BY FATIMA AHTESHAM
Breaking book records and topping charts, Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun is finally out, 15 years in the pipeline, after the grand success of the original novel and idea of The Twilight Saga series. Initially, the book was supposed to be out in 2008 but after a draft of the manuscript leaked, Meyer decided to put the book on hold, terming it as a violation of her rights as an author and as a human being too. Twilight was a supernatural romance novel series that came out in 2005 and was able to gather massive public attention especially after the franchise decided to adapt it into a film series that immediately became a blockbuster. Twilight also holds the record of selling more than 100 million copies, breaking the book sale record previously held by ‘Harry Potter’ books.
The series was originally narrated by its main character, the leading lady, Bella Swan. Midnight Sun is the prequel of the same story but from the point of view of a different yet another leading character, Edward Cullen. The book highlights the past of its character, Edward, and continues along from where Twilight started.
Authors tend to rewrite the same story all over again but from the view of different characters. Avid fans were anticipating something similar in the Twilight Saga Prequel, until Meyer finally put a halt to their curiosity by announcing that the book would be available on bookstore shelves and online forums on 4th August 2020. After 8 years of waiting patiently, Stephenie thrilled the fans with the news, although she hoped that the book would have been published and welcomed by her readers without the distraction of the pandemic. The release soon became a hot topic on Twitter and mixed sentiments from fans are currently surfing. Critics as well as fans had huge expectations, as they already had a glimpse of the draft eight years ago. Midnight Sun became an immediate best-seller and gave the fans a chance to explore the buzzing and thriller world of Twilight (2005) all over again. Now that the book has been out and critically acknowledged – as a rough edition, chronically written, glacially paced, and slightly under-edited – in comparison to her previous work, Meyer hopes that it gets well received by her Twilight fans. She also added that she will not be writing the rest of the series from Edward’s perspective as her journey of writing the Midnight Sun was “not a pleasant one”. “This was for Edward”, she said. (Edited by Khadijah Kamili)
