Meyer announces two new books coming soon to the saga
“Twilight” has been having a renaissance as of late, with a recent resurgence in the movie’s popularity and the 2020 release of “Midnight Sun,” a novel that recounts the events of the first book from Edward Cullen’s perspective. Luckily for new fans, Stephenie Meyer has recently announced that she will be expanding the world of Twilight with two brand-new Twilight books.
Many fans have jumped to the conclusion that the new book will continue the premise of “Midnight Sun” and recount more of the iconic events through Edward’s mind. And while it would be interesting to see the infamous “you nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness monster?!” monologue from Edward’s point of view, this is unlikely to happen. Meyer shut down the dreams of legions of Team Edward fanatics during an interview with the New York Times.
“This is it for Edward. Writing from his point of view makes me extra anxious,” Meyer said. “And the experience of writing this book was not a super pleasant one.”
So, while these new books will definitely not be written from Edward’s point of view, it is still possible for them to feature Edward and Bella.
The most common theories from fans are books set either before or after the Twilight series with similar characters. Sequels would likely consist of a focus on Jacob and Risotto — wait, no, Rotary? No, ah, Renesmee. This storyline is incredibly controversial in both the movies and the books.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the franchise, Jacob Black, of Team Jacob, was one of the two major love interests of the series until Bella eventually chose Edward and they had their daughter, Renesmee. Moments after she is born, Jacob “imprints” on her, which is an experience unique to werewolves and has unclear implications.
“Imprinting on someone is like when you see her, everything changes. All of a sudden it’s not gravity holding you to the planet, it’s her,” Black said when asked about imprinting in “Twilight: Eclipse.”
While it is unclear, many people assume this connection to be explicitly romantic. Should this be the case, then Jacob, an adult, will raise his future wife and wait until she is mature enough for their relationship to become romantic. This has led many fans to point out the similarities between this behavior and grooming, which is when someone builds a relationship, emotional connection and trust with a child, often resulting in manipulation and abuse.
While to some fans this interpretation may seem like a reach, problematic age dynamics are not strange in Meyer’s books. “The Host,” is another one of Meyer’s book and movie duos, succeeding the original “Twilight” book. In the film, the main character, Melanie, played by a pre-“Lady Bird” Saoirse Ronan, is 17 while her love interest is 26.
Yet, this angle for the novel is unlikely, as I’m sure PR representatives would cringe to think of the ramifications of continuing the storyline.
As for theories of prequel stories, the possible storylines vary much more. The most common requests from fans seem to be books elaborating on the origin stories of existing characters, although this direction still presents various issues. For one, Jasper’s backstory infamously includes a stint of military service on the wrong side of the American Civil War.
Ultimately, fans can speculate as much as they please about new books set around existing characters, but Meyer seems to have a completely different direction in mind.
“For me, a lot of the joy of writing comes from creating, and I really want to do a new world and new rules and new mythology. Mythology is kind of my thing,” Meyer said.
This statement could even mean that the new novels won’t focus on werewolves and vampires, but perhaps mermaids or fairies instead. So, many fans are hopeful that the new books will yield a fun and unproblematic new story as iconic as the original franchise.
