The highly anticipated “Midnight Sun,” the fifth book in the “Twilight” series, hit shelves Tuesday. The book focuses on a vampire-human love affair, the complexities of which are more apparent to the vampire party, as made evident in the book’s narration.
And that plot won’t be new to Twihards familiar with author Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight,” which she expanded into three subsequent novels, “New Moon,” “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn.”
But this time, it’s told from vampire Edward Cullen’s perspective instead of Bella Swan’s and offers a more complex view of a high school romance. Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson in the films), as the narrator, is a bit more worldly at 104 years old although he perpetually appears to be 17 thanks to his vampire immortality.
In May, when the book’s release date was announced, Meyer promised USA TODAY that the book would be “darker” and “more desperate,” and she didn’t disappoint. For Edward, everything is higher risk than it was for Bella (played by Kristen Stewart in the movies) because he’s a vampire. His desire to at first kill Bella remains a problem even when he falls for her and reminds tension that stretches across the novel’s nearly 700 pages.
Here are six things “Midnight Sun” brings fans of “The Twilight Saga” that are new or notable:
Other side of Edward and Bella’s romance is revealed
The conversations and big moments of Edward and Bella Swan’s love story in “Midnight Sun” mirror those in “Twilight,” which many readers are likely to remember. They just come from a different viewpoint.
And as in any relationship, understanding both sides is revealing. There are instances of miscommunication, jealousy, desire and more that culminate at the book’s climax as Bella becomes more and more a part of Edward’s world. He recognizes he’s dangerous to her though he can’t stay away as she’s his personal “brand of heroin,” as he describes in a conversation that occurs in both “Midnight Sun” and “Twilight.”
Cullen family history made clear
In “Twilight” we become acquainted with the Cullens at the same pace Bella does. But in “Midnight Sun,” readers get a deeper look into Edward’s non-biological family, who were brought together through a series of events that become clearer in his telling.
Each of the family members reads more complex, and their character flaws and bright spots more prominent, giving readers a better understanding of the series on the whole. The Washington state town of Forks’ most mysterious family becomes even less of a mystery than when Bella gets to know them over the course of four other books.
In “Midnight Sun,” readers hear details Edward purposefully leaves out in his explanations to Bella, including a scene in which he simplifies the early stages of his adopted father, Carlisle Cullen’s adjustment period after turning into a vampire, the struggles he endured and limited some details about the amplified human characteristics of his adopted vampire siblings.
Edward’s internal struggle is constant
It’s not quite a Jekyll and Hyde dynamic, but Edward’s internal struggle is evident in Meyer’s text.
As he gets closer to Bella, he frequently refers to “the monster,” a version of himself that could – and often instinctively wants to – hurt Bella. His worries about hurting her are made clear in the tellings from her perspective, too, but are deeper from his perspective.
He struggles with the idea of an internal monster that he had to “beat back” over the decades without Bella, and it became harder to do so in her presence. But when he realized his love for her has become more powerful than instinct, the sheer feeling of joy he expressed is immense – but it’s not enough to conquer the internal struggle.
Jacob Black is not absent from the text
Although he may not emerge in Edward’s world as quickly as he comes into Bella’s life in “Twilight,” Jacob Black, a family friend to Bella who becomes a werewolf in Meyer’s second book in the series, “New Moon,” and is romantically interested in Bella from the get-go, is not absent from the text.
And though he is more of an comfort to Edward than anything else, his interactions with Bella that Edward is aware of allude to past and future conflicts between the Cullens and the Quileute tribe, of which Jacob’s family is a part (perhaps foreshadowing future books from Edward’s perspective).
Insight into Edward’s past
Edward’s personal history becomes more apparent in the new book. Readers get a chance to see him before he encounters Bella, when he was a new vampire in the early 20th century, how the Cullen family began to come together and other memories – some of which are dark and involve a god complex at times.
