Book Review: Life and Death

Life And Death, by Stephanie Meyer

Release Date: 10/6/15.

It's been ten years since the first book in the Twilight Saga, Twilight, released...I honestly can't wrap my head around it. Ten years ago, I was in my last year of elementary school, as a fifth grader. Now I'm twenty one years old, and in the third year of university.

Boy, does time fly by!

With the ten year anniversary, I'm sure many of you, just like myself, assumed she would finally release Midnight Sun. If you don't know what that is, it's another installment in Stephanie Meyer's series which she wrote not too long after Breaking Dawn. But during the writing and editing process, the book was somehow leaked, before it was fully completed, and Meyer decided she didn't want to continue working on it.

All of us hardcore Twilight fans were absolutely crushed, but being somewhat of a writer myself (with this blog and the many essays I've written throughout my education), I know how disappointing it is to have something like that happen; especially if that person was really close to you.

The ten year mark finally rolled around, and we were all greeted by a mediocre ten year anniversary edition of Twilight. No one was excited, and no was looking forward to it. Everyone had their first, worn out, and over loved copy of Twilight, that didn't need replacing.

But Meyer always has a few tricks up her sleeve and she definitely shocked her fans, when the back half of the ten year anniversary edition, had a second story. The second story, as you can tell by the title of this post, is Life and Death, and it's a retelling of Twilight, with all of the characters' genders swapped.

When I heard this, I was most excited to see how Beau would act. Bella is socially awkward, has no hand eye coordination, and in all honesty seems depressed or sad somehow, most of the time. I wanted to see if Meyer would give Beau these same qualities, or follow the "guide to being a strong male" and change him.

Of course I was also dying of anticipation of what Edith and Jules would be like, and if they carried any resemblance to Edward and Jacob. In some ways they did. Edith more so than Jules.

The rest of the characters all pretty much stayed the same besides their gender, which I also really liked. I found myself having a hard time keeping all of the names straight, remembering who was who relative to Twilight, so I was glad their personalities didn't change.

The story line pretty much follows Twilight, with a few altercations due to the gender swapping, and a few minor details. The ending wasn't what I expected at all, but I'm not going to discuss that, since I want you all to be able to experience for yourselves.

So did I enjoy Life and Death? Yes.

I think what brought me the most excitement was the memories it resurfaced for me. The first time I picked up the series, the love I had for Jacob, the confusion I had towards Bella's depression, the experiences I had with friends when I went to see the movies in theater, it gave me all of that. It allowed me to relive all of those memories, and even create new ones.

I also enjoyed the story for what it was worth. Now that I'm twenty one years old, I did find the relationship between Beau and Edith a bit forced, but overall I enjoyed it.

There were some things I, however, wasn't too fond of. The biggest factor being that we didn't get too hear much from Jules. The love triangle, that basically takes over the entire Twilight Saga, isn't present in this one. We also don't get to experience Jules turning into a wolf, or being part of the pack.

I found this pretty disappointing, mostly because I was always a Team Jacob kind of chick, and couldn't believe that Jules didn't play this kind of role in Life and Death.

Overall, I liked the book and was happy to have the opportunity to read it. It was a great experience just reminisce about my childhood and something I truly loved.

Have you gotten the chance to read Life and Death? Do you plan to?

If you have, what did you think?