Apparently We Can Thank Stephenie Meyer's Own Mother For Midnight Sun's Existence

Jasper Rosalie, Bella, Carlisle and Esme doing Vampire Baseball in Twilight
(Image credit: (Summit))

Of this year's numerous plot twists, one particularly surprising and nostalgic one was Stephenie Meyer’s decision to release Midnight Sun. Many Twilight fans had nearly given up hope that the fifth Twilight book would ever see the light of day. Since the book was released at the top of August, the retelling of the Forks love story from Edward’s point of view has quickly become a huge hit.

Stephenie Meyer shelved the book in 2008 after numerous chapters were read by the thirsty fandom after an online leak. Why did she come back to it after these years? According to the author, it's all thanks to her mother. In Meyer's words:

She told me that if I just wrote the book through [Twilight’s famous meadow scene], that was all she needed and she’d leave me alone. I [wrote up to that scene for her] for Mother’s Day because there was nothing else I could get her. She didn’t want anything except for the book.

Okay, we all need to give credit where credit is due. Stephenie Meyer’s mom sounds incredible, and Twilight fans, we need to thank her for this service to her. It sounds like Mama Meyer gave Stephenie Meyer the push she needed to keep working on Midnight Sun after the 2008 leak caused a setback for her progress.

Stephanie Meyer previously said she halted her work on the novel because it felt like everyone was “now in the driver’s seat,” and she no longer felt alone with her narrative. It’d be similar to a director’s film being pulled from the cutting room floor and uploaded to the public before it was finished. That's frustrating. Thankfully, Meyer did get back working on Midnight Sun and has even announced plans for two more books set in the Twilight world. Meyer continued to talk about why the bestseller almost didn’t happen to Bustle:

I thought I’d missed my window, so to have people super interested in it even after I waited a million years [to release the book] was surprising and exciting.

Midnight Sun has quickly topped bestseller lists and currently sits at No. 2 on Amazon’s most sold books this week almost three weeks into its release. Since the Twilight saga became a huge property, the world has changed and Stephenie Meyer’s saga has been under fire before for its portrayal of a teen-romance between an over-100-year-old vampire and the clumsy new girl at school (seriously though, Bella trips a lot). Meyer feels Edward’s POV will show how “anxious” he is about their blooming romance throughout the series.

Stephenie Meyer has also expressed her interest in altering some portions of the story, but since Midnight Sun was contained in the Twilight novel, there wasn’t much she felt she could do. Either way, the new book has reminded fans why the series was such a cultural phenomenon and we learned a bunch about the story through Cullen’s bronze eyes.

Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates on your favorite franchises.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.