As a big Twilight fan, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Stephanie Meyers’ new novel Midnight Sun since it tells the story of Twilight from Edward Cullen’s perspective. It has been 17 years since Twilight was published, so this book definitely made me nostalgic for the “Twilight craze days” back in 2006-2012 when the books and movies were insanely popular. Here are some of my thoughts on the book itself:
When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic true love story was created. The reason why this book is so special to me is that up until now, fans have only seen one side of this iconic story told from Bella’s point of view. This book is told completely through the eyes of Edward, letting readers finally experience his thoughts and how he perceives the world as a vampire.
I love how Edward’s thoughts about meeting Bella are intriguing and dark since he claims to have never experienced anything like this in all of his years of being a vampire. As we learn more about his past and the inner struggle he has with keeping his control, we see why Bella is the main struggle of his life. He loves her unconditionally, but he is constantly worried about being a threat to her as well.
This book has a few surprises hidden in its plot, but to avoid spoilers, I will focus on other things that stood out to me.
First of all, the writing is amazing. The inhuman descriptions of smells, sights, and sounds make this book far more intriguing since it is told from Edward’s supernatural perspective instead of Bella’s dialed-down human perspective. The description of the forests, animals and high school are particularly detailed since these are constantly being examined by Edward. These descriptions aren’t overdone either since they make up smaller paragraphs here and there within a larger scene.
The only issue that I had was the fact that everything before the meadow scene was written in minute detail over the course of weeks/months, but then the time frame of the story took a sharp turn, making it feel rushed. The conflict, rising action, and climax made the book feel a little unbalanced since it was so fast-paced and rushed. Even though the target audience of this book is most likely Twilight fans who have already read the entire series, I would have loved to see more details and a longer rising action leading up to the big fight.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It offers a new perspective on a series that completely overtook my childhood/teenage years. As an adult, I see this saga from a new perspective that only made me grow to love it more, along with the nostalgia from its prime years.
