Just Read: “Midnight Sun” by Stephenie Meyer

Read August 1, 2021 – August 7, 2021

Stephenie Meyer is the famous author of The Twilight Saga, a 4-book series that consumed the Christmas trip I took to Boston thirteen years ago. I saw the movie adaptation of the first book, Twilight, in theaters that November and immediately decided I needed to order the full series and find out what happens. I read what I had time to read before my trip and took the rest of the books in my luggage. Between the flight from Fort Lauderdale to Boston and the down time I had in a very cold basement, I finished the series and fell in love. Midnight Sun is the story of Twilight from Edward Cullen’s point-of-view. It’s everything I didn’t realize I needed as summer break comes to a close…

What is it about? 

I’ll treat this as though you haven’t read Twilight and haven’t seen the movie adaptation. Edward Cullen is a vampire, frozen in time as a 17-year-old boy. He’s part of a family that developed over time; traditionally referred to as a coven, the Cullen family follows a non-traditional lifestyle for vampires – they’re vegetarians. Edward and his adopted siblings attend high school with the rest of the local kids in Forks, Washington. He finds the new girl, Bella, particularly interesting. Not interesting in the same way the other kids find her, beautiful and unique, interesting as in he imagines her blood might satiate him for a lifetime. 

It’s a short time before Edward realizes he would do anything to protect her life… very uncharacteristic, even for a vegetarian vampire. He fights the war within himself, deciding if he pursues the human as friend or foe. He considers what’s best for her life – is having a vampire lover safe, protecting her from other predators, or is it unnecessarily dangerous for her to be in the company of a monster whose natural meal is the blood flowing through her veins?

What does it have?

• Vampires
• Forbidden Romance
• The Story Behind the Monsters
• Broken Homes

I used an entire thumb of flags marking pages in this book and cried knowing it was ending as I read the final chapters. Meyer gave this gift to Twilight fans and unfortunately has no intention of continuing the series from Edward’s perspective. (Girllll, if you’re reading this… please! We need more <3) Reading the war within Edward’s mind, the constant struggle to determine what the best course of action is, shed new light on the original story while also being able to stand on its own. I can only hope Meyer feels inspired to continue, in time, showing us the fight Edward fought to get to what happens at the end of Breaking Dawn, the final book in the original series. 

Is it worth reading?

Uh, yeah! I loved this book so much, the series so much, that I just might make my way out to Forks, WA and search for an Edward of my own.