‘Midnight Sun’ rises to the top of USA TODAY’s books list
The fifth book in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series has sold more than 1M copies.
A dark and moody vampire is making quite an impression with readers this summer – more than a million impressions, to be exact.
Stephenie Meyer’s “Midnight Sun,” the long-anticipated retelling of “Twilight” from vampire Edward Cullen’s perspective, rather than Bella Swan’s, claims the No. 1 spot this week on USA TODAY’s BestSelling Books list, selling more than 1 million copies in its first week out. That number includes presales and all formats: print, e-books and audio.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to bring people back to the Twilight Saga world and to celebrate this major achievement with Stephenie and the fans and booksellers who’ve supported her for the last fifteen years,” Megan Tingley, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, told USA TODAY in a statement.
“In addition to the breathtaking sales, it is profoundly gratifying to hear how much the fans are loving the novel. The resounding response to the read has been ‘it was definitely worth the wait!’ ”
In May, when the book’s release date was announced, the author promised USA TODAY that the fifth book in the young-adult series would be “darker” and “more desperate.”
It was no easy feat to retell an established story with established dialogue to align with the original novel, Meyer noted. “Metaphorically, they were like prison bars,” Meyer said. “By far the most exciting part of writing this, hands down, is the fourth act where Edward and Bella are separated, so then I’m free to do whatever I want.”
Meyer’s first four books in the series spent more than four years on the BestSelling Books list and spawned five blockbuster films and a legion of “Twihard”
fans. The saga in total has sold more than 160 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 49 languages.
Will there be a new second book in the retelling? Maybe, but don’t expect it to be Edward-centric. There are other characters in the saga, after all. At Books-A-Million’s virtual live event with the author on Monday, Meyer shared with fans what she knows for now.
“There are two more books I think in the world that I want to write. I have got them outlined and a chapter written I think of the first one, so I know it’s there. I am not ready to do that right now, I want to do something brand new,” she said. “For me, a lot of the joy of writing comes from creating and I really want to do a new world and new rules and new mythology. Mythology is kind of my thing.”