It’s been 15 years since author Stephenie Meyer took the book world by storm with her debut novel, Twilight. Now Meyer is making her return to the Twilight world with Midnight Sun, the much-anticipated companion novel to the franchise.
The author first teased a surprise announcement by featuring a clock on her website’s homepage, seemingly counting down to the Monday reveal. The clock was also posted on the social media pages of her production company, Fickle Fish Films. The suspense drew fans into a frenzy as many were left theorizing whether the author would finally release Midnight Sun or return with a new book altogether. Indeed, when the countdown ended Monday morning, Meyer‘s website seemingly crashed from all of the interest as fans were unable to reach it to find out the news. But, in a video that aired on Good Morning America, Meyer announced the release of Midnight Sun on Aug. 4. The book’s release date and information was also posted to her publisher’s website.
In the video, Meyer speaks about announcing the book’s release date amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s a crazy time right now and I wasn’t sure if it was the right time to put this book out but some of you have been waiting for just so, so long, it didn’t seem fair to make you wait anymore,” she said.
Though the author was originally set to publish Midnight Sun in 2008, Meyer canceled the publication plans after a copy of her manuscript was leaked online. The author then posted a partial rough draft of the work on her website but never released a completed story. At the time, she referred to Midnight Sun as “an exercise in character development that got wildly out of hand.”
Meyer’s Midnight Sun is a retelling of her Twilight love story but told from the point of Edward Cullen instead of Bella Swan.
“While I was procrastinating some real editing work (I’m always at my most creative when procrastinating), I started to wonder how the first chapter of Twilight would read if it were written from Edward’s perspective. There is so much more to his side of the story than there is to Bella’s in that first chapter,” she wrote to fans on her website.
“Though I didn’t have time to work on it right away, the idea of letting Edward have his chance to speak stuck with me. I couldn’t shake it. I found myself thinking his words in the middle of the night and jotting down phrases he would use while I was waiting in line at the post office. As soon as I finished my real work, I sat down and let Edward get his say.”
Meyer‘s Twilight books have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. The popular franchise centered on a vampire and teenage human falling in love grew to become a cult phenomenon after it was adapted for the 2008 film of the same name starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Each book in the franchise was adapted for film, before closing the curtains in 2012 with the final installment, Breaking Dawn: Part 2.
For its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, Twilight grossed $393.6 million worldwide. The second film in the film franchise, New Moon, grossed $709.7 million. Meanwhile, Eclipse grossed $698.4 million; Breaking Dawn: Part 1 grossed $712.2 million and Breaking Dawn: Part 2 finished with $829.7 million worldwide.
After finding success with her Twilight franchise, Meyers later penned the 2008 novel The Host (adapted for the 2013 film starring Saoirse Ronan) and 2016’s The Chemist.
Watch the GMA announcement below.
JUST IN: 15 years after the first novel in the “Twilight” saga was released, author Stephenie Meyer is bringing readers back to Forks, Washington, with her new book, “Midnight Sun.” Find the details here: https://t.co/IHD4UfAkkI pic.twitter.com/ZY3ZqnBahG
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 4, 2020