Stephenie Meyer releasing new ‘Twilight’ book Aug. 4

Stephenie Meyer, author of the bestselling “Twilight” book series announced Tuesday that the long-awaited series prequel will be released August 4, 2020.

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“Midnight Sun,” the fifth book in the series, will tell a story from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the vampire protagonist.

In a post on Meyer’s website, she wrote that she considered delaying the release of the novel due to the coronavirus chaos but decided to honor her planned release date.

“I hope this announcement doesn’t seem ill-timed; I really considered delaying the release until the world was back to normal,” Meyer wrote. “However, 1) who knows when that will be? And 2) you guys have waited long enough. Much longer than long enough, actually.”

Meyer said she hoped the announcement would bring joy in the midst of uncertainty.

“I know how much I personally need distractions right now, how much I need something to look forward to, and most of all, how much I need more books to read,” she said in a statement. “So, I hope this book gives my readers a little pleasure to anticipate, and after it arrives, a chance to live in an imaginary world for a while.”

“Midnight Sun” has been in the works for more than 13 years.

Meyer stopped working on the project more than 10 years ago after portions of the book were leaked online. In a 2008 blog post, she wrote that she was “too sad” to continue writing and that the book was “on hold indefinitely.” The author also released 12 unfinished chapters of the book’s draft, which she called “messy and flawed.”

“There is so much more to his side of the story than there is to Bella’s in that first chapter,” Meyer wrote in the blog post at the time. “His side of Bella’s first day at Forks High School is a hundred times more exciting than her own.”

Now, the author is weighing in on what readers can expect this time around.

“It’s definitely darker, and I would say more desperate,” Meyer said, according to USA Today. “The stakes are way higher from (Edward’s) perspective ... I think people are not going to maybe have anticipated exactly what Edward was thinking and doing ... I don’t know if it will be the Edward that they imagined. I think it might be an Edward that’s a lot different than that.”

The “Twilight” series has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

Cox Media Group