Do we really need another Twilight book?

Yesterday it was announced that we’re heading back to Forks and all things Twilight with the release of Midnight Sun, a re-telling of Twilight from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the forever 17 year-old vampire at the centre of the original Twilight novel released in 2005.
I couldn’t help but wonder (how very Carrie Bradshaw of me), do we really need another Twilight book in the year of our Lord, 2020?

A brief history of Midnight Sun Drama

If you were a Twi-hard back in the day you probably know a bit about the drama surrounding Midnight Sun, but here’s recap:
Stephanie Meyer was working on Midnight Sun during the height of Twilight mania in 2008. Breaking Dawn had just come out and the first Twilight movie was a few months from release – basically people were mad for all things Twilight. So crazy in fact that someone leaked the manuscript for Midnight Sun on the internet in August 2008.
Meyer halted the writing of Midnight Sun in response to the leak. She stated, “If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn’t dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely.”
She made the twelve-chaptered draft available on her website in fairness to her readers – which are still there to this day.
She said that her goal was to go for around two years without hearing about Midnight Sun, and she thought that she would begin working on the novel again once she was sure that “everyone’s forgotten about it”.
That was 2008 and it’s now 12 years later. It’s over 7 years since the last Twilight movie was released and it just feels like she missed the boat.

Why Now?

Meyers’ post-Twilight career never did take off. Her first non-Twilight book, The Host, in 2009 wasn’t very well received. Although it was made into a movie off the back of the success of the Twilight Saga and starred our very own Saoirse Ronan.
Meyer just can’t seem to let go of Twilight. In 2015 she released Life and Death, which is a re-telling of Twilight with the gender roles reversed.
As someone who was into the Twilight books (well, the first 3, Breaking dawn was not good) I’m well over Twilight. I read the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun on Stephanie Meyer’s website in 2009 and I do remember liking it as Edward’s perspective was a bit more interesting than Bella’s, but that was 11 years ago and I was 17. I’m not getting a thrill out of the thought of reading it so many years later. And at the end of the day, the story still has the exact same outcome.
I’m sure she doesn’t need the money and the argument has been made that she is doing it for the hard-core fans. If that’s the case, then so be it. But overall I’m not into it. And from the general consensus online, it seems I’m not alone in thinking that Stephanie Meyer left it way too long to release Midnight Sun.
If you are excited to read Midnight Sun you can pre-order a copy here before its release on 4 August.
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