The DNF Files: "Midnight Sun" by Stephenie Meyer
Usually, I hate to not finish a book - I’m both stubborn and a completionist. However, there are times when life is just too short — and honestly, nearly 800 pages of terribly written vampire fiction is definitely that occasion for me. Shannon has repeatedly asked me why I picked up this book, and honestly, the only reason that I can come up with is that 2020 didn’t feel painful enough. So without further adieu…
I only made it about 58% into “Midnight Sun” by Stephanie Meyer, and I honestly can’t believe I stuck it out that long for the following reasons:
It’s badly written.
Edward is an overbearing ass.
I’m like 93% sure it’s just anti-choice literature.
It’s too long and meandering.
There is still no explanation as to why I’m supposed to believe Edward and Bella had this epic love story.
Did I mention Edward is a paternalistic jerk?
I knew this wouldn’t be great literature (yes, I read the first four books, and I held on even through Renesmee and the horrific pedophilia-adjacent “imprinting”), but it was somehow more infuriating that I expected? Is it because I’m older and more aware? Is my bullshit meter better? Is it because one could never argue that this is good writing:
“Her scent hit me like a battering ram, like an exploding grenade. There was no image violent enough to encompass the force of what happened to me in that moment. Instantly, I was transformed. I was nothing close to the human I’d once been. No trace of the shreds of humanity I’d managed to cloak myself in over the years remained. I was a predator. She was my prey. There was nothing else in the whole world but that truth.”
Somehow in the course of a chapter, she goes from being his prey to being the center of his world, and someone that needed to be shielded and protected. I didn’t buy it in “Twilight” and I was much more impressionable then, so you know I definitely don’t buy it now. Stephanie Meyer doesn’t even try to give credence to this epic love story and instead falls back on meandering passages about love…and forbidden lust.
Yeah, I said earlier that I’m pretty sure this is just a book about being anti-choice, and I should elaborate why I think it’s that (and honestly, an abstinence-only morality tale). I tried to put together a selection of lines that support this conclusion, but Carlisle sums it up succinctly: “It’s being callous. Every life is precious.” And then Edward, who is stuck in eternal puberty, spends most of the book fighting the urge to touch her or to even be attracted to her — treating it as an almost moral failing that he has minor moments of lust.
Beyond that, Bella has no agency — Stephenie Meyer continues to paint her as a helpless pawn, needing to be protected by men who have her best interest at heart. Hell, she even repeatedly stresses her “innocence” and “naivety” as positive character traits. I think that’s an incredibly dangerous idea to put in the heads of her target audience; women should be encouraged to do whatever tf the want, not what their high school boyfriend thinks is best. When I was younger, I wrote this off as silly; now, knowing that Stephanie Meyer claims her religion as her biggest influence, I see this as a recruiting tool for the Mormon church, as well as an anti-feminist tale. I am not the first to make this observation, and I’m sure I won’t be the last.
I think what made me so mad about this (beyond how f’ing long it was) was how she didn’t even try to hide any of this. She makes it a positive that Bella is nothing but an object to be protected or for Edward to be attracted to — she’s pretty and she’s good, but that’s about it. Edward imposes his beliefs on her, and she just takes it; when she tries to assert herself, he takes it upon himself to force her into his chosen direction. Honestly, I quit at page 371 (good god, out of 800), but I can only see this getting worse as the book progressed. Let’s quit romanticizing overbearing men, mmkay?
