I put this in the links last week, and as it turns out, it’s really happening: Stephenie Meyer is returning to the Twilight series and doing a book told through the perspective of Edward Cullen. It will be the same Twilight story – the core of which is Edward Cullen and Bella falling in love – but now told through the perspective of a sparkly vampire who has been undead for more than a century (and still somehow in high school). The book is called Midnight Sun.
It’s been 15 years since author Stephenie Meyer took the book world by storm after publishing her debut novel, Twilight. Now Meyer is making her return to the Twilight world with Midnight Sun, the much-anticipated companion novel to the franchise.
The author first teased a surprise announcement by featuring a clock on her website’s homepage, seemingly counting down the Monday reveal. The clock was also posted on the social media pages of her production company Fickle Fish Films. The suspense drew fans into a frenzy as many were left theorizing whether the author would finally release Midnight Sun or return with a new book altogether. Indeed, when the countdown ended on Monday morning, Meyer’s website seemingly crashed from all of the interest as fans were unable to reach it to find out the news. But, in a video that aired on Good Morning America, Meyer announced the release of Midnight Sun on Aug. 4. The book’s release date and information was also posted to her publisher’s website.
In the video, Meyer speaks about announcing the book’s release date amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s a crazy time right now and I wasn’t sure if it was the right time to put this book out but some of you have been waiting for just so, so long, it didn’t seem fair to make you wait anymore,” she said.
Though the author was originally set to publish Midnight Sun in 2008, Meyer canceled the publication plans after a copy of her manuscript was leaked online. The author then posted a partial rough draft of the work on her website but never released a completed story. At the time, she referred to Midnight Sun as “an exercise in character development that got wildly out of hand.”
A lot of authors do this now and I don’t hate or love the process. E.L. James did it with her Fifty Shades series too, which started out as Twilight fan-fic and became the most boring and terrible BDSM ever to be committed to the page and screen. But James did Grey, the Fifty Shades story told through Christian Grey’s perspective. One of my favorites of this literary “reimagining through another character’s eyes” thing (does it have an actual name?) is Wide Sargasso Sea, told through the perspective of Bertha from Jane Eyre (I love both books).
Anyway, is this a huge money grab? Possibly, although I’m sure Meyers is already worth more than she can spend. It seems more like she wanted to genuinely give her die-hard fans something. And yes, she’ll make millions from it.
Photos courtesy of Twilight/Breaking Dawn, WENN.
I was into the books when they came out (not the movies a at all). I remember all the drama going down with this and I was bummed that she decided not to keep writing it. Now though, all these years later, I have zero interest. I’m guessing only the twihards will be buying.
Didn’t she stop writing Midnight Sun because it leaked? Then I think, if I’m remembering correctly, she put the first few chapters on her site? I wonder how long its going to take her to release the book..
Yes that’s what happened and she is releasing it.
Is she going to have an editor this time?
I hate read the last book Breaking Dawn. It was one of the most poorly-written books I have ever read. Half the book could have been cut out and it wouldn’t have changed the plot at all!
Co-sign! 100%
The only reason I didn’t throw it out the window is that it belonged to a friend. Absolute garbage (and I am not a literature snob).
Good. I’m glad she’s releasing her book. Hopefully it’s been edited.
Doing a novel from another character’s perspective tends to be more interesting if written by another writer altogether, like Jean Rhys or the author who wrote H (about Heathcliff).
Her doing it feels like a money grab. It would be less lazy to take a minor character from one of those books and further their adventures: Rosencranz and Guildenstern are dead, excellent film version with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth by the way.
I think she’s found her other books aren’t nearly as successful and wanted another hit. Would have preferred a sequel
One of the biggest problems with Edward is that he doesn’t have the thought processes of someone his age. They’ve lived, they’ve grown, they’ve gained wisdom and biases and all sorts of interesting quirks. And while you can reasonably subtract any sort of cognitive decline from the equation, Edward doesn’t have any of that. He rolls through life thinking the thoughts of a teenager. Occasionally hinting that he’s learned a lot of languages isn’t actually the same as displaying the effects of having lived, widely, for over a century.
On the one hand, him thinking and acting like a teenager makes him a good fit for Bella. But I’m afraid this book is just going to shine a spotlight on how flat of a character he actually is.
That’s an awful cover. I remember reading the script when she released it. I also remember her saying how pissed off she was and that she will never release the book.
Yes, I think that cover is supposed to read as “sexy,” but it just looks ugly to me!
When I was young, she had released the first chapter or something, because it got leaked. She got frustrated and scrapped the thing. So it’s not exactly something she just thought of.
I follow several authors, and they’re thrilled with the release. Not because this or any Twilight books are very good, but because this will be a huge commercial success and fund all of their books too. It’s great for the publishing and YA industry.
What’s with the pomegranate???
I like to think she’s a fan of My Dad Wrote a P**no…
Per an article in today’s Guardian newspaper : Publisher Little, Brown said the book would see Meyer draw “on the classic myth of Hades and Persephone” to revisit human teenager Bella Swan’s romance with the vegetarian, sparkly vampire Edward, in “an epic novel about the profound pleasures and devastating consequences of immortal love”.
The pomegranate features heavily in the mythological story of Hades and Persephone.
I really like the look of it – an anatomical bleeding heart for vampire romance.
I figured it was because pomegranates are another fruit considered to be the forbidden fruit as per her choice of an apple for the first book.
Disclaimer: I never read the books, nor plan to.
Familiar territory for me, obscure, self-published author: Hades and Persephone.
Wish I had the sort of indulgent corporate publishing support she has enjoyed. More people might have known about it and read it. (The Hunter of the Dead)
She never bothered to truly research the whole Vampire field/genre…I dread her approach to Hades and Persephone, even if disguised as Edward and Bella.
I loved the Twilight series even as I cringed at the writing, the problematic issues, and Breaking Dawn ugh. I haven’t thought about Twilight much in years. But I am super excited about this. I read the chapter she released years ago and found it more interesting and better written than anything else in the series. I really hope this doesn’t let me down.
I’m in the money grab camp. I never read Twilight but I’m guessing her other books probably don’t do that well. It must be hard for a writer’s ego when no one wants anything else you write.
As a writer I believe she is genuinely excited and inspired about the idea of writing from Edwards perspective. But not just reprinting the same stuff with the two main names flipped, as she had done before. That was not writing, that was money grabbing. If she is going to dive into Edward’s past, and all, now THAT is something.
She released Midnight Sun years ago as a special release for fans on her website. Ive read it. I actually liked it. So yes this is in fact a cash grab. Because it’s material that was available for FREE a few years back that has been repackaged as something new.
“Though the author was originally set to publish Midnight Sun in 2008, Meyer canceled the publication plans after a copy of her manuscript was leaked online.”
I remember this! And the prevailing theory was that Pattinson was somehow involved in the leak, since he was one of the very, very few people she’d shown the pages to in the interest of helping him out with Edward’s characterization on the first film. The popular take was carelessness on his part, although some people wondered if he wanted to discourage the book from being finished after Twilight’s success locked them into franchise hell — that he didn’t want to be roped into playing Edward past Breaking Dawn. Allegedly! A conspiracy! Still, kinda tracks.
I remember Midnight Sun being leaked and I read the portion that was online. I don’t remember that conspiracy though. That makes it all the more juicy!
Stephenie, Rob and Kristen appeared on Moviefone Unscripted as part of Twilight promo (it’s on YouTube). SM was asked about whether she was completing Midnight Sun and RP interjected “I actually want to say right now I didn’t leak it” to which SM replied “I actually know that….you wouldn’t be alive right now!” There’s more dialogue and it’s a fun watch. I can’t believe I’m back in Twi mode…..
Yep, the entire book was passed through the Twilight fanfiction community. I was part of a different but adjacent world and probably still have a copy on a hard drive some place. It was lame but we all wanted to read it so we could talk about it.
Oh my gosh: does this mean a reboot of the Twilight movies is coming next?
A pox I say on that! Robsten forever!
no! Haven’t we suffered enough! 🙂
eeyugh…can’t eat pomegranates anymore
I love love love Wide Sargasso Sea. Jane Eyre was wonderful and I loved it but Wide Sargasso Sea is a more interesting beast in my opinion. All the questioning of identity within the layers of race, class, colonial power/conquest and madness just makes it so much more fascinating. Jean Rhys forever!
One evening I watching tv without really paying attention to it. My mother entered my room and was like “oh that movie with the vampires”. That got my attention because I wasn’t seeing any scary stuff so I watched 20 min towards the end of it and was curious to know more. I wanted to rent it but that channel would play that movie twice a week so my mother told me to just wait. So I watched them and liked the first one very much. But I needed to read the books to get a better idea. Asking around someone downloaded books and I read them as they were getting out before being translated in my language. I wasn’t crazy about any of that BUT try reading for years the Russian classics and then you get the kind of books like “100 years of loneliness” (I am obsessed with that book) “twilight” and other things like that. Of course it’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s not anything groundbreaking but it was a sweet story for teenagers. What I don’t get is the crazy grown ups. 😂🤪. I hope the book she is going to publish has more meat inside. After all Edward had a long life and you can build that character. Tell his stories. Add more to him. Explain why he became who he became and what saw in her. If she publishes the same crap that was leaked then she hasn’t grown as a writer and it’s a pure money grabbing thing. My niece is crazy about those movies and books. She is 12. I think there is another generation enjoying them.
That Grey shit on the other hand….that was an embarrassing read.
Is there actually a market for this book? I feel like most former Twihards are completely over this series and won’t be interested in reading the story again. Everyone I know who once loved the series as all laugh now over how bad it really is and what a terrible writer Stephenie Meyer is. I doubt it will be a total flop but I just can’t see it making millions.
Twilight fans have moved on, but a lot are actually interested in reading this, mostly for nostalgia and curiosity. Twitter was abuzz this morning.
if you want to watch a really good movie about vampires – and its follow up series, find What We Do In The Shadows.
It’ll cleanse your palate of sparkly vampires.
I just discovered the show and still need to watch the movie. It’s hilarious! My husband does a great Nandor impression. It cracks me up every time!
It’s so funny
I was never a “Twihard”, is that what you whippersnappers are calling them? Anyways, I did read the books, watch the movies ONLY because I was deployed in Afghanistan and in the evenings after video chatting with my family, I needed books and Netflix to wind down. I didn’t think they were that bad, but then again, I was real thirsty for entertainment. I’ll probably read this one, heck why not? I found a plethora of awesome authors while over there. I love the supernatural type stories.
I admit I loved Twilight! I was pregnant with my first , which turned out to be twins. Loved reading in my hammock. I’m actually really excited for this. We need some guilty pleasure books.