Stephanie Meyer Is Writing 2 New ‘Twilight’ Books—Here’s What We Think They Should Be About
When Stephanie Meyer announced she’d be writing two new Twilight books, my first thought was: What more is there to say?
Don’t get me wrong—like many youths who grew up in the late 2000s, I was an avid Twihard and Edward Cullen apologist. I read all the books, including the companion novellas and whatever snippets of Meyers writing that happened to leak on the web. I even binge-read Midnight Sun, a literal retelling of the first Twilight book (from Edward’s point of view, obviously), when it came a decade after the original saga. Stephanie Meyer already had a chokehold on my teen years—isn’t it about time that she finally lets me breathe in peace?
And that’s when I realized: Absolutely not. Unfortunately for me, Meyer could write a million Twilight books and I would grudgingly read every one with the morbid fascination of an adult unraveling the unhinged obsession of my coming of age years. As much as I recognize it would probably be best for Meyer’s reputation to not dig too deeply into the bizarre editorial choices she made during the original run of her story, there’s honestly nothing more I want than for her to simply say more.
So here it is: My definitive list of guesses about what these two new books could possibly be about (and how each one will restore my faith in Twilight or completely destroy it).
1. A Jacob and Renesmee love story (which somehow makes the whole imprinting thing seem even worse)
Stephanie Meyer was really taking a risk when she made a full-grown man fall in love with (oh, I’m sorry, “imprint” on) a literal newborn baby. Like, this infant literally existed outside of her mother’s womb for, what? Five seconds? Before Jacob was ready to risk it all for her. Meyer tried to explain it away by having Jacob assure Bella that his love for her little tiny baby daughter is only platonic—for now, because whether Bella or Edward or Renesmee wants it or not, she’s getting hitched to this wolf-man.
This book would be Meyer’s attempt to respond to the Discourse surrounding Jacob and Renesmee’s relationship, and I promise you, it will actually make it worse. It will take place seven years after Breaking Dawn, but Renesmee will already have the body of a 30-year-old and the psyche of an 80-year-old somehow. She’ll realize that her feelings for Jacob actually aren’t platonic (and that Jacob’s never were), and their relationship will tentatively begin—and Charlie Swan will probably be the only voice of reason here, because he can explain away his daughter getting pregnant and having a child within weeks, and he can suspend his disbelief when his granddaughter ages like five years every day, but he simply cannot wrap his head around the fact that the man he once thought could be his son-in-law is now his… grandson-in-law?
Anyway, there might be a love triangle as Renesmee grapples with the fact that she never really had any agency in her love life at all, and there’s totally a possibility that she’ll get pregnant with a part-vampire-part-shapeshifter-part-human and it will be a whole big thing, and for some reason that “big thing” will not involve the fact that this child is only 26 years younger than her grandmother.
2. A Jasper origin story that would somehow be even worse than the Renesmee and Jacob love story
If there’s one thing Stephanie Meyer likes to do, it’s gloss over the fact that Jasper was literally a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. Sure, he’s got a lot to say when it comes to organizing and fighting against a vampire army, but I promise you nothing good could come from hearing anything else from him. But alas, I already learned some harrowing details about him from Midnight Sun, and it’s probably about time that I learn something else about him that will make my brain want to explode into a million little pieces.
But look, let’s be real—even Stephanie Meyer isn’t going to go the whole “Jasper loved slavery” route. Instead, it will probably be about how Jasper just really cares about “states’ rights”, but the more he comes to understand what he’s truly fighting for, the more conflicted he becomes. Somewhere along the line, he will come to the realization that Racism Is Bad, and as a reward of some kind, he’ll meet Alice and fall in love because he is a changed man now, even though he has actively done nothing to actually help fight against racism except maybe acknowledge that Black people are also people, which he only truly comes to terms with when he gets his vampire powers and realizes non-white people can feel feelings, too.
If this is the book we get, we will know we truly live in the darkest timeline.
3. A surprisingly unproblematic Carlisle origin story
If we’re talking origin stories, why not write one about the OG Cullen? We all know Carlisle’s story to a certain extent—he was the son of a vampire-hunting pastor and eventually took over the family business. After he was bitten and turned, he realized he wouldn’t be able to end his life the way he hoped and instead took his self-hatred and turned it into a love for humanity.
Honestly, I could see this one being a surprisingly heartwarming tale about found family. Not only did Carlisle not know much familial love from his human life, but he spent years afterwards feeling out of place in the vampire world. We’d get to see the first time he met Edward and how he took him under his wing as a son, and later we’d see him fall in love with Esme (Meyer would definitely gloss over the fact that he met and was extremely attracted to Esme when she was a young teenager, and I would let her because I really don’t want to read about that and it’s probably best we all just forget it’s canon). We’d all walk away from the book feeling like better people and having a newfound love for our fellow human.
4. A book revealing an entirely new mythological creature—probably fairies
Except they’d be called Fae, or Faye. or Faeigh. She could always go the witch route, I suppose, but it seems like we’ve left the idea of wizardry back in the 2000s and fairies would be a good way to jump on this decade’s literary fad (I’m looking at you, ACOTAR). And because it’s Stephanie Meyer, she would definitely add her own new bits to the mythos, like that fairy wings are made out of literal diamonds (but they can still fly somehow!) or that, for some reason, they can’t have sex before marriage or they will lose their powers.
There would definitely be an interspecies love story going on here, whether it’s a fairy maiden meeting a human man who she’s willing to risk it all for or a fairy prince who meets a vampire woman who’s supposed to be his enemy but who he quickly falls in love with. There would be no spicy scenes.
5. Twilight again, but from Rosalie’s perspective
Look, if I had to read 700+ pages of Edward telling me the same story I already read a decade ago, the least Stephanie Meyer can do is give me the perspective I really care about: that of Rosalie Hale, Forks’ most notorious hater.
Think about it: Rosalie basically never helps Bella and can hardly stand to be around her, so the story would actually be different! We would get to hear Rosalie’s very logical and sound arguments surrounding the fact that they probably should not just let some random teenage girl her adopted brother is lusting over into their very secretive world, and then we’d get to hear every other character be absolutely terrible to her for no reason. But the real reason Stephanie Meyer should write this one specifically is because her books are missing one very important thing: hater representation.
This book would be for every teenager who read the Twilight saga and thought, “Why are they doing this? What’s the point?? Why???” It would be for every twenty-something who picked up Midnight Sun on a whim and thought, “Wow, these people are actually incredibly unhinged.” And this book would be for me, who cannot understand why Rosalie is painted as the bad guy for five whole books when she’s actually just the realest bitch of the entire Cullen clan. Justice for Rosalie!
6. A harrowing Vulturi-centered novel
Realistically, I could see Stephanie Meyer wanting to dig deeper into the Vulturi, which seems to have a well of mythology she has yet to touch on. This would arguably be one of the more interesting choices for her, because it would step away from her usual relationship-centered stories and probably delve into the horror-sphere—at least to an extent.
While the Vulturi isn’t exactly composed of the most likable of all her characters, she could probably explore their weird vampire cult using an outside character, like Carlisle back when he stayed with them or a new character who somehow catches their attention and gets the chance to peek behind the curtain. Or, if we really do want to try a romance angle here (which I personally do not encourage!), we could always get a story about a member of the Volturi falling in love with one of their human victims the way Edward immediately fell for Bella—but please, Stephanie, I’m begging you, don’t do this to us.
7. A book about our favorite Were-Lady, Leah
Leah is, in my opinion, the most interesting of the shapeshifters. Not only is she the only female werewolf in Quileute history (you go, girlboss!), but she also has a tragic love story in her back pocket—she was in love with Sam, the alpha of her pack, who ended up imprinting on and falling in love with her cousin, Emily. And now, thanks to the weird telepathy thing the shifters have going on, she’s forever cursed with having to listen to her ex’s thoughts literally at all times. Tragic!
While Leah’s backstory is particularly interesting to me, I actually think it would be a lot cooler to see her story in the future. Give me a complicated, badass female character (who probably won’t be all that complicated or badass, given Meyer’s history with characters, but oh well) who had to struggle to find her way in the male-dominated industry of turning into a wolf—and whose very existence seems to threaten society’s concept of femininity. It’s giving A League of Their Own—extra points if it’s as gay as the TV show.
8. A Garrett and Kate love story, I guess?
I’m going to be completely honest—I do not remember who either of these people are, probably because my brain has repressed most memories of Breaking Dawn after I threw out the book in a rage as soon as I finished reading it (I’m sorry, but Meyer built the whole book around a conflict that never even happened, you cannot expect me to handle that gracefully). But my friend assures me that this is absolutely necessary, and who am I to argue? I’m a Pisces, I’m not gonna say no to another love story.
9. A book from Charlie Swan’s perspective—for the girlies
Too many of us grew up and had a life-altering realization: Charlie Swan is, in fact, Hot. The bumbling dad who we once rolled our eyes at for trying to hinder young love has somehow become the Daddy of our dreams, and all that Team Edward and Team Jacob nonsense suddenly started seeming pretty inconsequential in comparison. Let Charlie have his moment, Meyer!
I could see Charlie’s book delving into his life as Chief of Police in a town where the amount of mythological creatures almost actually outnumbers its human residents, all the while coming to terms with the very bizarre new family his daughter has married into. And if it manages to make the bestseller list, maybe we could actually get a Charlie-centered movie out of it with enough content to feed the Twilight TikTok fancam girlies for ages to come.