Twilight Official Guide to Arrive at Last–Next Year

After promising publication for over a year and a half now, Little Brown has at last given a firm release date, April 12 next year, for the now-illustrated official guide to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga. Meyer has promised that the new guide will include backstory information on characters, as well as genealogies and maps to fill in more background on the world of the Cullens. It will be interesting to see how much really “new” information is included, or if most of it will be the same material Meyer has already posted on her website or revealed in correspondence and interviews.  One piece that was originally intended for this guide grew until it took on a life of its own as The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Perhaps the collection will include shorter pieces that fill in the actions of characters whose stories Bella couldn’t tell.

One eagerly anticipated back story that Meyer has promised to include is the history of Alice, a history the character herself does not know and has thus never been able to reveal. Or maybe Meyer is just including tidbits about her characters and their world that had no reason to surface in the previous narratives. I know I would have liked to have had the guide while I was working on Twilight and History, just in case Meyer gives Jasper Whitlock-Hale-Cullen’s original Confederate regiment.  That would have allowed me to really develop more about his short time in the Confederate army. But then, Meyer may not include that anyway. Genealogies are no surprise from an author who is a member of the Latter-Day Saints, the folks who maintain some of the finest genealogical resources available.  It will be intriguing to see if the Guide does prove a useful resource, further revealing Meyer’s artistry and the pull of this story, or, not so much. Since the guide is being done by Meyer herself, rather than by an author piecing together information from her texts, letters, websites, and interviews, the Guide will have a certain authority and promises to give us more of what, until now, has only lurked in Meyer’s notes and mind as she set up her Saga.

So, Twilight readers, are you putting the guide on your wishlist, must-read list, or thanks-but-no- thanks list? If you are interested in the guide, what information do you hope Meyer includes that will enrich your appreciation of her creation? What role, if any, will this resource play in our enjoyment of and appreciation of Meyer’s artistry ? While you wait, be sure to pick up your copy of Spotlight or Twilight and History and scroll back through our thoughtful Twilight posts here at Hogwarts.