Twilight reimagined in ‘Life and Death’
Kathryn Yslas
Mesa Legend
It’s been a decade since the first Twilight book hit the shelves and time has certainly changed Edward and Bella. To celebrate Twilight’s ten-year anniversary, a deluxe edition of the first book has been released that comes with a little surprise. That surprise is “Life and Death”, the “new” Twilight novel that comes attached to the 10th anniversary deluxe edition. It is the exact same story as the original Twilight, but with a twist. Bella is now Beaufort Swan, Edward is Edythe Cullen and the entire cast of vampires, werewolves and humans have switched sexes. In the foreword, author Stephanie Meyer claims that she wrote Life and Death to challenge the criticism her original characters and story have received, particularly the character of Bella Swan.
Ever since Bella first entered the sphere of pop culture, she has been portrayed as a damsel in distress with no character or motivations of her own. She appears as someone that allows herself to be in a borderline abusive relationship with vampire Edward, a true feminist nightmare. Many have even commented that it is because Bella is a woman that she is excessively bland and helpless. By “gender-bending” the cast, Meyer hoped to prove that her characters and story are valid and that the criticism that Bella has received in the last decade was unwarranted. Even if Bella is “Beau,” the story remains the same. “Gender and species aside,”Meyer stated, “Twilight has always been a story about magic, obsession and the frenzy of first love.”
“Life and Death” is still very Twilight. The teen paranormal romance that we loved as tweens has not aged well. Beau Swan is a bit more snarky and enjoyable than his female incarnation, but Meyer’s dull writing does him no favors. When Meyer is not dictating every boring detail of Beau’s daily life like some tedious to-do list, she indulges in excessive descriptions of the weather in Forks. By the time chapter one ends, the reader will have heard about a hundred “unique” ways to say, “It’s raining outside.” Edythe Cullen is an improvement on her male counterpart as well. Where Edward was insufferably cryptic and had about as much emotional depth as a middle school emo kid, Edythe comes off as simply mysterious, albeit a bit indecisive when it comes to the supposedly “irresistible” Beau Swan .
Although Meyer has no gift for renaming her creations (Jasper became Jessamine? Really?) the change in gender in the rest of the cast does allow for more interesting characters in general.
Where Jacob was the clichéd “nice guy,” we now have Jules Black, a young Native American girl with a smart sense of humor and interest in cars. The head of the Cullen clan, now Dr. Carine Cullen is a female vampire that struggled with the morality of drinking blood to the point of starvation before adopting a “vegetarian” lifestyle. The gender swap allows for the interesting backstories and personalities that were once reserved for the male cast to be applied to female characters. It’s just a shame that it took a special edition to achieve it. Ultimately, this version is a bit more palatable than the original… at least by Twilight standards.
