A review by clairbear1989
Twilight / Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer

3.0

So this book wasn't awful - it made me feel nostalgic for my Twilight obsessed days. Luckily, I have moved on from Twilight but I will always love Vampire fantasy. Blame the fact seven year old me fell head over heels for Angel. So, I laughed, cringed and smiled a lot at the memory of 17 year old me obsessing over different scenes in the bool (and yes, some of the laughing was at how ridiculous some scenes are with the genders reversed, which in turn made me laugh at the original scene). However, there was a lot not good about this book. I respect Stephenie Meyer for her attempt to prove Twilight isn't too influenced by gender stereotypes, but she actually ended up re-enforcing her own obvious stereotypes. Attempt to prove equality seemed clunky and awkward, and she didn't really seem to get the male teen crushing on a immortal, gorgeous girl right. At least, she didn't get it right considering 95% of the readers of this book are going to be female. For example, Beau's opinion of a 'perfect girl' is not often mentioned, but the emphasis on her 'thinness' and 'visible ribs' (THROUGH CLOTHES?!) making her perfect is not ideal. Add to the fact that the language Beau uses (in his head) to describe what he thinks and how he talks, is so overwhelmingly stereotypically male, and it makes for awkward reading.

That being said, I enjoyed the novelty of it, and the rush of nostalgia. I wouldn't read it again, but I don't want to set fire to my eyes.