Midnight Sun is the latest book in the Twilight saga, 15 years after the first publication and almost eight years since Breaking Dawn Part 2 graced the silver screen. It’s a big book at 750 pages which tells the original story in the original timeline from Edward’s point of view. Years ago I read the leaked copy and was always curious to finish reading it. At the age of 31, about 12 years after reading Twilight for the first time I am looking on this world with fresh eyes and for the most part, I didn’t enjoy what I read. I purchased my copy from Amazon and there is an affiliate link at the end of the post if you’d like to buy and read for yourself.
A Basic Synopis of Midnight Sun
In Midnight Sun: New girl turns up at Forks High School, Edward things she is average, then in Biology her blood scent hits him so hard he decides he needs to run away but because he can’t read her mind he becomes infactuated with her, sort of stalks her and watches her sleep at night. Then nothing happens until page 650 where she is hunted by James who is ripped apart in less than a paragraph and more dialogue happens for the next hundred pages. Basically, I was not impressed with this book. I think I’ve over generously rated it 3 stars, but actually, officially, I’m going to downgrade that to 2.5 stars because it’s just not very good. In fact its one of the rare occasions I’d say the films are better because they’re over quicker and at least something happens.
My Review of Midnight Sun – May contain spoilers
So firstly, I was pretty excited to read this because I did really enjoy Twilight as a teen. Also, I’d recently read the 10 year anniversary gender bend version, Life & Death which had an alternate ending and that was pretty cool although still problematic as we all know this is. My biggest issue now though is that nothing happens in this book. I do not understand how it’s double the size of the first book give or take 50 pages or so. There is no need for Edwards inner monologue to be so much bigger when mostly that chatter is full of inner turmoil.
The book has a more mature tone to it which I enjoyed and reflected better writing and Edward being 104. It was interesting to see Bella in a different way rather than the self concious girl that can’t believe the good looking guy wants to get to know her. The hint dropping of Hades & Persephone and the fact this book takes place in the Spring gave some cool vibes. I also really liked getting to know Esme more as I feel she is massively overlooked in the original books with her compassion and kindness. That was constantly pouring out of her with her inner conversations with Edward. Also, still not a fan of Rosalie, but at least she comes across as a ‘proper’ vampire in her aggression and obnoxious distain for humans fueled by her never ending jealousy of what was stolen from her.
I wanted to like this book and enjoy revisiting this world, but the slow pacing almost made it unbearable towards the end.
Other than that, this book is boring. At first I was really getting into it but at 400 pages, the end of the original book, and only just half way through I was getting a bit impatient to finish. Maybe I’d spent too long in the world of Forks by reading the other book first, I started reading the same conversations, the same dialogue again. It got tideous. Honestly, the amount of conversation in this book is so long and so unnesscary. There are pages and pages and pages of the same conversaion over and over which got so tiresome. I honestly had to keep putting this book down to yawn, stretch and get out of the monotomy of it.
The book is problematic in how it talks about relationships. Of course 19 year old me was here for that trashy romance and inhaled the original Twilight books within weeks of each other, but now, with my life experience I can no longer look on this book with romantic notion but instead feel unsure and creeped out a bit. I’ve read of people talking about Bella and Edwards relationship being their one true pairing and it’s just…not.
So is Midnight Sun worth reading? Well that depends. It’s the same story and I learned nothing new about Edward’s character that you don’t find out in later books. If you’re a fan of the series I’m not going to disuade you and if you’ve not read it then I’d just stick with the shorter Bella version personally.
All The Other Issues I had before and Now with Midnight Sun
Basically I hate how Vampires are in this book, it’s stupid. I know it’s fantasy and I know my preference is for high fantasy in an epic, glorious world rather than a small town in a forest but sparkly vampires still just sounds strange. I also hate this idea of vampire venon. This recreation of Vampires was just so unneccesary and was just needed to alter to the ending Meyer wanted to try and build a super long series about a girl wanting to be turned into a vampire and her boyfriend saying no. I don’t like how they’re portrayed as essentially gargoyles to be honest. It’s just weird.
Also, nothing happens in this book. The fact that the scene where they kill James is like, 4 sentances long, is so pointless. It’s just proof that Meyer can not write action scenes even 15 years later. I hate to feel like I’m author bashing but really when you analyse the plot it’s just girl meets boy, filler dialogue of every day lives, a car chase and then they’re at prom. I didn’t need the long winded description of exactly how Alice faked the accident, I didn’t need to read word for word Edward watching the tape where you already know what has happened. I didn’t need the massively descriptive feel sorry for me backstory of Edward gone rogue. There were too many boring details that just didn’t need to be there.
I feel sad to be writing such a negative review because I wanted to enjoy this book but I got so frustrated with wanting to hurry to finish it that it’s tarnished how I feel about the series. I’ve basically paid £11 for a book to change a series I loved as a teenager and that is annoying. If you want to do the same and buy the book here’s an affiliate link below for amazon because I might as well get something out of it…
One of my goals for 2020 is to read 52 books or around one a week. Some might be new, some are ones I’ve had for a while or been meaning to read, some I haven’t quite finished yet and some will be recommendations from others. You can see all the books I’ve read so far on my Good Reads 2020 Reading Challenge.
