MixedThe Boston GlobeIf you are a die-hard Twilight fan (I am, by the way), you know that some of Meyer’s narrative choices have long been problematic. Yes, many vampire tales feature characters doing bad things, but Twilight, as a young adult novel, seemed to rest on metaphors of boys not being able to control their urges, and only appreciating the girls who are most mysterious to them ... Also, Edward Cullen is a centenarian who falls for a teenager. Bella is dodging unwanted invitations to the school dance, meanwhile, Edward was sired as a vampire during the 1918 flu pandemic ... His stalking also feels worse. In Twilight Bella learns that Edward watches her while she sleeps. But in Midnight Sun readers get a first-person account of that spying with unsettling details. He expresses some guilt, but dude, get out of her room! ... In May, when the news was so bleak, I wondered whether this might be a perfect time for the release of Midnight Sun. Like Meyer I hoped it might transport fans the way the stories did a decade ago ... I suppose it does, but more because of the nostalgia that comes with it.
Stephenie Meyer
MixedThe Boston GlobeThe author spends paragraph after paragraph detailing Chris’s system of keeping herself safe and untraceable. It’s such an exhaustive list that after a page or two, it felt like parody ... Meyer is more concerned with storytelling than writing ... Minor characters are two-dimensional, more like in big-budget movies. Somehow she buys into her tales so much that you do too. It doesn’t matter that she uses the same adjectives over and over ... It’s not the Great American Novel, but it is Meyer.
