Before we get started, please consider donating to Quileute Move to Higher Ground. Click the link to learn more. Thank you! Somewhere in time, super-young-Jessica has been slowly having a complete emotional fit of excitement over Midnight Sun. I mean, how long have we been waiting for this to be released in full? A LONG TIME. And Stephenie Meyer finally delivered.


Midnight Sun 
by Stephenie Meyer

When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella's side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward's version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward's eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward's past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger?


2020 has been full of many surprises. I mean, hello? GLOBAL PANDEMIC? And not only did I cave and join Tik Tok, I gained over 34k follows? Saved by the Bell, Gossip Girl, Lizzie McGuire and Clueless are all getting reboots. AND NOW, as a cherry on top, Stephenie Meyer FINALLY (finally) released Midnight Sun--aka Twilight from Edward's perspective after, what, 12 years of it on the back-burner?

This year has literally been an eight-month long fever dream.

Midnight Sun has been a highly anticipated release for so many millennial and gen-z readers. (Well, I take that back: for a lot of readers throughout the generations. Because while it's YA, that doesn't mean it only captured the hearts of young readers.) And for us to finally have it in our hands? We're all a bit shook.

In spite of this being the, what, third time that Meyer's revisited and reimagined Twilight, Midnight Sun is indulgent, fun and exactly what the year has ordered. If we're all stuck inside like the Cullens on a sunny say, well, we may as well do it in style. Right? For so many, Twilight has always felt like a comfort read and it only makes sense that we finally get to experience Midnight Sun during these uncertain times. 

Through the years, Twilight has been an on-off experience for me. When I first read it, in my mid-teens, I adored it. No, I devoured and consumed it just as intensely as these characters loved one another. To this day, I can vividly remember curling up to the first book, after school, and reading it in my mom's car while she ran errands. As I've gotten older, I've seen its flaws and am far more critical of the series, but for the most part that fondness remained.

Picking up Midnight Sun felt very, very, very familiar. In a good way. It was kind of like catching up with your best-friend from middle school, years later.

Midnight Sun isn't necessarily the perfect novel. It fleshed out certain aspects of the narration, giving us a better glimpse at character's thoughts and the Cullens home, but beyond that it doesn't add a lot to the world itself. Meyer's writing, too, remains just as flawed but compulsively readable as always. It's an endearing feeling, to see Twilight in this light, but there were times when it dragged on and felt less and less appealing.

Because even though it is quite long, it felt like a good chunk of Midnight Sun could have been cut to reduce the tedious tone it occasionally took on.

Longtime Twilight fans will devour this book just easily as they had the original set of novels. Meyer knows how to captivate her audience and draw them into this gothic-twinged, paranormal romance. She's always had this inexplicable quality to her prose that readers either immediately love or instantly hate. This hasn't changed. So, if you love Twilight, you'll love Midnight Sun. If you hated Twilight, you'll hate Midnight Sun. 

In a lot of ways, I really loved this book. Midnight Sun came at a particularly dark time and brought a little bit of light. Something about it felt like an anchor that I desperately wanted to cling to. With the pandemic, I've been feeling a bit like a child again--with little to do about it, so Midnight Sun played into my nostalgic nature and felt not unlike a security blanket. Which, I'm grateful for. Of course, I had a lot of fun with it.