After a long wait, it finally happened: the story of Twilight from Edward’s perspective. In Midnight Sun we get to see his darkest desires, thirst and memories from his family members.
Reading minds
Although we already know that Edward has a special gift, this book makes that really clear. From the first page Edward reacts to the thoughts of the people around him. It gives a new spin on some of the storylines we already know, but at first it is a lot to take in.
It also creates some plot holes, however. Edward is fascinated by the thoughts of Bella’s parents, because they both stand out in their own way. While Renee is extremely loud in her mind, Charlie only has feelings and memories, but no complete sentences. How come he never talks to Bella about this? In all the events of the original books of The Twilight Saga they often come back to why Edward can’t hear her, but Jaspers gift does have effect on Bella. This would be the perfect moment to bring up the differences with her parent’s thoughts.
Since this book is written later, Meyer had to create new and interesting twists to make it a new story that readers would enjoy. This works pretty good, but sometimes (as with the plot hole mentioned above) it misses the mark a bit. This could be solved, ofcourse, by writing more books in the saga – and Meyer confirmed that there are more books coming.
Pomegranate seeds
One thing that Meyer improved, is the symbolism of the cover image. For the first book in the Twilight series, an apple was chosen as cover art but it never became clear in the story what the apple means. According to Meyer herself it stands for the forbidden fruit in Genesis, the fruit with the knowledge of good and evil. This explanation makes sense (although it never says the fruit is an apple in the Bible), but I still had to go to the FAQ on her website to find out why the apple was there.
For Midnight Sun, the cover image is more directly connected to the book. Edward keeps having this image in his head from Greek mythology that includes a pomegranate. When Hades kidnaps Persephone to be his wife in the underworld, she eats some pomegranates. Unlucky for her, you can’t leave the underworld after you ate something there! To Edward it feels like he is feeding Bella these pomegranate seeds to make her stay in his “underworld”.
But the myth actually says that Persephone ate the seeds voluntarily, which means that Bella chose to be in Edwards world. This never occurs to Edward, but gives it a deeper layer when you know the original myth. Either way the pomegranate on the cover is part of the story, compared to the apple in Twilight.
Verdict
Meyer has made a nice addition to the saga with Midnight Sun. The story is the same, but now we get to see more from our favorite vampires. More background to Carlisle and Edward, but also more explanation about how Rosalie found Emmett. This glimpse of the family is a welcome new part of the Twilight universe that we know.
Although Edward is convinced he is a monster, my heart feels for him. The way he describes Bella being his sun in an endless night is beautiful – although I should give Meyer credit for that, I guess. I just wish he felt a little bit better about himself, and I would love a book from Edward’s perspective after she became a vampire – to see if he is finally happy now. Because we all know he deserves it.
