reviews despite it doing exactly what it says on the tin.

Stephenie Meyer’s latest novel was released on 4 August, after being anticipated by Twilight fans for twelve years. I was not one of these fans. My interest in the Twilight universe was only born once the books were being made into films and I was at a far more reasonable age to read them. I reread the Twilight books a few months ago to re-immerse myself in Stephenie Meyer’s world of vampires, so Bella Swan’s side of the story was fairly fresh in my mind by the time the new instalment was released.

Midnight Sun is a retelling of the first book in the series, Twilight, from Edward Cullen’s perspective. In its blurb, the book describes the romance between Edward and Bella Swan as an ‘iconic love story’. It promises to reveal darkness and complexity to the story as it is told through Edward’s eyes.
Meyer succeeds in revealing more of Edward in Midnight Sun, whose constant worrying provides the story’s further darkness. For me, he lost a lot of the angelic perfection he receives through Bella’s rose-tinted narrative, which was refreshing. The sheer size of the novel comes from Edward’s thoughtfulness and constant contradictory justifications for his (incredibly) questionable actions. It is almost painful to read his simultaneous hatred and support for himself as he repeatedly watches Bella sleep, knowing how wrong it is. He sees himself as a villain yet comes across as having a hero complex, as he believes it his duty to protect Bella from threats that either she is unaware of or do not exist, taking up the role of her ‘guardian angel’.

Meyer also appears to attempt a slightly loftier writing style to suit Edward’s age, matching his borderline anachronistic way of speaking with his thoughts. As Edward seems to cast himself as being almost wholly separate from humans, his approach to human feelings is understandably… strange. He is more comfortable studying human behaviour than being a part of it. Most of the time I could appreciate that, but others his distant, intelligent demeanour falls flat and becomes outright weird, as in this example, when he kisses Bella for the first time:

‘What strange alchemy was this, that the touch of lips should be so much more than the touch of fingers?’

Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer

I was more confused by quotes like this rather than inspired to copy them repeatedly in cursive as I assume is the intention. However, I would be lying if I said the strangeness of phrases like this one did not suit Edward’s character.

Alongside learning more about Edward, his fascination with Bella leads to Meyer providing more information about her too. We learn more about her likes and dislikes, her hopes and dreams, even though it seems in Twilight that she barely has any. Edward and Bella getting to know each other occupies a significant portion of his narrative for such simple questions such as ‘what’s your favourite colour?’, and this seems to be a theme with Edward.

Realistically, Edward’s perspective should take up at least double what Bella’s would, considering he has no reason to sleep and therefore he literally spends more time living. However, the book is just way too long. There is nothing wrong with a lengthy story, but some parts could have been edited down or cut completely and I am sure it would have had little effect, but I do understand that the length could be necessary for doing Edward’s reality justice. His experiences, especially as he can watch Alice’s visions as she or others constantly make decisions that alter the future, have a wider scope than Bella’s did.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Twilight and seeing more of Edward and his family, as fleshing out the Cullens and their unconventional family unit is something Meyer does well in Midnight Sun. If you enjoy the series, it’s a fun, slightly different way to return to it. Other than that, I see little point in reading it if you are not a fan as it is sure to spark more hatred. It expands upon what already exists as well as reaffirming it. Meyer could not have re-written anything that had already happened and so it should be no surprise that the problematic, creepy aspects of Bella and Edward’s relationship remain.

If I had to give it a star rating, it would be a three out of five. It did not exceed my expectations but I cannot say it disappointed me either. Have you read Midnight Sun? Let me know what you thought about it.