Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition (Twilight Saga)

by Stephenie Meyer

[Angie]

I really enjoyed Life and Death. Sure, I would have preferred Midnight Sun, but gender-bending Twilight was still an interesting twist. I think the author accomplished exactly what she wanted: showing that Bella was in fact a “human in distress” rather than a “damsel.” Beau gets into just as much trouble as Bella does. Perhaps that’s because it’s nearly the exact story, so not much of the challenges have been changed. But isn’t that the point? Bella/Beau is just a human surrounded by vampires.

Life and Death is essentially Twilight with names and pronouns changed. The story is the same, but for me, it did feel different. Mostly that’s because Edyth was way more chill than Edward. Maybe there’s some sexism there, so I didn’t find the same behaviors as creepy coming from a girl. But more than that, Edyth honestly did feel different from Edward. I feel like she smiled more, and was less broody. She was still concerned about hurting Beau, but she was less dramatic about it, I guess. On the other hand, Beau still felt like Bella to me. He’s clumsy, a bit more mature for his age, and is completely dazed by Edyth. Other than being a boy, I didn’t sense much differences from him.

There are a few minor plot changes throughout Life and Death, but nothing that changed the story dramatically. Some changes were pretty much negligible because they were just done because Beau is a boy. For instance, instead of tagging along to go dress shopping, the boys were buy corsages for the dance. And Beau stumbles upon a drug deal rather than nearly being sexually assaulted. The meadow scene is still there, the Cullens still play baseball, and Joss/James still tracks Beau. Although, the ending is very different. That did throw me off, but I liked seeing this alternate ending. It easily could have gone this way for Bella as well.

Perhaps I’m just a sucker, but I don’t care. I thought Life and Death was a fun twist on the original. Did I like it better than Twilight? I don’t think so. It’s not that it’s not as good of a story, but I did go into reading it as an alternate story rather than it’s own thing, so I was constantly comparing. Plus, I’m just use to the original characters and that’s hard to break.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.