‘New Moon’ Is the Only Book Cover Stephenie Meyer Didn’t Have a Direct Say In
Twilight quickly became one of the biggest YA fantasy novels of the early 2000s and spawned an entire film franchise and more than its fair share of fans. Thanks to that, Stephenie Meyer went on to write four novels in total and even some spinoffs, with the newest one coming out this year.
Midnight Sun retold the story of Twilight from Edward’s perspective, and while Bella’s story had an apple — aka the forbidden fruit — on the cover, he had a pomegranate. His fruit is also from a story with religious undertones — it was ancient Greece, but still — that of Persephone and Hades, albeit with a much darker ending.
But when it comes to the book covers of the Twilight novels, there is one that Meyer didn’t seem to have much say in.
Stephenie Meyer wrote that she ‘didn’t have anything to do’ with the ‘New Moon’ cover
If you’re a fan of Twilight, even casually, the apple cover relating back to the Bible story of Adam and Eve is common knowledge. And given Meyer’s religion, it all ties in. But Meyer wrote on her blog in her New Moon FAQ section that the “ruffled tulip” on the cover actually wasn’t her idea.
“Something to keep in mind if you intend to embark on a career as a writer: lots of things you might expect to be under your control are not,” she wrote. “Covers, for example. Those are mostly up to the publisher and the marketing and sales departments. So I don’t know what the tulip means—I didn’t have anything to do with this one.”
She wrote that because of this she couldn’t give the meaning behind the tulips when the question asked for the flower’s significance. She did touch base on her previous Twilight FAQ, where she went in-depth on that meaning. Because there was a lot of personal thought she put into that one. But she also noted that Twilight was the “exception” not the rule in the “publishing world.”
The ‘Twilight’ cover was an ‘exception’ as Meyer called it
And again, that “exception” related back to Meyer’s religious faith and the story in Genesis.
“I loved the phrase ‘the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.’ Isn’t this exactly what Bella ends up with? A working knowledge of what good is, and what evil is.” Meyer wrote in her FAQ.
But if a reader isn’t into religion or the religious connotation of it all, Meyer also went into the “many symbolic roots” of the apple too.
“You’ve got the apple in Snow White, one bite and you’re frozen forever in a state of not-quite-death,” Meyer continued. “Then you have Paris and the golden apple in Greek mythology—look how much trouble that started. Apples are quite the versatile fruit. In the end, I love the beautiful simplicity of the picture. To me it says: choice.”
It seems like after the success of the books continued to grow, Meyer had more say in what the covers represented
But moving forward, it looks like New Moon might have been the only book cover Meyer didn’t have a say in. For whatever reason, that is, Meyer has an explanation for all the other covers.
At a live Q & A Meyer did in 2007, she told the audience that the broken ribben on the Eclipse cover represented the “idea of you’re trying to break away from your old life.” Essentially, the “clean break” Bella thought of all the time in the books was never going to be attainable. From Jacob Black, from her human life, etc. “It’s really not that simple,” Meyer said.
And going back to her handy dandy FAQ on her website, Meyer wrote about the Breaking Dawn cover being the two chess pieces: the queen and the pawn.
Breaking Dawn‘s cover is a metaphor for Bella’s progression throughout the entire saga. She began as the weakest (at least physically, when compared to vampires and werewolves) player on the board: the pawn. She ended as the strongest: the queen. In the end, it’s Bella that brings about the win for the Cullens.
For whatever reason, Meyer had the least amount of say in the New Moon cover. But, regardless, it’s still one most beloved books out of the bunch.
