Book Review: Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement Other PS 2020 reading pr...




PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement

Other PS 2020 reading prompts this would satisfy: A book that's published in 2020, A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads

TW: Blood, violence, death (human, animal), pedophilia, sexual assault, talks of suicide



How does one review a book they've been waiting to read for 13 years? Oddly, not as harshly as one would think. Honestly, I'm not sure that I could've been disappointed by Midnight Sun in a million years. I remember reading a chapter or two of the leaked pages back in high school circa 2007, and was so upset the entire book never came out. I just assumed it would never happen, and when I heard it was being released this year, you best believe I preordered that baby so fast.


Brief synopsis? It's literally just Twilight from Edward's perspective.


I've never been Team Edward. I subscribe to being Team Jacob forever, for many reasons, mostly because he's actually around Bella's age and will lead a normal-length life, but also he's nowhere near as creepy and controlling at Edward, and truly wants the best for Bella (even Edward agrees, so come on!). Anyways, I really enjoyed Midnight Sun, because it allowed me to see a different side of Edward, a side that explains more thoroughly why he behaves how he does. I also really enjoyed getting to know all the other characters much better since ol' Eddy boy can read minds, so there's that.

I found that I hated Rosalie even more than I initially did, but grew to love the other Cullens even more than before. It was so interesting to really understand the Cullen clan better, and to make sense of their family dynamics.

And while none of us read the Twilight series for its literary prowess (but do I read any book for that reason? no.), I did find it to be quite wordy at times. Granted, I think it was like that more so because that's who Edward is, how he thinks, and the time period he's from. I don't remember the original book being quite as long (it was close to 200 pages shorter than Midnight Sun), this one dives deeper into the Cullen family's origins, so there were a significant portion of flashback scenes of Edward, as well as some additional history about Carlisle. As I'm not one for historical fiction, I found those scenes seemed to drone on longer than I liked. I found them to get kind of boring, and the transitions into and out of those scenes was at times awkward and confusing.



"Her scent blazed in my throat and I was glad. It was a pain that meant she was alive. As long as I burned, she was safe." - Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer


But if I'm being completely honest, I loved this book just as much as I loved reading the original series. And let me assure you, I loved the original series a lot. So much so that my best friend and I had our graduation trip planned for a road trip from Georgia to Forks, Washington, complete with budgeting charts and stops along the way. I also rewatched all the movies while reading Midnight Sun, and was so immersed into the nostalgia of the story, I about lost it. I freaking love these books, not matter how corny and ridiculous they are. Seriously - Edward's over 100 and in love with a 17 year old, and they both want to kill themselves without each other. It's all just too much. But it also makes me oh, so happy, and for that, I will not apologize.



Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆














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