The following article contains SPOILERS for Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun. You’ve been warned – quench your thirst for the book’s details below at your own risk!
It’s finally here. Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun has hit bookshelves over a decade after we first anticipated the novel’s release and the Twilight fandom is still pulsating with warm blood in our veins. A lot may have changed since many of us first cracked open a Twilight book (or first laid our eyes on the leaked twelve chapters of Midnight Sun). With the fifth book out, we finally have many of our questions about Edward Cullen’s perspective of the iconic teen romance answered. Let’s sink our fangs into all the sparkly things we learned about the series only Edward’s side of the story could shed light on:
There’s A Lot More To Why Edward Falls For Bella Than Blood
If I could give one central reason as to why Midnight Sun is a worthy read to Twilight fans, it would be how the novel develops Edward Cullen’s fascination with Bella Swan. Still a bit creepy? Yes, (we’ll get to that later on) but there’s also a ton of new insight we learn about the vampire’s affections to Bella. He genuinely is taken aback by her personality and falls in love with her unique way with people.
Edward Cullen has access to a breadth of high schooler minds throughout his day. As his inability to read Bella’s mind perplexes him, he also starts to develop a yearning respect for her selflessness, dark sense of humor and tenaciousness. She never says the “right thing” or particularly fits into the teenage girl box he’s undoubtedly been studying and bored of for decades. And despite his incessant self-loathing about his monstrous nature, she always makes him feel comfortable in his own skin. These details build upon their relationship in a significant way that helped us appreciate Stephenie Meyer’s concept more thoroughly.
Edward Really, Really Does Not Like Mike Newton
The character of Mike Newton has always been a bit of a nuisance in the Twilight franchise as he perpetually attempts to offer Bella a normal high-school boyfriend experience and she clearly shows her disinterest. But, wow does Edward Cullen not like Mike.
Throughout the book, he evidently grows in his distaste for the high schooler as he continues to ask her out and such. And others try, including Eric, Tyler and Jacob, but Edward especially hates his guts. There’s entire excerpts detailing his fantasies to backhand him across the room, imagining the sound of his bones breaking and the best one his yearning to “pulverize his skull with my fist.” Imagine how Jacob Black would send these thoughts later into the series, especially when he kisses Bella in Eclipse? Dude is intense.
Bella Joining The Family Was Talked About From The Beginning
Edward may look like a teenager, but we’ve always been curious about just how teen-like he handled his Bella problem with his family in the first book. Midnight Sun details that the rest of the Cullens were in on the ongoing discussion about where he was specifically at with Bella quite early on. Early in the book, Alice shares a vision she has of Bella as a vampire and the rest of the family (except Rosalie) readily accept the idea that Bella could soon join their vampire clan. It’s actually really sweet how much they trust Edward with his relationship with Bella, despite his own ongoing fears on the predicament. Esme is especially on board, and more motherly than you might have realized as Edward reads her thoughts on Bella.
Alice Loves People Long Before She Meets Them
It’s an undisputed fact that Alice Cullen is the best, right? The character is particularly interesting in Midnight Sun because readers get to see Edward and Alice’s cute brother-sister relationship. It's especially interesting in this context because he can share her visions of the future and sense her undying enthusiasm for Bella.
In the new novel, we learn how authentically eager Alice is to meet Bella, constantly asking her brother if she can introduce herself. And how much she truly loves her, having seen ahead to the relationship they would someday have. And also that this has happened before when Jasper came into the picture. She'd seen their future long before it happened. She was in love with him before they even met and made sure to pick the best version of their first meeting by measure of her visions.
A Lot Of Edward's Decisions Hinge On Alice's Visions
Alice Cullen is also of importance to Midnight Sun because we learn that her visions of Bella and Edward inform his decisions about what to do as their love story unfolds. Towards the beginning of the book, Alice sees the aforementioned sight of Bella as a vampire that scares Edward into wanting to run away. Later in the book, Alice informs Edward of a number of conflicting visions she has about him and Bella. One involves him murdering her in the meadow and another with her as an adult human still with Edward. She calls this cluster of possible scenarios a “knot” that Edward attempts to untie by bringing her to the meadow (famously) and showing her who he really is. What would we do without her?
Ok, So Edward Spied On Bella A LOT
The most troubling new information in Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun is just how much Edward Cullen stalks Bella throughout the book. Not only does he listen to the surrounding thoughts of everyone she comes into contact with, he visits her room every night and watches her sleep.
At one point, every chapter begins with Edward staring at her sleeping patterns. The boy’s got a lot of time on his hands since he can’t sleep, but it's incessant! Edward, boundaries! Bella needs them. His spying has to do with his worry about her following the car incident. He sincerely doesn’t think she can make it through a day without getting into some sort of accident or fall. Though one entertaining detail is kind of fun. Edward spends a lot of his time within Bella’s room killing spiders for her and even fixes her window so it can open and close more effortlessly.
Edward And Carlisle Went Back For That Creepy Predator In Port Angeles
One point of Edward’s creeping that actually makes sense now is during Bella’s visit to Port Angeles. We learn in Midnight Sun that Edward was especially worried about his vampire family members Peter and Charlotte visiting on that day catching wind of her scent while she was there. After he saves her from the sexual predators, old Eddie was really about ready to tear those guys apart. He used to kill bad guys at one point in his vampire life, so the incident springs up an old thirst for horrible men. After the events in Port Angeles, Edward confronts Carlisle with his worry about the sexual predator preying on more poor women like Bella and they went back to find him later and “take care” of it. (They don't kill him, just get him arrested)
Angela Is The Best… And Jessica Is Kind Of The Worst
Here’s an unexpected development. Edward becomes quite fond of Angela throughout Midnight Sun. Her mind is a calming presence to him to take a break from the other high schoolers. She doesn’t concern herself with the drama of the average teen and Edward much prefers her to Jessica’s brain, who is always jealous and gossip-y.
When they confront Angela and Jessica in Port Angeles after the predator incident, Angela excuses them so Bella can have some alone time with Edward. The vampire very much appreciates this gesture and later returns the favor by manipulating her crush, Ben, into asking her to prom. He and Emmett orchestrate a conversation that makes Ben aware that Angela is into him. It’s a super adorable aspect of Midnight Sun, but on the other hand Jessica proves to be an especially shallow and toxic member of Bella’s friends.
Bella Is A Lot More Like Charlie Than We Thought
Another charming detail Midnight Sun dazzles us with is additional insight into Bella’s connections to her somewhat estranged father, Charlie. Early on, when Edward first enters Charlie’s mind when he first sees him at the hospital, we curiously learn that he can’t really completely read his mind as easily as everyone else. He can only sense the tone in his thoughts, not specific words.
This is super interesting because it means Bella kind of inherited her shield abilities. At the end of Midnight Sun, we also find connections between Bella and Charlie when Edward is reading Renee’s mind at the hospital. Amidst her worry for Bella to stay in Forks, she compares her daughter’s infatuation with Edward as “too much like Charlie.” Sounds like her ex was one to take up roots too soon and Renee was the free bird.
How Edward Gets Comfortable With Bella’s Smell
One final important aspect of Midnight Sun to touch on fresh off my read of the book is Edward coming to terms with being with Bella and her oh-so delicious scent that first has the vampire contemplating murder. The first time Edward catches wind of it, we really do get the feeling that he had motivations to forget everything he stands for and kill her right there, but as the book progresses he becomes more comfortable with being around her. His decisions to push himself to touch her, kiss her and then save her life once James bites her are due to his intense love for her as a person. Sucking the venom out of Bella is the ultimate test for him, which he does need help out of from the thoughts of Alice and Carlisle but its clear by the conclusion of Midnight Sun he has trained himself to get past it.
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