Author Stephanie Meyer announced that a new installment of the Twilight Series, ‘Midnight Sun’, will be coming out on August 4. The book will talk about the events from the first Twilight book from the perspective of Edward Cullen, yes, the sparkly vampire heartthrob starring in the posters of every girl’s childhood bedroom. This news was met with shock by many people, not least of all me. (Mostly because I was way more #TeamJacob.) 

But really, do we honestly need another Twilight book? It’s been 12 years - let it go. Anyone who is Tweeting that Stephanie Meyer has ‘saved 2020’ should delete their Twitter accounts immediately. 

Here’s why we definitely don’t need another Twilight book. 

ARE WE ALL FORGETTING HOW TERRIBLE THE CHARACTERS WERE?

Bella was a terrible feminist and an even worse friend. She spent a large amount of time begging Edward to sleep with her, even though she was well aware this might end up killing her.  

Then, in New Moon, when Edward leaves her, she spends months moping in her room and then puts herself in incredibly dangerous situations – including jumping off a cliff - on the off chance that he might come back to save her.

We should also remember how she completely ditched all of her friends as soon as soon as she met Edward. In the first book, she’s introduced to lots of people and makes new friends. As the books progressed, these friends are seen less and less and Bella’s life revolves entirely around Edward.

Edward also fully stalks Bella to start with, appearing in her room to watch her sleep. I remember my teenage self thinking this was really sweet. It wasn’t.

Possibly the worst part of the series is when Jacob creepily imprints on Bella and Edward’s newborn child, meaning that he is hopelessly in love with the baby and will get with her once she comes of age. This is just not okay on any level, and yet we just accepted it like it was completely normal at the time.

WHO IS THIS NEW BOOK EVEN AIMED AT?

Most of us read these books when we were about 14 years old. At most, they were a bit of mediocre entertainment, featuring teenage drama and hot men. Twelve years on, we are now in our mid-twenties/early thirties and have other things going on in our lives.

Given the amount of time that has passed, you’d kind of expect this new book to be something slightly different – perhaps about Bella and Edward’s lives at our age, or even about their daughter, Renesmee, and her *shudder* relationship with Jacob. But no. It’s the exact same story from Edward’s perspective.

The Amazon description says: “The unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist”. Come on Stephanie Meyer, be a bit more original!

Is there really any room in our busy modern lives for a new twilight book? Do we really need to hear about young teenagers falling in love with old men vampires posing as 17-year-olds again? Would we even care about this new book if we weren’t in the middle of a global pandemic? Probably not. 

But will we read it? Yes, yes we will. 

At times like this, nostalgia is something extremely comforting, and many of us are re-watching old films from our childhood. Meyer is perfectly capturing this audience. Also, a lot of us currently have nothing better to do. At any other time, this is not what people would be getting excited about, but caps off to Meyer’s publishers for seeing a quick way to make a lot of money. 

EVEN THE CAST OF THE TWILIGHT FILMS HATED THE STORYLINE 

 In a 2017 interview with W Magazine, Robert Pattinson (Edward) said: “If it hadn’t been so successful, I think people would have thought it was really weird. It’s a really weird story. But I think once it becomes mainstream, it’s difficult for people to see how strange the story is”.

Kristian Stewart (Bella) spoke about her character in a 2012 appearance on the Graham Norton Show: “As soon as she becomes a vampire they kind of ignore their duties. Instantly, they just wanna bone. It’s the most ridiculous situation.”

ALTHOUGH…

Despite all this, I will definitely be reading Midnight Sun when it comes out. Mainly because the books are, as Meyer so poetically describes it, “like my own personal brand of heroin”. 

Expect a full book review in August and you can buy your very own hard copy, kindle or audio copy here:

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By Chloe Lane