Review: Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga #5) by Stephenie Meyer

Print Length: 662 pages

Publisher: Little Brown Books (August 4, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  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?

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

I am going to add an entire star to my review of this book simply because when Bella wasn't around? This story was interesting. I enjoyed watching Edward interact with his family in those glimpses that we didn't get to see before (although was Rosalie always such a bitch)? I was intrigued by the mentions of his "early years" when it was just him and Carlisle and the in-depth memories of some of his other family members (for example when Rosalie saved Emmett). In fact, I would even go so far as to say a re-telling of New Moon might be really awesome since Bella would be absent for most of the book. 

However, I have to take three away for the rest of this pile of rubbish. And before you get your pitchforks, I LOVED Twilight when I was younger (although, I admittedly had some problems with it as an adult). 

One thing that stuck out to me immediately was the fact that Edward was a pedophile. 

Seriously, he considers Bella and her classmates to be CHILDREN (which they are), but he fixates on this point SO MUCH (he calls Bella the Swan CHILD, he's going to have to murder innocent children, the children are harmless, etc) that it just makes his infatuation with Bella that much worse. In the original books, it was easier to forget that he was 104 years old because everything was colored by the 17-year-old girl who was telling the story. 

Going by that same tone, for someone who was 104 years old, Edward was decidedly whiny about his life. Over and over we are told how "impossibly good" she smells and how much he fascinates about killing her. Or "how bad for her he is" but of course, we know from reading Twilight that he "can't walk away".  And that isn't even taking into consideration how much CREEPIER it is to read Twilight from Edward's point of view. All the nights he stalked her, snuck into her room, and other otherwise invaded her privacy through other people's thoughts 

*sighs*

At times this was like an information overload with the author giving so many details that it became tedious and all too easy to merely skim pages instead of reading them, while at the same time (at least whenever Bella was present), being the re-telling of Twilight that we honestly? Did not need. Seriously, I looked and some of the Bella/Edward interactions were straight out of Twilight just rewritten to fit Edwards' perspective instead of Bella's. 

TL;DR - This would have been better if it hadn't been a complete re-telling of Twilight with other details thrown in sparingly. In fact if it had been an original story with some Twilight details thrown in? I think it would have been a much better read. While Edward is whiny and narcissistic? Bella is just plain boring. 

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                                       Midnight Sun is available from Amazon.com