Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

16 reviews

ananya_b's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

1.75

I wish I could say something about this book that fits the grandeur of all of Edward's thoughts. But I can't. True, there are some parts - a thoughtful sentence here and there, and then the last chapter, which evokes feelings of longing and loss - that made me rate this book above just 1 star. But that's about it.

I try to hold myself back, but really, this is just going to be a rant on how badly I want my money and time back. This book was not worth either of them. Here we go!

Why is Edward so straight-up horrible? I don't remember Twilight being this awful, even though that was written from the point of view of a self-insert. He just appears to think himself superior to everyone around him, just because he can hear their thoughts and judge them based on that. But does he ever hear himself? Why is he so snarky and judgmental? He's either criticising people for thinking a certain way, or beating himself up for merely existing. I almost pity the other members of his family, who have to put up with such a mood-dampener on a daily basis, for eternity. And I wish he would either stop thinking about leaving, or just pluck up the courage and actually do it. I know that's the point of the book, but it's just so irritating - you'd think he'd have something else to think about!

And then let's talk about him as a boyfriend. He treats Bella like a fragile infant who isn't old enough to make her decisions. He dismisses her requests and believes that he knows what's good for her, better than she does herself - just like an adult with a child. I know he's technically over a hundred years old, so he should know better than someone who's seventeen - but he's stuck at seventeen, too! His brain is just as immature as hers - what gives him the right to make her decisions for her? It's not even about objective things like food or shelter - he refuses to accept the future she wants because of his misguided religious beliefs, as if he's the only one who's allowed to be right on such a subjective topic. 

He's a poor excuse for a boyfriend on all counts. Even during the climax, he does nothing but shout at Alice when she's trying to help, or sob. He never actually helps anyone, even Bella. Here's the most ludicrous example of that: "No longer racing, we moved slowly, Alice pushing Bella in her wheelchair so that I could walk beside her, holding her hand." Notice how the actual responsibilities are shoved off onto Alice or whoever else is around to help, while Edward gets to play the romantic love interest. You'd think if he actually cared for her, he wouldn't let anyone else but himself push her wheelchair!

I won't even talk about how boring or irritating Bella is. Edward even comes close to admitting, although not deliberately (Stephenie Meyer wouldn't dream of writing that!), that he's only drawn to her for her scent and the mystery of her thoughts. But here's an idea: maybe Edward can't read her thoughts because she hasn't got any!

Apart from a few luckily written phrases, the book also suffers from extremely poor writing. For instance, here's an actual sentence from the book: 

He ran and I ran.

It can't really get much worse than this. 

I could go on, but I'll end this tirade here. This has to be one of the trashiest books I own. I'm so glad I survived the ordeal of reading it. 

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lizziaha's review against another edition

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1.75

This book is great for a laugh, if you read it with the right attitude (that attitude being making fun of hundred year old loser edward cullen). This is truly psychopathic shit. Not only do we get a detailed recap of all the psychopathic behavior from the original books, we also get insight into Edward’s misogynistic and murderous thoughts. Like bro spent half of his time planning murders and the other half barely restraining himself from committing them. Also this book just solidified for me the fact that edward would’ve never fallen for Bella if he could hear her thoughts. Her internal monologue is everything he despises about anyone else’s thoughts. I also feel like it can’t be stressed enough that he literally stalks her!!!!! He breaks into her room while she’s sleeping and justifies it by killing a spider??? my guy get it together. And while we’re here, i just want to say that i have a hate-based parasocial relationship with stephenie meyer for how dirty she did rosalie. i will never forgive the misogyny that rosalie has been built around. when she could’ve been such an incredible character!!! this book is unhinged in the worst way imaginable. (emmett sweetheart this has nothing to do with you, you’re lovely) 

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brandie_abbie19's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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shutupmaybe's review against another edition

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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.

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meibles's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I hate Edward and this didn't help.

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emilyreadsthings's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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directorpurry's review against another edition

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

4.0

CW: suicidal ideations, attempted rape/assault, (mentioned) rape, (mentioned) pedophilia, gore, surgery, discussion of blood + internal organs, stalking

A note: the star rating of this book has absolutely nothing to do with whatever quality of writing may or may not be found within its covers and literally everything to do with how I feel about finally reading this BOOK.
Also, this cover? Atrocious. But, like, in a very enjoyable way. Definitely makes me feel those nostalgic late-2000s vibe.

Strap in for a long review, kids...

I have literally been waiting for this book for 12 years. 1 2 y e a r s.


In 2008, I was, in fact, one of those rabid little Twilight fan girls. I was worse - I was one of those Midnight Sun crusaders.
For those who don't know, the short story is, SM wrote the first third-ish of Midnight Sun and then shared it with several alpha readers. One of them leaked the story and, after a struggle, SM eventually decided to post what she had online and leave the project alone for a while (or possibly forever, we thought).
I continued to read the draft long after I stopped being a Twilight fan (although this whole... adventure has perhaps reconverted me in a very interesting new way), even reading it most recently in spring 2019 - peep my 2019 Reading Challenge to see that OG draft! - months before the release announcement. So, coming in, I knew the first chunk of the story extraordinarily well. Well enough, in fact, that I know what was changed from first draft to publication, which says an awful lot about my middle school reading habits, unfortunately.

Lightning round critique before I get into my biggest commentary:
-Very unhealthy
-0/10 do not recommend this romantic relationship, 12/10 for angst level
-Edward is a Dumb Dumb Idiot Boy and Bella is obsessive
-Edward's emo phase could single-handedly keep Hot Topic in business

There's an attempted thematic metaphor about Persephone and pomegranates, but, honestly, it really didn't hit home in my opinion. It was a bit too forced and it felt quite repetitive after a while.
Also, that church scene towards the end? That ain't it, chief. It reminded me a little of some of those Christian murder mystery books you often find free on Kindle, where the main character just stops doing everything for five pages to pray to God. When your main character gets free ebook vibes, you know you're on the wrong track.
I have a feeling I'm going to be treating that the same way I treat all the God/Jesus bits in Jane Eyre... Just very gently skip over them and pretend they're not there, lol.

My feelings about most of the main cast remained the same in the transition from the original quartet to Midnight Sun.
Bella, as always, is fine. I've heard several people say they really disliked her after this book, but I thought she was fine. The relationship with both her parents is unhealthy to the extreme, but at least Edward is aware of that particular flaw.
I found it interesting that we absolutely learn more about Bella than we do in Twilight. The questions conversation that she breezes through in the original book is here almost in entirety. Unfortunately, Edward spends a lot of time making a list about Bella's personality, and he does a lot of telling, rather than letting her actions speak for herself. He tells us all sorts of things about her personality that are barely apparent to legitimately nonexistent in the original books.

Alice's characterization was unfortunately lacking, for being Edward's closest sibling. About halfway through the book, Edward describes their first meeting - Spoilerwhen he and Emmett come home, Alice throws herself into his arms and thinks about all the possible futures they have together. Rather than questioning this, getting to know her, he immediately accepts it. This interaction colors quite a bit of their interactions through the rest of the story. SM relies too heavily on the implication that Edward, and likely the reader, already loves or really likes Alice from pervious books, so she doesn't spend much time developing her. A big disappointment.
I also wish Emmett had gotten more characterization. To be fair, he's pretty straightforward, though, and I adore him. He is Best Boi™ hands down.
However, I was thrilled by all the Jasper page time. He got some awesome moments, and the much extended use of his powers was absolutely excellent. If you're a Jasper fan, honestly read this just for his page time. So good.

With Rosalie... I tried. I really did.
I've never particularly liked Rosalie - her personal beliefs diverge sharply from my own, but we'll get to that in a minute. But one of my friends tried really hard to convince me she wasn't that bad just as I started reading, so I tried really hard to have an open mind. But I, in fact, hated her even more than I did in Breaking Dawn which is really saying something. She's so antithetical to my own personal values - she's vain, she's jealous, she loves attention... she hates being a vampire.
I think she failed so spectacularly for me in this volume simply because SM does a terrible job of convincing me it's bad to be a vampire. Being a vampire sounds cool. You're smarter, faster, stronger... So what if you can't go out in sunlight? I barely do that already. Don't sleep? Time to read more books and watch every movie I've been meaning to watch! Can't have kids? Oh, thank God, now I won't have to make that choice later in life...
Going to Hell? Well, I was raised Jewish and am an agnostic, so SM and I have very different opinions on the concept of souls and Hell. I think I'll take my chances.
So, even if I despise Rosalie, she definitely inspires feelings.
Unfortunately, this brings me to Esme and Carlisle.
Esme is literally the most boring vampire ever. This woman is made of cardboard. Similarly to Alice, I feel like we're supposed to love her purely because we're supposed to love her. All she does is think things at Edward and ineffectually mother him and then look at Carlisle. When someone says the word "Help Meet," I think of Esme and that is not a compliment.
Carlisle's criminal lack of character exploration was not necessarily as personally offensive as it was about Alice. He's a father figure, so I suppose keeping him at arm's length can be appropriate at times. But I really felt he was underutilized throughout the series, so it wasn't that big of a change.

Hands down, I thought the use of vampire powers was the best part of this book. Not only did it explore Edward more fully, there were some genuinely fantastic scenes about Alice's future-telling. (Especially towards the end. I feel like in the driving scene in Phoenix might be off-putting to some readers, but I was completely enraptured.)
And don't even get me started on how cool Jasper's powers are.
But I'm a slut for magic systems, so this exploration was completely welcomed.
Having written this plot once before, SM was able to really dig deep and explain all the little parts we missed originally. Whether she knew what happened at the time or thought it up later, I don't think it really matters, because it genuinely worked for me. From all the little vampire moments and thought conversations to the choreography of the chase and the fight with James, they finally fit together. SpoilerAnd we finally got an explanation for whether Edward's eyes turned red or not! I was literally discussing that two days ago, so I'm glad I got my answer.

SM and I disagree on several extremely significant issues that come up in Twilight, but mostly child-bearing and fertility. It frustrates me to no end that both Esme and Rosalie see the ability to bear a child as the pinnacle of femininity, the peak of their entire lives. That they want to foist their own insecurities on Bella, who is 17-years-old and still in high school, is particularly appalling to me. While motherhood is obviously important to many women, it is not and should never be the end-all-be-all of your life as a woman. Although it wasn't really touched on here, previously in these books, SM has made some unpleasant commentary about being infertile making a specific character feel like "less" of a woman and I still think about that a lot...
It's difficult to call something like this a "flaw" when it's really just an expression of her sincerely held beliefs. But they run opposite to my own, and many other people's, so it's important to question the role this mentality plays throughout the series.

Despite ALL (or any) of that, I love this book. I had the absolute best time reading this. I've started rereading the rest of the series, too. Even with all my griping and moaning, I adore this. I know what's wrong with Edward but I don't care. I love him and I love how stupid he is, and this is the most fun I've had in months
I am absolutely overjoyed to own a copy of this book and I guarantee you will see me rereading it within the next 12 months.

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unloveliest's review against another edition

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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


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ashleyvharris's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

God. This book ruined me. I knew that reading from Edward’s perspective was going to be mentally taxing, but this was almost painful at times. His constant inner turmoil over his romantic feelings and bloodlust for Bella was like a tidal wave that refuses to let you come up for air; every time he had a gentle, pure thought, it was marred by his agony. 

Although his narration lines up closely with what I’d imagined of Edward during the original saga, it confirms that his mind is an unbearable place to be. 
For all the depression, angst, and agony, there were some truly sweet moments that were worth reading from his perspective. His description of the joy he felt after confessing everything to Bella was so sweet and endearing. Not to mention his humor surrounding Bella and her “suitors”. 

And look, I know he can’t read her mind like everyone else, but he is so dumb for a vampire.  He was confused by every thought Bella ever had. How has this man been alive over a century and he doesn’t understand the physical cues of human attraction?

My absolute favorite thing about this book was the new scenes of the Cullen family and their perspective on events from Twilight. The way that Emmett was so immediately protective of Bella despite Rosalie’s anger toward her? Heartwarming. The way Jasper wanted to be around Edward and Bella because of how strong and enjoyable their emotions were? Adorable. 

If you’re wondering what scene ruined me most thoroughly? Edward’s internal explanation for taking her to prom. Destroyed me. Highly recommend if you’re a masochist :)

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chloevienna's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i know this is a star above average but i am an absolute whore for twilight and always have been 

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