Title: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
Series: Twilight 1.75
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Genre/Themes: Young Adult Fantasy, Vampires, High School, Romance, Role Reversal
Blurb from Goodreads
There are two sides to every story…
Stephenie Meyer’s Life and Death is a compelling reimagining of the iconic Twilight love story that will surprise and enthrall readers.
When Beaufort Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edythe Cullen, his life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With her porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerising voice, and supernatural gifts, Edythe is both irresistible and enigmatic. What Beau doesn’t realise is the closer he gets to her, the more he is putting himself and those around him at risk. And, it might be too late to turn back…
With a foreword and afterword by Stephenie Meyer this reimagining is a must-read for Twilight fans everywhere.
My Review
Stephenie Meyer you legend.
Honestly.
The lady balls it took to publish this… I bow down at your feet.
Life and Death is a *reimagining* of the original Twilight that gender swaps the entire cast of Twilight (bar a few exceptions including Charlie)
And look… Everyone laugh all you want. Mock Twilight for its ridiculousness, lord knows I do. But god damn it I am trash for this book. I had the BEST time reading it. I laughed my butt off because…
Well Twilight is simply genius. It’s the most intoxicating blend of hammy writing, ridiculous characters, melodrama and just general batshittery and if you don’t love it… What’s wrong with you??? THESE BOOKS ARE HILARIOUS!!!!
But this reimagining…. My friend Gabby bought me this for Christmas (to follow on from the sparkly vinyl pop thingy of Edward she got me for my birthday)…. What can I say, the woman knows my likes!!! BEST FREAKING CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER GABBY. THANK YOU!!!!!
If you haven’t heard this book is almost a scene by scene copy of Twilight but with a few twists and differences to appeal to us hardcore fans.
And yes… Lazy maybe…
Utterly cheeky sure…
But also incredibly interesting for how it challenges the reader to think about gender.
I’m so tired of people confusing gender with sex.
And where this book triumphs is through either Meyer’s genius or laziness…
it’s a toss up…
But here Bella Swan becomes Beau Swan and he has all of Bella’s brainless traits. And what’s great is as you’re reading you’re kinda like oh is that a bit *girlie* for a guy to be saying/doing etc and it’s like NO! STOP RIGHT NOW WITH THAT TRAIN OF THOUGHT!!!!
Because gender is a societal construct and we need to stop associating personality traits with gender.
Is Beau a muppet?? Sure!!! He has a freaking death wish to make out with a vampire who craves his blood… Like lol if you don’t think he’s a moron! But don’t confuse his personality with being too effeminate.
And the same goes for Edythe Cullen (this book’s version of Edward). Is Edythe creepy and weird how she hangs out in Beau’s room staring at him while he sleeps… Yup. Of course!!! Is she domineering and controlling? Sure. Is she a she? HELL YES SHE IS!!!
So really this book makes for an interesting piece on gendering and how we associate certain traits with male versus female. Like come on… Male brain, female brain. THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS!!!! We are all just mosaics of traits and our sex does not always indicate our gender. It’s been proven people. Peer reviewed science backs this up.
The ending in this is what makes it for me… Oh it’s so badly written and basically craps a bunch of exposition on us but God damn it it’s hilarious.
Beau in a tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *cackles with laughter*
That’s all I’m saying for now. If you’ve read it you’ll know!!!!
And yes. This book is supeeeeeemely dodgy.
- Hilariously obsessive insta love and generally unhealthy romantic relationship.
- Entirely inaccurate descriptions of OCD… i.e. If you like things tidy then that’s so OCD… *eye roll*
- Hugely insensitive jokes regarding mental health and firearms. I won’t repeat it but really Meyer!!!!
- And Meyer herself made a few choice decisions with the gender swapping that were irksome to me… the bit in Port Angeles when Beau was attacked would have had a lot more impact if it had kept to the sexual assault storyline to show that sexual assault isn’t gender specific.
And I could list a bunch of other things that from any other book would cause me to rate it low…
But I’m trash for Twilight!!!! And I loved it.
#SorryNotSorry
Other Works by Stephenie Meyer I’ve Reviewed
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Great review! I laughed a quite a bit and I relate! Now I want to reread Twilight. Thanks Emer 😦
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Haha thanks so much Destiny! You should do a reread. Twilight is just the best happy place type of literary escape :)))))
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It really is! I haven’t reread it ever. And it’s been, oh I don’t know, six years since I’ve read Twilight? And quite awhile since I’ve read Life and Death
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Definitely due a reread so lol!
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guess i gotta check this out lol
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Well if you are a fan of the originals then for sure!!! :)))))
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Hahaha this is honestly the best review ever!!! I love how much joy you take from this series–it’s honestly so infectious and makes me want to read it as well. I think I’m definitely going to do that at some point (also because it’s been so long since I’ve actually read Twilight and my memory is utter rubbish, it might be like reading this book for the first time again)! Fantastic review, Emer 😂😍
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Awww thank you so much Dini!!! I mean as I was reading this I did sometimes truly get the urge to want to pick up the original because hello I love sparkly pants Edward… but this was a lot of fun and I really appreciated how the book was a challenge for people in the ways they think about stereotyping personality traits according to gender.
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Hahaha amazing review, Emer! I definitely went through a Twilight phase when I was younger, then I went through an ‘I hate everything about Twilight!’ phase, and now I’m just pretty indifferent. Whatever we think about Twilight, there’s no denying that this book made publishers start treating YA seriously and putting effort into promoting YA books so we have that to thank it for. Glad to hear you had fun with this one, and I love your commentary on how the gender reversal plays around with our gender biases!
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Oh absolutely Twilight deserves praise for overhauling YA and showing that teenage girls in particular are a group in society that more attention needs to be paid to. And yes, we all know twilight has its flaws but for how it spoke to a particular generation needs to not be denied.
And definitely this gender reversal book could be dismissed as a publishing payday… I mean I doubt the earnestness of it myself… but under the surface there is so much that it says about gendering and people misconstruing gender and sex. I’ve read other reviews that say Beau (the Bella character) is much too feminine and I think that shows why people need to stop for a second and ask themselves why they are assigning personality traits and stereotypes to gender
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And now I’m going to have to read it…how can I resist? Thanks for the review.
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HAHAHAHAH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! But also if you are at all on the fence with loving twilight then maybe not… It is for the utterly bonkers people like myself who enjoy all the cringe and cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!
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So curious to try this one. Laughed when I saw the names chosen, especially Edythe Cullen.
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Oh Kitty it’s such a lol!!! But truly one for the die hard Twilight fans only, if you at all cringed at the original then this would probably kill you with the second hand embarrassment… Me though??? I HAVE NO SHAME LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Yeeeees. This is another book I would love to revisit. You made it sound so fun!
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Oh this was utterly hilarious Lauren. Like it is everything cheesy and terrible about twilight… AND THEN SOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I unashamedly loved every second lol!!! :)))))))
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Your review made me laugh, what a thought to change up the genders in a book that is so hugely popular. I really like how you touched on gender as a construct because it’s SO so true! We (as a society) need to stop putting labels on genders! I’m not going to lie, I’m guilty of doing it all the time, but I gotta step out of it!
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Thanks so much Meghan!!!
And omg same, it is so hard to step out of our engendered thinking as it is so deeply ingrained in society at large. But we are each better than we were yesterday so going in the right direction :))))))))))
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I’m going to do it. After listening through the series i will listen to this one, haha. To be honest, Eclipse isn’t half as bad as the first, haha!
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HAHAHAHAHA OMG YOU ARE?!?!?!? Hilarious. They’re just such trashy fun though. :))))
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You know, I didn’t realize how enjoyable they would be. Haha!
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Haha they’re so addictive really :))))
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This review had me laughing so hard. 😉
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Haha thank you so much Rebecca :)))))
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