If you’ve been alive for at least the past 20 years, then you know about the infamous phenomenon that was the Twilight series. Maybe you loved the books growing up, or maybe you instantly hated the fame and drama that surrounded the new fad. Either way, Twilight was memorable.
In 2020, author Stephenie Meyer announced that her long-awaited book Midnight Sun would be released. Midnight Sun retells the story of the first Twilight book from the perspective of Edward Cullen, a “good” vampire who can read minds and is the central love interest of the series. Since the original Twilight series only offered us Bella’s perspective (and a few chapters from Jacob’s), readers had not been privy to the inner workings of a Twilight vampire until now.
To make Midnight Sun even more interesting, its first few chapters were actually leaked years ago, and fans thought that Meyer would therefore never finish the book- and yet here we are today.
Mild spoilers ahead.
What Midnight Sun gets right: If you know me, you know I love vampire literature. I’ve read everything from Carmilla to Interview with the Vampire to The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and watched shows and films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and What We Do In The Shadows. Yet before I had found any of those books and films, Twilight was the first series that introduced me to vampires as actual characters that you could like and empathize with.
That being said, vampires are portrayed very differently in Twilight than in most other stories. The very fact that there are vampires trying to be “good” and not feed on humans is different and makes for interesting moral dilemmas. For example, Anne Rice expertly explored vampiric existential crises in her Vampire Chronicles books, but her vampires were not fully trying to change their diets. They were more concerned with the negative effects of immortality and being damned.
In Midnight Sun, we get a good look at Edward’s internal struggles with morality in regards to his very nature. He meets Bella, who is his greatest temptation to kill humans again after a decades-long streak of abstinence, and so his struggle with his nature vs. his morals resurfaces with intensity. At the very least, Edward’s intense, warring desires show us a new kind of vampire- one that is much closer to a human, despite the superpowers- and that adds a fresh take to the vampire canon (whether you like how vampires are presented in Twilight or not).
And on a lighter note, I loved being able to see the Cullen family’s hidden motivations and interactions that humans like Bella just couldn’t see at first. They pull off some pretty wild escapades in this book that I thoroughly enjoyed- finally, they could use their powers in an exciting way that would lend itself well to an action movie. They weren’t always perfect and moral (as they are often portrayed in the other Twilight books), which was a relief because . . . they’re vampires! Alice and Jasper especially shine in this book, since Edward can “see” the effects of their powers through his mind-reading ability.
What Midnight Sun gets wrong: Bless Edward, but the poor child is stuck in his head 100% of the time and it’s exhausting. I appreciated this deep-dive into his character, and hearing his agonizing thoughts made his motivations in the series make more sense, but it was not easy to read.
Readers who will enjoy Midnight Sun: Fans of the Twilight series who want to see more of the Cullens in their natural habitats (in particular, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper). Fans of fantasy, romance, and supernatural creatures.
Readers who may not enjoy Midnight Sun: Readers who don’t like the Twilight series, romance, vampires, or melodramatic narratives.
Midnight Sun is available in the Recreational Reading section of the library.
Content note: violence, suicidal ideation, very brief suggestive moments.
Reviews written by Olivia Chin reflect her personal opinions and not necessarily those of the library or university.
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