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A review by daumari
Twilight / Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
1.0
I'm slightly peeved this will count as one and not two for my Goodreads challenge, but it makes sense- they're bound together. Buddyread Life and Death with GRless!Alexandra, and since Goodreads counts all the pages and it's been a while, I figured I'd reread Twilight.
Back when the series debut, I was definitely on the hatefan train- my young adult internet experiences were lurking in those livejournal communities (which dates me, aaah), especially Cleolinda's recaps. . I always like backing up assertions with evidence, though, so I borrowed my college roommate's copies and tore through the series over Fall Break. The characters were easy to hate- Bella's constant negativity and passiveness, Edward's possessiveness would be bad traits in real life.
And yet- as I reread, I recall that I was a pessimistic teenager who figured out would-be career paths by what I didn't like, thriving on snark, and getting sniffy over popular things... like Twilight. Maybe the reason I dislike Bella is that really, actually, Bella is me (and every other ladyteen at some point).
I'm still not convinced Twilight is a Great Work, though- after the meadow sequence, Edward and Bella are so into each other I think I screamed into an update "JUST BONE ALREADY" even though I know it won't happen for another few books because she's breakable.
And on that note, that's one of several things Life and Death fixed, as Beau and Edythe have a straightforward conversation about how she could crush his skull accidentally. Besides being a genderswap, Meyer took the time to do a fresh round of edits because after a decade, you know what mistakes/repetitive phrasing/etc. appeared in your first work. It's not a complete find-and-replace- Charlie and Renee are the same because Meyer thought in the time period, there's no way the courts would give custody to a flightly man vs. the very stable Charlie, and some minor characters aren't swapped (I am not well-versed in Twilore to pick out who they were).
Due to the nature of the flip-and-read-the-other-story binding, there were a couple times in L&D where I looked to see what the original passages said. In a lot of cases, Beau is a little more thoughtful, with longer explanations for why he thinks about his classmates in a certain way, or about Forks. Beau has less of a chip on his shoulder, definitely. I also like Edythe more- while she still watches Beau sleep, she feels less stalky, and more concerned in general with the longterm status of their relationship. I'm not totally convinced the Port Angeles events are a solid genderswap counterpart (instead of girls looking for prom dresses, it's guys getting corsages and... seeing a movie? Instead of attempted sexual assault, the PA gang things Beau is an undercover cop? what), and disappointingly, Beau didn't take ballet lessons (instead, it's that his mom taught at the studio). There definitely could've been more interesting directions to go with this spear version of Bella.
Without spoiling, it'd be impossible for Meyer to continue doing genderswapped versions of the other books, as L&D ends differently. It feels a little more tragic to me, and also has consequences for AU!world.
1.5 stars, but I don't wanna round up to Goodreads' "it was ok" 2. I may understand your sparkly vampire romance novels a little better, but they're still... not... good.
Back when the series debut, I was definitely on the hatefan train- my young adult internet experiences were lurking in those livejournal communities (which dates me, aaah), especially Cleolinda's recaps. . I always like backing up assertions with evidence, though, so I borrowed my college roommate's copies and tore through the series over Fall Break. The characters were easy to hate- Bella's constant negativity and passiveness, Edward's possessiveness would be bad traits in real life.
And yet- as I reread, I recall that I was a pessimistic teenager who figured out would-be career paths by what I didn't like, thriving on snark, and getting sniffy over popular things... like Twilight. Maybe the reason I dislike Bella is that really, actually, Bella is me (and every other ladyteen at some point).
I'm still not convinced Twilight is a Great Work, though- after the meadow sequence, Edward and Bella are so into each other I think I screamed into an update "JUST BONE ALREADY" even though I know it won't happen for another few books because she's breakable.
And on that note, that's one of several things Life and Death fixed, as Beau and Edythe have a straightforward conversation about how she could crush his skull accidentally. Besides being a genderswap, Meyer took the time to do a fresh round of edits because after a decade, you know what mistakes/repetitive phrasing/etc. appeared in your first work. It's not a complete find-and-replace- Charlie and Renee are the same because Meyer thought in the time period, there's no way the courts would give custody to a flightly man vs. the very stable Charlie, and some minor characters aren't swapped (I am not well-versed in Twilore to pick out who they were).
Due to the nature of the flip-and-read-the-other-story binding, there were a couple times in L&D where I looked to see what the original passages said. In a lot of cases, Beau is a little more thoughtful, with longer explanations for why he thinks about his classmates in a certain way, or about Forks. Beau has less of a chip on his shoulder, definitely. I also like Edythe more- while she still watches Beau sleep, she feels less stalky, and more concerned in general with the longterm status of their relationship. I'm not totally convinced the Port Angeles events are a solid genderswap counterpart (instead of girls looking for prom dresses, it's guys getting corsages and... seeing a movie? Instead of attempted sexual assault, the PA gang things Beau is an undercover cop? what), and disappointingly, Beau didn't take ballet lessons (instead, it's that his mom taught at the studio). There definitely could've been more interesting directions to go with this spear version of Bella.
Without spoiling, it'd be impossible for Meyer to continue doing genderswapped versions of the other books, as L&D ends differently. It feels a little more tragic to me, and also has consequences for AU!world.
1.5 stars, but I don't wanna round up to Goodreads' "it was ok" 2. I may understand your sparkly vampire romance novels a little better, but they're still... not... good.