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737 reviews
Midnight Sun [2008 Draft] by Stephenie Meyer
For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.
Marked by Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast
2.0
I will admit upfront that I read this knowing that I would probably dislike it (I watched a scathing review by the WriterFromNowhere on Youtube) my curiosity got the better than me (and I enjoy the occasional hate-read) but it really didn’t have to be bad. I’m not averse to paranormal YA in general but unfortunately well-written books in this genre seem few and far between. There was some good potential in places but the authors really didn’t take advantage of it.
The good:
• It’s potentially interesting to read about a world where vampires exist and are not kept secret (although this isn’t done very well, hence Zoey’s initial worries about whether vampires can be cheerleaders, emos, or play chess, of all things to worry about after being marked. Surely she should already know a bit about what vampires are like?)
• It’s also potentially good to have a vampire series from a vampire’s (or at least a ‘fledgling’s’) perspective, rather than a human one
• The goddess religion is interesting (or would be if they didn’t manage to ruin it by making it very Hollywood Wicca)
The bad:
• Strange and unnecessary spelling of vampire as ‘vampyre’ (that I will not be adopting for this review)
• The marker uses ye olde English when they mark Zoey but Nyx, Neferet, and the teachers don’t use this sort of language
• Zoey immediately outs herself as a horrible person from her judgemental attitude towards the ‘dork’ in the hallway, not to mention her best friend (!)
• Zoey feels a ‘special connection’ with a guy on sight (and her relationship with said guy isn’t given much development beyond the surface)
• The pop-culture references are pretty cheesy (and a little dated now)
• Similarly, the use of slang gets annoying in my opinion
• ‘Poopie’
• The stereotypes: most of the characters can be summarised by adjectives. Country, Token Gay, Token Ethnic, Token ‘mystical’ Native American, Dumb Blonde, Idiot Jock, Slut, and Hot Superman Guy should ring a bell to anyone who has read the book.
• Zoey makes a big deal out of being Cherokee and how this gives her a special connection with nature, but never really goes into the details of Cherokee culture and beliefs. The authors seem to regard the Cherokee people as mystical beings more than actual people, which is problematic to say the least.
• The influence from Greek (and other) mythology is very clumsily used
• ‘Dracula’ is referenced, but why would this book have been popular or famous if vampires existed and were already common knowledge?
• The inclusion of a cat for each character is unnecessary, especially when the cats are constantly being referenced (I suppose they could play a part in the sequels, somehow).
• The authors seem to think their plot twists are surprising when most can be seen from a mile away
• The last few pages make some attempt at a set up for a sequel but are so cheesy that it resembles the end of a Saturday morning cartoon.
The ugly:
• The consistent slut-shaming. Not just that, but the fact that (and I love that this is her name) Aphrodite manages to do every last thing she does in a ‘slutty’ way. She dances sluttily, gestures sluttily, performs rituals sluttily…if she were caught brushing her teeth sluttily it would not surprise me. Then again the narrator calls herself a ‘ho’ for having her body touch another’s whilst kissing someone, so I guess her standards of sexual purity are set pretty high. I could rant about this but other reviewers have done so plenty. The authors attempt a ‘girl power’ approach with the goddess religion and then completely destroy it.
• Zoey becomes perhaps the biggest Mary-Sue I have seen, inside or outside of fanfiction. Yes, she’s worse than Bella. There are entire chapters dedicated just to discussions of how special she is:
• The authors do the classic Mary-Sue thing where they ‘subtly’ imply that Zoey is attractive but don’t have her say it herself (although she doesn’t deny it when Stevie Rae points it out)
• She wants blood before she is a full-grown vampire (against the laws of canon)
• She has a religious experience seemingly before she knows anything about Nyx at all
• She performs priestess duties without training. This is based on her ‘intuition’ and the fact that she has witnessed a ritual once.
• Despite still being a fledgling vampire she is the only vampire EVER to have control over all five elements (and is seemingly the only one who can see ghosts)
• Her mark is different just to let everyone know she’s special
• She gets invited to a special ceremony because she’s special
• She gets super-special tattoos
• She has a super-special connection with nature as well as her control of the elements.
• A number of guys are into her all at once.
She gets about 100 on the Mary-Sue Litmus Test.
There are probably other problems but there are just so many that I would struggle to include them all and I can see that other reviewers have already made satisfactorily scathing reviews. I give it two stars because it was at least better than Twilight in terms of entertainment value.
The good:
• It’s potentially interesting to read about a world where vampires exist and are not kept secret (although this isn’t done very well, hence Zoey’s initial worries about whether vampires can be cheerleaders, emos, or play chess, of all things to worry about after being marked. Surely she should already know a bit about what vampires are like?)
• It’s also potentially good to have a vampire series from a vampire’s (or at least a ‘fledgling’s’) perspective, rather than a human one
• The goddess religion is interesting (or would be if they didn’t manage to ruin it by making it very Hollywood Wicca)
The bad:
• Strange and unnecessary spelling of vampire as ‘vampyre’ (that I will not be adopting for this review)
• The marker uses ye olde English when they mark Zoey but Nyx, Neferet, and the teachers don’t use this sort of language
• Zoey immediately outs herself as a horrible person from her judgemental attitude towards the ‘dork’ in the hallway, not to mention her best friend (!)
• Zoey feels a ‘special connection’ with a guy on sight (and her relationship with said guy isn’t given much development beyond the surface)
• The pop-culture references are pretty cheesy (and a little dated now)
• Similarly, the use of slang gets annoying in my opinion
• ‘Poopie’
• The stereotypes: most of the characters can be summarised by adjectives. Country, Token Gay, Token Ethnic, Token ‘mystical’ Native American, Dumb Blonde, Idiot Jock, Slut, and Hot Superman Guy should ring a bell to anyone who has read the book.
• Zoey makes a big deal out of being Cherokee and how this gives her a special connection with nature, but never really goes into the details of Cherokee culture and beliefs. The authors seem to regard the Cherokee people as mystical beings more than actual people, which is problematic to say the least.
• The influence from Greek (and other) mythology is very clumsily used
• ‘Dracula’ is referenced, but why would this book have been popular or famous if vampires existed and were already common knowledge?
• The inclusion of a cat for each character is unnecessary, especially when the cats are constantly being referenced (I suppose they could play a part in the sequels, somehow).
• The authors seem to think their plot twists are surprising when most can be seen from a mile away
• The last few pages make some attempt at a set up for a sequel but are so cheesy that it resembles the end of a Saturday morning cartoon.
The ugly:
• The consistent slut-shaming. Not just that, but the fact that (and I love that this is her name) Aphrodite manages to do every last thing she does in a ‘slutty’ way. She dances sluttily, gestures sluttily, performs rituals sluttily…if she were caught brushing her teeth sluttily it would not surprise me. Then again the narrator calls herself a ‘ho’ for having her body touch another’s whilst kissing someone, so I guess her standards of sexual purity are set pretty high. I could rant about this but other reviewers have done so plenty. The authors attempt a ‘girl power’ approach with the goddess religion and then completely destroy it.
• Zoey becomes perhaps the biggest Mary-Sue I have seen, inside or outside of fanfiction. Yes, she’s worse than Bella. There are entire chapters dedicated just to discussions of how special she is:
• The authors do the classic Mary-Sue thing where they ‘subtly’ imply that Zoey is attractive but don’t have her say it herself (although she doesn’t deny it when Stevie Rae points it out)
• She wants blood before she is a full-grown vampire (against the laws of canon)
• She has a religious experience seemingly before she knows anything about Nyx at all
• She performs priestess duties without training. This is based on her ‘intuition’ and the fact that she has witnessed a ritual once.
• Despite still being a fledgling vampire she is the only vampire EVER to have control over all five elements (and is seemingly the only one who can see ghosts)
• Her mark is different just to let everyone know she’s special
• She gets invited to a special ceremony because she’s special
• She gets super-special tattoos
• She has a super-special connection with nature as well as her control of the elements.
• A number of guys are into her all at once.
She gets about 100 on the Mary-Sue Litmus Test.
There are probably other problems but there are just so many that I would struggle to include them all and I can see that other reviewers have already made satisfactorily scathing reviews. I give it two stars because it was at least better than Twilight in terms of entertainment value.