Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

7 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Midnight Sun is not what I would call a great book, but it is a fascinating one. If you can get past all of Edward's self-loathing and inability to do anything right (which is extremely hard), there are a few interesting tidbits to mull over. I think one of my main gripes with the Twilight saga in general is that every now and then Meyer touches on something compelling and then zooms right past it for the angsty romance factors.

1. Edward's relationship to Rosalie is so strange and captivating. He loathes her, but he thinks about her the most out of all his family members. Obviously, Rosalie was Bella's foil in the main series, but I never gave much thought to how that impacted Edward's perspective of her.
2. The deeper depiction and explanations of Alice and Jasper's abilties were cool. 
3. I despise the way Edward's mind-reading is depicted. I think it falls into many of the pitfalls that make me dislike most mind-reading characters. The apathy, the loathing for what people think in the privacy of their own heads, the lack of any personal ethics, the fact that he is not impacted at all beyond annoyance... that's a little too flat and Christian for my mind-reading opinions. That said, there is a great moment where Edward uses Emmett and Jasper's minds as his rearview mirrors. This is the ONLY good thing Meyer wrote about Edward's mind-reading.

But those things aside, this book is a slog. Edward's angst is overwrought and hard to read. Add in the Cullens' holier-than-thou vibes and it's just. none of the fun that vampires usually are.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Blood, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Gore, Racism, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Rape, and Drug use

-Racism & cultural appropriation tags are more about how fucked up Meyer's portrayal of the Quileute Tribe than anything that happens in-book (though Edward is hostile toward them).

shutupmaybe's review against another edition

funny sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Edward Cullen I hate being in your head but I'd be a liar if I said this stupid book didn't take me on a roller coaster ride. I laughed, I screamed, I wished and prayed for your spontaneous combustion despite knowing it was a futile hope. This book is a MUST for anyone who read the original series. Sure, it might make you hate The Cullens more, or hate Edward more, or, well... hate any of the characters more (except Jacob—that's one character that was spared; so three cheers for you baby Jake fans) but you'll come out the other side a changed person. Definitely a darker read than Twilight or any of the follow-up books in the series, but trust me, you'll still laugh at the amount of lampshading and retconning Stephenie Meyer does. It's worth it alone to read

the car chase scene

so I'd say read it if just to read the chapter titled 'Race'. You can thank me later.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism and Sexual assault

megselyane's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal death, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Racism, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Ableism, and Addiction

trinidaddy's review against another edition

It was twice as long as Twilight where Edward had nothing substantial to say to accommodate that length. Edward rambles and says the same thing within pages as a narrator. A lot could have been cut from this book for it to make sense. Plus Edward is a creep. The end.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Racism

unloveliest's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Car accident

Moderate: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Child abuse, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Grief, Cursing, and Confinement

er1nmoore's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Gore, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Rape

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Genocide

Minor: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Ableism

selda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you liked the twilight series then give it a go. I can’t see many people who didn’t reading this. It was dark and lingered with melancholy everywhere. Her writing still shines through at times but I have to admit it wasn’t as good as I had been hoping for. Edward still has some deeply romantic lines/thoughts (I mean ‘Her existence alone was excuse enough to justify the creation of the entire world’ hello?!?!!!!). 

I can’t help but wonder if she struggled with the latter half and felt she had to finish it. Still I would love it if she continued with alternating povs from the Cullens, at least for New Moon since I can just imagine Edward’s despair in that book would be too much. I know that’s just a dream though! 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

Jasper is an ex confederate soldier and stephenie doesn’t think to really address this????? She has issues all over the place with racism although it’s mostly ‘subtle’.