I was 30 years old when I read the Twilight series, and I fell hard for the series. For all its faults, I fell in love with Bella and Edward’s story. Not only did I see aspects of my teenage self in Bella’s awkwardness and self-esteem issues, but I also saw parts of my relationship with my husband in Bella’s and Edward’s interactions. I never really lost my love for the series even as it became rather gauche to admit it. So, when the news broke that Stephenie Meyer was finally releasing Midnight Sun, I preordered the novel that day. There was no way I was going to miss another chance to visit Forks and finally see the world through Edward’s eyes.
Given my feelings for the original story, I suspect there is some bias here, but I thoroughly enjoyed Midnight Sun. Seeing Edward’s anxiety and fears as he struggles to make sense of his feelings simply confirmed my love for him. More importantly, Ms. Meyers addresses the more problematic aspects of his behavior towards Bella in a way that feels genuine to both characters while acknowledging that the behavior is bordering on stalkerish.
What surprises me the most is that I feel Ms. Meyer’s writing now has a maturity to it that is missing in the rest of the series. I know Midnight Sun is a novel she struggled to write for years. Seeing her writing now, I surmise she struggled because she needed more life experience and maturity in order to capture Edward’s voice. After all, he is 104 years old. Whatever changed, whatever allowed her to write Edward’s story after all these years, it works. Edward’s voice is appropriately mature and world-weary with elements of confusion and befuddlement that are simply adorable.
I find Edward’s mindscape fascinating. His guilt and his excessive situational analysis are exhausting, but they shed so much light on the face he shows the world. Plus, we see how busy his mind is fielding through other’s minds, having entire dialogues without speaking a word, and being privy to Alice’s visions. In addition, he begins to view himself in light of human behavior after decades of not doing so. All of it makes for a very mind-bogglingly complex mind that constantly thinks of worst-case scenarios rather than hopeful ones. No wonder he comes across as overbearing and overprotective at times!
As Midnight Sun draws to a close at the same point where Twilight does, my biggest wish is that Ms. Meyer would write the rest of the series from his point of view. After the torture of New Moon from Bella’s viewpoint, it is only fair we see Edward’s anguish and heartbreak as well. I know this is simply a pipe dream on my part, but I do not want to say good-bye to Edward’s mind. It rounds out the story in a way I did not know I was missing. In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Forks again and hope it is not another fifteen years before another visit.
You know, I am mildly curious about this one. I believe I read all of the Twilight Books. Was there only three of them? I was excited to see this one just because it’s fun to read a hyped book at the same time everyone else is but then it didn’t get such great reviews so I skipped it. I could go back to it but I need to see if I actually finished The Twilight Series.
Four books plus a novella and later a reimagining of the story switching Edward and Bella’s genders, which I actually still have to read.
This is a fascinating change from what I’ve seen from other bloggers, who often say that reading it from Edward’s POV is ruining the series for them. I’m glad to hear someone enjoys it! I could never really get into Twilight – loved the first book but New Moon just did me in, so I never finished. But I really enjoyed The Host, which even though it was a similar time period, I felt had much richer writing.
I like it because I get his mind. Obsessive worrying. Fixating on the negatives. Planning for every worst-case scenario. It is a very familiar mindset. Maybe others don’t like it because it mirrors their own issues with anxiety, but to me, it confirms how normal anxiety is if even these perfect predators can suffer from it.
You and I had very different experiences with this one.I have been reading it for over a week now and I’m at only about 65% of the way through it. Edward is dull and repetitive. He just keeps thinking the same things over and over and over. Ugh. I keep waiting for it to get better. I enjoyed the original series and read all four books in the span of a week and a half, so I had higher hopes for this one. It’s just not delivering for me. (And it really doesn’t need to be 700 pages long.)
SMeyer’s writing is definitely more mature and better overall than it used to be, though. That I can agree with.
To me, it is the mind of someone with a severe anxiety disorder. We obsess and obsess and fixate on the problems and what can go wrong, and we never focus on the positives. That was his mind to me. Plus, I loved seeing the others through his eyes.