Name: Midnight Sun
Author: Stephanie Meyer
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
General Thoughts: Horrible, but it's a better love story than Twilight (if you know what I mean).
Recommendation: If you actually like Twilight or if you don't mind mistakes in books
Rating: 2/5 stars.
(This is the most accepted cover)
First Lines
Before starting I will assume that every single one of you has read the Twilight series or at least the first one, because, let's admit it, we all did. Even I had my Twilight phase. So I won't explain any important plot points in the story.First Lines
First Sight
This was the time of day when I wished I were able to sleep.
High school.
Or was purgatory the right word? If there was any way to atone for my sins, this ought to count toward the tally in some measure. The tedium was not something I grew used to; every day seemed more impossibly monotonous that the last.
I suppose this was my form of sleep-if sleep was defined as the inert state between active periods.
And also, I need to point out that personally I do not like Twilight or the series at all. When I was younger I used to like it but I've grown and realized that Twilight isn't any good at all. But if you by any reasons like, enjoy or love this book then I have no problem with that. But I must warn you that I'm going to be tough on this and that if I insult you or harm you in any way, I'm really sorry for it, I did not mean it.
Starting off by the fact that Oh, My, God how incredibly unrealistic and wrong Twilight actually is that it becomes ridiculous. This are the moments where you realize how much you've grown since Twilight and oh have I grown.
But let's not talk about Twilight because that will be a review for another day. We're here for Midnight Sun.
So, what is Midnight Sun, you may ask? Well, Midnight Sun is the unfinished work by Stephanie Meyer, retelling Edward's and Bella's love story in Twilight, from the point of view of Edward.
When I found out that Stephanie Meyer was writing Twilight from the point of view of Edward, at first I though it was a lie. There was no way she was writing all this books again by his point of view. So I paid no mind to it. Recently, I remembered about it and though, hey, was it true after all? That's when I began to search for answers and found all this drama of her draft being published without her knowing and how she then didn't want to write it anymore and for so she was leaving the draft up in the internet and WAIT WHAT! She actually let a free draft of her book online. I'm reading it, I'm all for free.
So once again I ventured myself in the world of vampires and werewolf that I though I had left behind in my past. My expectations where, this is going to be horrible, I'm going to waste my time and really, let's admit it, it's going to ruin the story as I know it. It's already bad and it's going to make it worse. But I read it anyway. And God, what I found.
The book starts with Edward and his family in the cafeteria scene where Edward and Bella first see each other. Everything goes exactly the way the other book did. At this point I was already dreading my decision, thinking why did I do this, again? But the bright side was that it was nice to know what Edward was really thinking. Even though we already knew this because that's the only thing Twilight does, describe everything.
As I move on, I encounter myself with some particular words and scenes that just made me cringe. Let me show you and I'll explain.
I didn't listen to whatever this made her think-I was having too much fun watching the girl check her snow chains. She actually looked in some danger of falling, the way her feet were sliding around. No one else was having trouble-had she parked in the worst of the ice?
This always bothered me of Twilight. Stephanie Meyer tries so hard to make Bella look so dumb and dorky and klutzy and completely incapable of walking alone. And no. That doesn't happen. I understand there's people who are a little dorkier than others and are more keen to fall and that there's people that just don't work for sports. I myself am a little klutzy. But what Stephanie Meyer tries to sell us is just ridiculous. It's not real, ok. It's unrealistic. And this is the kind of thing that made people love it so much. And it makes me angry because it gives us a completely impossible idea of what we should be like to attract someone. IT'S NOT REAL. I'm so mad about it. And it gets worse.
I looked to see what had his interest.Really, contusions, really?
Look at all the contusions! How many times did her mother drop her? Carlisle laughed to himself at his joke.
It's not correct, like, a person doesn't hit himself in the head that many times and that hard at seventeen. Specially not a girl who likes to seat down rather than run, read a book instead of playing sports. I have a serious problem with unrealistic books. And I don't mean fantasy, because I love fantasy. I mean when things happen of a way that just doesn't happen. At all.
I was surprised, watching her stumble through the day-tripping over cracks in the sidewalk, stray books, and, most often, her own feet-that the people I eavesdropped on though of Bella as clumsy. I considered that. It was true that she often had trouble staying upright. I remembered her stumbling into the desk that first day, sliding around on the ice before the accident, falling over the low lip of the door frame yesterday...How odd, they were right. She was clumsy.
One more sentence like this and I'll rip my eyes out.
Then we find ourselves with other scenes like this.
"Well," Mr. Banner said, pursing his lips. "I guess it's good you two are lab partners." He turned and walked away mumbling, "So the other kids can get a chance to learn something for themselves," under his breath. I doubted the girl could hear that.
In this we can see how Stephanie Meyer worries about small details like a freak. That would be a good thing, if it wasn't because the details are so stupid and so useless that it's just obnoxious and tiring. In Twilight, Bella hears this first sentence, but then only hears a muttering. That's exactly what Edward describes. It's like she's there saying "Did you got it, pay attention to it, it's not important, but I' going to make a full 12 line paragraph about it". It's so annoying. And it happens multiple time. Every three paragraphs, you'll find yourself with one of this. Example.
This didn't fit with the scenario I'd been constructing in my head.
"Why didn't you stay with them?" I asked, my voice a little too curious. It sounded like I was being nosy.
Which I was, admittedly.
*eye cringe*. Just stop already! I don't need to be told this kind of stuff. I already know them. It's just horrible.
Dear God, moving on.
The little V between her eyes, a remnant of her sorrow, bothered me. I wanted to smooth it away with my fingertip.
*face palm*. Really? A remnant of her sorrow? Just one in her whole face? The rest was fine?
This is yet another thing I hate about Twilight. It's like the characters are androids who have their faces divided and every single one of them tells a different emotion. I can understand when they say "She was smiling, but her eyes were sad" or "The smile didn't quite reach her eyes" because it's real, it means she was trying to smile, but it wasn't genuine. But this is like "Half her lip was smiling, while the other half was sad and her eyes held anger while her cheekbone told me completely otherwise." Say what?
Really, just...let's move on.
"What holds you here, Edward? I'm failing to see..."
"I don't know if I can explain." Even to myself, it made no sense.
He measured my expression for a long moment.
No, I do not see. But I will respect your privacy, if you prefer.
"Thank you. It's generous of you seeing as how I give privacy to no one."
That was a conversation between Edward and his father Carlisle. I finished reading this and was like, well, that sure was awkward, right Edward. But he just moved on like if that was the a normal conversation that he normally has with his father and I was left there like really? That's the fabulous and super confident relationship you claim to have with your father. Really? Because I sure as hell don't talk to my parents or my close friend as awkward as that was. That conversation didn't flow at all. It was so fake that Paris Hilton had to kneel in front of that. It really bothers me, the unrealistic factor. Really, it's just agh. Someone needs to teach Stephanie Meyer how real conversations work, because this was not it.
I could really keep adding examples of how horrible this book was, but I think you've got my point by now.
Even so, along the way you find yourself with numerous obstacles to read. For example, when Edward was reading people's minds, there was no change or distinction between normal text and the person's though. It really bothered me because it made me really confused. But I know that probably, when the final edit was made, that would have been fixed, along with the numerous orthographical and visual mistakes found along the way. I just wanted to acknowledge it.
As for the author's decision of not completing the book because she no longer felt moved to write because of the horrible treason the person who infiltrated to book did, I though that it was fine, I think I would have done the same. It's a really sad thing and distasteful. So, take this as a lesson, people, and don't do this kind of things because it doesn't turn out well for nobody.
And lastly, this book was full of mistakes, infested with unrealistic moments and just made my eyes cringe in general. But even though all of this, there's one thing that makes the story in general worse. I would have preferred a million times to read it from Edwards point of view.
Reading it from Bella's view makes her look so dumb and stupid and all those though that are just irrational and idiotic, while making Edward look like a God who cannot be touched and that no matter how much you try to convince us that he makes mistakes that are egoistic and egocentric, he's still perfect.
But from Edward's view, we actually see that he's really obsessed and dangerous and irrational and we see Bella like she was actually braver and more rational and intelligent. It would have been so much much better to read it with his thoughts. It wouldn't have been as horrible. And that's the reason why I rated it two stars instead of just one.
In general, this book is awful. But it's obsessive and admit it or not, Twilight brought us all here (or most of us) and without Twilight we wouldn't have all this books that progressed after Twilight.
In the end, you could definitely live without reading Midnight Sun.
