Guest Review- Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer

*This is a guest review written by the awesome Kelsey of Darcy’s Book Blog.*

“Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles.”

Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.

Twilight has enraptured millions of readers since its first publication in 2005 and has become a modern classic, redefining genres within young adult literature and inspiring a phenomenon that has had readers yearning for more. The novel was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1USA Today bestseller, a Time magazine Best Young Adult Book of All Time, an NPR Best-Ever Teen Novel, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The Twilight Saga, which also includes New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, and The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, has sold nearly 155 million copies worldwide.

---

2 stars

It’s hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Twilight first released, and a glittery Edward was released upon the world! In honor of it’s anniversary, Stephanie Meyer’s gave us a gender swapped story, which was an interesting choice to make.

Confession time: I was a twihard back in the day. I was caught up in the Team Edward/Team Jacob argument (Team Edward!), and went to a book signing for Eclipse. Even at the time, I recognized that the writing was terrible, and there were disturbing aspects to the story. Not to mention that Bella was a weak heroine. There was still something about the story that drew me in.

The plot line for Life and Death is pretty much the same as Twilight, with a few changes made to some of the lines to fit to the swap. Instead of Edward, we have Edythe (which, why Edythe instead of Edith?) Instead of Bella, we have Beau (or Beaufort). Then there are the rest of the Cullens–Carine (Carlisle), Earnest (Esme), Royal (Rosalie), Jessamine (Jasper), Eleanor (Emmett), and Archie (Alice). I don’t understand the reasoning behind changing the gender of all the Cullen clan. Why not leave them the same? Or maybe just gender swap Alice and Jasper. Why Rosalie and Emmett? I don’t get that. Not to mention all the other characters that were gender swapped, for what I feel, no reason at all. Why did Eric have to become Erica? There just seemed no point behind the choices. The choices of names really bugged me, I will admit.

I did not have high expectations going in, so I was not disappointed. I thought it was a pretty fun way to celebrate it’s tenth anniversary, but the writing is still not terrible. This book was basically an edit of the original book, with edits made to fit the gender swap (and a different ending for Beau!)

Can this please have this be the end of Twilight? Please? No more sparkly vampires. Just no.

———–

Big thanks to Kelsey again for writing up a guest review! Go check out her blog! Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to see even more of her awesomeness.