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Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
So this summary… we’re probably going to skip a lot of the things that we know happened in Twilight because we’ve all already read Twilight or watched it or read Life and Death or listened to the episode about it… So… Deal with it. We begin the story with Edward bored in school... He's bored with everyone there because they're all obsessed with the new girl, Isabella Swan, or just Bella as she keeps correcting everyone. He thinks about his family’s minds: Jasper is suffering because he wants to eat everyone, Rosalie is thinking of herself as usual, Emmett’s not really paying attention to anything and Alice is of course, thinking about the future. He finds everyone else in the school to be annoying… All the boys are obsessed with Bella, Jessica is petty and jealous of her. What is the deal with this girl? He’d better read her mind to find out. Um… he can’t. Is he losing his ability? No… something’s just off about this girl. She seems so weak. He spends a lot of time looking at her, thinking even of protecting her because she’s so weak, until biology. This is when he decides he has to kill her and everyone else in the classroom. His thirst has taken over his normally calm demeanor. He wants to drink her blood so much that he’s just going to have to kill her and then of course he’ll have to kill everyone else to hide the evidence and then his family’s going to have to disappear. No… he can’t do that to his family. And he can’t let Carlisle down. Plus, he doesn't want to be a monster! But he really hates her. He'll just have to kill her later. No no no... He doesn't have to. He has a choice. We all know that he doesn’t kill Bella but then he disappears from school for a week or so. Where does he go during this time?
Alaska! Edward spends a little time in Denali, hiding in the snow. He’s mostly hiding from Tanya because she’s got the hots for him and her lust is off-putting to him. They finally talk when she jumps on him in her nightie and he calls her a succubus. Tanya believes he will go back home and take on whatever thing is bothering him head on. She's right. So… He goes back to Forks. Back at school, he begins to get frustrated with Bella's silence. He listens in on Jessica and Mike's thoughts because they’re around Bella all the time and he can see what she’s up to through their eyes, but oh my gosh they’re so annoying. Once, while eavesdropping on a conversation between Bella and Jessica, he hears Bella say that she thinks he hates her. I mean, maybe she’s right? No no no, but also yes yes yes. He wants to see her. He also doesn't want to let her dictate his life. Oh, this is going to be troublesome.
The next time they’re in biology, it’s the stages of mitosis lesson where they have to share the microscope. They begin an actual conversation where Edward asks lots of questions, but we know this part. What we don't know is that he's struggling the entire time, trying to learn more with every incorrect guess at her life. He struggles a lot with not knowing what’s going on inside her head. Later, he goes out with Carlisle and decides that he’s just going to leave. Carlisle, Esme and Alice are of course saddened by this, but it’s just going to be a few years until Bella leaves Forks and gets married or whatever. Alice says his future is changing so much that she can’t really tell what is going to happen, but really, he’s probably going to kill her. She’s seen that future several times. So, Edward decides he’s going to go to school to see Bella once more and then he’s going to leave her to her life. Today is the day of the car accident. We all know what happens. Tyler’s car slides around and Edward stops it from smooshing Bella, then they go to the hospital. SOMETHING NEW THOUGH! When Charlie arrives, Edward notices that he has trouble reading his thoughts. He can, but it's difficult. So that's where she gets it from...
Later on, after the conversation Edward has with Bella about how she knows he wasn’t anywhere near her and that he should have just let the car crush her, he plans to fight his family for Bella, to keep her safe from them since most of them think they will have to kill her to keep their secret. But she swore she wouldn’t tell anyone! Rosalie and Jasper want to kill her and Emmett will back Rosalie. Carlisle and Esme just want what's best. Alice sees a future where Bella will be her best friend, so she’ll probably sit out of the fight. Edward just wants to leave, but he can't, because that will make Bella talk, probably about how he helped her, even though she promised she wouldn't. Alice shows Edward two possible futures, presumably Bella's death and her becoming a vampire. Edward doesn't want either. Alice says she loves her, TOO, because obviously that's the path Edward is on.
After resigning himself to stay in Forks and not murder Bella, he realizes that she is a good person. She’s always thinking of others first, doing things for the odd person out, being helpful, being kind. The time is coming for a school dance and Mike, Erik and Tyler all ask Bella to go with them, but she's going to Seattle that day. That night he decides that he's going to protect her from everything, even metaphorical meteors, so he sneaks into her bedroom and she says his name in her sleep! He thinks of how he is frozen in time, and that the moment when he was turned, his life froze, even his teenage thoughts. He decides that he's going to give her a third future. Not death, not vampire, but human with him.
The next day he speaks to her at school and this is really a lot from the original. This is the-I said we shouldn't be friends, not that I don't want to be friends- scene. He asks if he can take her to Seattle the day of the dance and she agrees. They sit at the same table at lunch and everyone is jealous. This is also the day of the blood typing. Edward takes Bella home from school early after Mike asks her if she's going to the beach, and yes, she's going and Edward is not. He asks her to be careful, studying her reactions to everything he says, trying to decide if she reacts the same way other ladies who are attracted to him react. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Especially not this time. She slams the door, annoyed probably that he wants to take care of her because that's her job to take care of everyone else.
At home, Edward starts composing Bella's Lullaby. He's been thinking about it for a little while, but now he's actually sitting at the piano composing. Esme hears and is so happy that he's composing again. She leaves her blueprints at her drafting table and comes to listen. Rosalie accidentally lets her guard down and Edward realizes she's jealous because she wants everyone to think she is the most beautiful and now Edward thinks Bella is beautiful, too. How dare he?! Alice joins Edward at the piano and sings along, all the while just wanting to start her friendship with Bella. One day, Alice, one day. Later, Edward goes hunting with Emmett, and finally talks about how he feels, exceptionally worried about Bella literally all the time. Emmett is a good brother and only laughs at him a little bit. He gets even more worried because he hasn't checked on her in a few days. She's fine, but her hands are scraped up. She also spends some time in the woods near her house. Jasper's friends, Peter and Charlotte, come to visit around this time and think that Edward is weird, and I mean, they're not wrong. Even though they come and go with no trouble and no hunting in the area, Edward is worried about Bella being alone in her back yard because they might eat her. He can't really say anything to her about being in the woods by herself because, what would he say? Hey, I followed your scent outside and I like to hang around watching you all the time? Nope.
Because he doesn't tell her this, they become friends at school. They eat lunch together and Rosalie is still constantly upset and Alice constantly wants to be friends. This is always a thing. Again, one day, Alice, one day. But not today! Because today is the trip to Port Angeles! We know what happens to Bella, but what was Edward up to the whole time? Following her, of course! The sun is still up and it is a sunny day, so he has to stick to the shadows. He's watching her through Jessica and Angela, but then they're trying on dresses, so he leaves their minds for a little while. What could go wrong?! Everything. Everything, Edward. She goes off looking for her book about the cold ones and has plans to meet back up with her friends at dinner. But uh oh, we know that doesn't happen. But we also know that Edward saves the day. He spends a lot of time thinking about the other people he has killed, but he also thinks about how he can't kill the guy who would have hurt Bella because Bella deserves better and he's trying to be good for her. They eat at the restaurant and it's pretty much the same as we all remember. Bella calls him out for dazzling everyone. They talk hypothetically about what he is and what he does. What we don't know already is that he compares her in his mind to Persephone, making him Hades. On the way home, they have the -in the car conversation- about Bella knowing that he's a vampire and that she's okay with it. Sigh.
After he takes her home, Edward goes to Carlisle, struggling with his desires to go back and kill the creep who almost attacked Bella. Carlisle takes care of it. He drugs the guy who turns out to be a serial rapist and drops him off near a police station in another state. Way to go, Carlisle! Edward shows up to take Bella to school the next day. The rest of his family drive in Rosalie's ostentatious car. He listens in on others around her and gets not-so-juicy details of their "date" from Jessica. He learns that Bella doesn't think she's good enough for him, but he, we all know, thinks she's perfect. He asks about their trip to Seattle, if they really need to go or if they can do something else instead. They can! We know that he's planning on dazzling her with his sparkles in the meadow that day, but there's a couple other things that happen before that. Edward touches Bella's face and tingles. Edward has been thinking for awhile that he needs to do something nice for Angela because she's a decent person, so he and Emmett work together to set her up with the guy that she likes and it's very sweet, kind of, but also not a plan that makes any sense because he pretends to not know the person during behind him in class, but whatever. While they're matchmaking, Bella's getting hit in the face playing badminton in gym.
They take turns asking each other questions every day until it's almost time for the meadow, but first! Alice sees a terrible vision and they decide to leave school after lunch to feed. Alice sees Bella dead in the meadow and Edward's eyes red. But how can that be? He's resolved himself to keep her safe! Alice says Bella has to go through the meadow to have any chance of coming out of it on the other side. There's a sure way to do that, she shows him herself and Bella together as vampires, but he refuses to do that. He thinks of leaving again, but then Alice shows him Bella depressed, like sitting in the chair for months New Moon style. And she also shows him that he'll come back to hunt her. Uh oh. So he thinks of killing himself, but he'll need the Volturi for that and that would be bad for Bella too. (It is painfully obvious that Edward has terrible anxiety issues.)
Edward spends some time thinking of Carlisle taking him out in public for the first time after he was changed, and how Carlisle tricked him into celebrating Christmas and accidentally meeting other vampires. These others pity Edward in living Carlisle's way, so he starts killing human predators and leaves Carlisle and Esme who has joined the family now. After a while of murdering murderers, Edward realizes he was made for something better and returns to his family. Alice lets him know that whatever he is thinking about is heading to an 80/20 of Bella surviving. They go to the meadow and we all know that it works out perfectly fine. You know, more or less. Maybe a tree died. And the references to heroin and lions and lambs. And piggyback riding.
After this delightfully dazzling scene, we learn origin stories, for lack of a better word. Rosalie was made for Edward but yikes. Luckily before too long, she found Emmett having been attacked by a bear. She carried him through the wilderness all the way to Carlisle because she didn't think she'd be able to turn him on her own. She begs for Carlisle to save him and he's like… uh, he's been mauled by a bear, but Edward explains, no, save him, wink wink. So now we have Emmett who loves killing bears. We also get to learn about Rosalie killing Roy and co here instead of in Eclipse. This is actually kind of what Carlisle thought was happening when she brought Emmett in, that she found another one of her rapists, then he thought that she cared so much about him that he must be a family member. Nope. Emmett was her mate and she knew it. We also get a little of Jasper and his emotion-control and Alice, how Alice knew she was going to love Jasper years before they ever met, again, here instead of in Eclipse. We also learn that they gained humanity on their own and joined the Cullens because of course, Alice saw them in her future. Alice burst onto the scene, loving Edward immediately and showing him their future together. All of this with Alice and the future, but we also learn that she doesn't know about her past. Yet! (This was something that I loved about Life and Death, we found out Alice/Archie's story then.)
So now after Bella has made it through her literal and figurative meadow, they never want to be apart. Edward stays with her that night and she knows this time. (Charlie is fishy and suspects Bella of sneaking out, going so far as to disconnect her truck battery, but oh no, she's sneaking boys in!) Edward and Bella have a slightly awkward sex talk before he sings her to sleep. He sneaks home to talk to Rosalie, asking her to try to understand his feelings, and to prepare her for Bella coming over later. She's very upset about Bella not having any respect for her female body and how it is meant to make babies and that she definitely shouldn't want to become a vampire, so she and Emmett are going to skip out on meeting her this time. When he brings her over, Carlisle informs him that Alice has seen visitors coming. This is new. Esme loves Bella immediately and Alice is so excited to finally get to begin her friendship with Bella. Jasper loves all the emotions flowing around. Bella already knows Carlisle, but he's delighted by her too. Esme suggests Edward play piano for Bella, causing her to cry. He TASTES HER TEARS. Edward tells her Carlisle's story, how he was turned, slowly and painfully, how he hated being a vampire so much that he tried to starve himself and kill himself in all sorts of ways, and about him being with the Volturi a little. Bella is curious about how a vampire could be killed, well just you wait! You'll get to see it live from the front row! Edward also thinks of the story of him killing killers, now, instead of in Breaking Dawn, and one time in particular with a guy who wanted a young child. He also thinks about those pomegranate seeds a lot.
Oh, it's almost time for the baseball game! But first, Bella and Billy talk because he's waiting at her house when Edward drops her off to get ready. He's going to come back later to officially meet Charlie. Billy realizes Bella knows about the Cullens and wants Bella to tell Charlie and also not date Edward. He remembers the treaty. Edward does too. He remembers Carlisle calling Billy when they moved back to Forks a little while ago. Edward follows Billy and Jacob back to La Push and then goes home to convince Rosalie to play baseball too before going back to Bella's to meet Charlie. That goes well enough, as we know it does, and then they drive off together in Emmett's huge off-roading jeep that Edward has to buckle Bella into like a baby. They drive the Jeep as far as they can, then Edward dazzles Bella purposefully to convince her to piggyback run with him again to get to the clearing for the game.
So it's time for the baseball game and Supermassive Black Hole by Muse comes on… wait. That's the movie. But just think of that and then the nomads coming because it's the same, you know, Laurent is friendly and wants to join, James is creepy in the best Cam Gigandet kind of way and Victoria is also there, you can choose which version you prefer. What we don't know is that Jasper dulls everyone's thoughts, making Alice, Bella and Esme mundane. They, meaning Laurent, are curious about the Cullens keeping a permanent home nearby and then Carlisle forcefully invites them home. They are about to split up and leave with the nomads none the wiser about Bella thanks to Jasper, but then... the wind. James crouches immediately to attack but Edward challenges and Laurent doesn't understand. They brought a snack? Laurent backs off, confused but agreeing not to hurt Bella or hunt in the area. Emmett steps up then, giant and terrifying, either because he's giant and terrifying or because Jasper is making him seem so. James backs off but immediately begins to plan his tracking. So now they split up to take the nomads home and take Bella away. Edward is freaking out, Alice is seeing a million terrible futures. Emmett wants to punch somebody. Bella wants to go home because she doesn't want them to get in trouble over her. Also they have to protect Charlie. Alice knows James will leave them alone if they turn Bella but Edward won't do that. Bella announces her plan to run away back to Phoenix and we all know they decide to do this and how this turns out. Let's skip over Charlie being sad.
The Cullens, even Rosalie begrudgingly, thanks to Carlisle's multiple uses of "our family," will keep Bella and Charlie safe. While Bella goes with Jasper and Alice and does all the stuff we know she does, Esme and Rosalie go to Charlie's, and Edward, Emmett and Carlisle are followed by the tracker. Finally something new! They lead the tracker away and then they drive the Jeep off a mountain, jump out and plan to attack. James jumps into water, impossible to track. They split up and ask Alice for help, but he gets the advantage and heads away from them. Esme and Rosalie keep an eye on Victoria while Edward, Emmett and Carlisle continue to follow James, who takes a small plane to escape. When they call Alice, she reveals where he's going, to the room with mirrors. Edward, Emmett and Carlisle head back to Forks, but then Alice calls to alert them that James is on his way to Phoenix, so they head to Seattle and fly there, too, on a commercial plane. The plan is to meet at the airport and Edward will take Bella away. But we know that Bella sneaks away through the secret extra bathroom exit to the ballet studio.
The Cullens steal a car, a racing Subaru with nitrous, of all things, and drive super fast, steal another car that can also go upwards of 180 miles per hour, throw the Subaru across the interstate to cause an accident and to get away from the police. Yes. Reasonable. Alice shows that they aren't going to make it before Bella gets hurt and of course she's right. They arrive shortly after and Edward fights James and throws him into Emmett. Emmett and Jasper get to kill him. Edward and Carlisle are with Bella, Carlisle sewing up all her wounds. Bella screams about her hand and Edward realizes she was bitten. Alice tells Edward that he has to be the one to change her. Carlisle tells him to fight the frenzy and suck the venom out. It is joy and bliss and rapture. Before passing out, Bella says that James knows Alice. Emmett is upset about the fight because Jasper came in pushing out thoughts of violence, making James give up. On the way to the hospital, Alice thinks and rethinks of the scene she's going to fake of Bella getting hurt, rewinding and redoing her plans over and over until she gets it perfect. She throws herself down a flight of stairs and through a window at a hotel.
Later, in the hospital, Edward won't leave Bella's side. Renee arrives and her mind is the opposite of Charlie's. She's Loud. So loud that it seems like regular people can hear her thoughts. She's frantic inside her head about finding Bella and all the hospital staff want to help her. Alice brings in the video camera that James used to record his attack. Yikes. The video, in addition to James performing for Edward and beating the crap out of Bella, explains how James knows Alice. He tracked her a long time ago and she was his only victim to escape. She was in a sanatorium, but before he could get to her, another vampire turned her, protecting her from James. She wasn't interesting anymore after that, so he killed her maker and left. Bella tells Edward that she wants to become a vampire but… well… nope. Edward refuses. He says he'll stay as long as it's good for her. She can't have the future she wants. This is where we should just all switch over to Life and Death where Beau gets the future he wants.
Okay fine. So we didn't swap to Life and Death. Bella gets out of the hospital and they all go home to Forks. There's lots of rumors about Bella falling through the window in Phoenix and why they were there in the first place, but everything eventually goes back to normal. Alice has a plan for them to go to prom. Edward thinks about Bella's future, telling her future children about her prom. Alice helps her get ready and then Charlie calls Edward, telling him Tyler showed up at Charlie's to take Bella to prom. She didn't realize they were going to prom. She cries about it? All the vampires dance and have fun and then Bella offers to lock the doors so they can kill all the townfolk. Edward constantly thinks of leaving, like for good, the entire time. Then Jacob shows up. We've seen him several times but this is the most important time. Jacob doesn't really believe that there are vampires, but Billy paid him $20 to come talk to her. Billy wants them to break up and as we all know. Even though Jacob's crush comes out in full force, Edward likes him, likes his mind. There are hints at Jacob turning into a wolf, but he's not one… yet. They leave and Bella reveals she thought instead of prom, they got her all dressed up for Edward to change her. Cue the movie prom scene where Edward kisses Bella's throat but without Victoria being there. The end.