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bookerspace) wrote2017-06-19 12:06 pm
bookerspace) wrote2017-06-19 12:06 pm
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Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (Twilight #1.75)
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Book#: 1.75 out 4
Date Read: 12/18/16 to 12/21/16
Rating: 1 out 5
Summary: Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising re-imagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.
Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.
Twilight has enraptured millions of readers since its first publication in 2005 and has become a modern classic, redefining genres within young adult literature and inspiring a phenomenon that has had readers yearning for more. The novel was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 USA Today bestseller, a Time magazine Best Young Adult Book of All Time, an NPR Best-Ever Teen Novel, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The Twilight Saga, which also includes New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, and The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, has sold nearly 155 million copies worldwide.
Review:
Ten ago, Twilight gained immense popularity and commercial success around the world. The first saga in the Twilight series, present seventeen year old Isabella “Bella” Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington. Endanger herself after falling in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire. Meyer re-release of Twilight comes with a new twist In Life and Death: Twilight Re-imagined.
Okay, funny story, I was at the library when I came across Twilight Special Tenth Anniversary Edition at the Teen section. I decided to check out the book due to my curious foremost on me to see if Life and Death are worth to read. I start to read Twilight first since it been years since I read the book.
The coolest thing about re-reading Twilight is how utterly dull and a waste of time. Bella is dull as a doorknob. The first few chapters of the book are nothing full of Bella grumble and tears. The fact she says she is not allowed to call Charlie by his first name.
Bella goes to school and during lunch, she first cast her eyes on the Cullen Family. She describes in long detail on their appearance. Her next period happens to be Biology II as she walks past Edward turn hostile toward her. And she’s like ‘Do I smell?’ His reaction is so off-putting that she cries when she gets back to her truck. All because Edward doesn’t like her. Instead of getting over herself, She just obsesses with it
‘Every day, I watched anxiously until the Cullens entered the cafeteria without him.’
Meanwhile, poor Mike is trying to put the moves on Bella and invites her to a beach trip. Speaking of the beach trip, here is something the editors should have picked up on. When he beach trip is first brought up it’s supposed to be happening in two weeks. Until Bella goes on and on about nothing in particular, a few pages later she mentions.
‘… just because he’d happened to look at me for the first time in a half-dozen weeks.’
Wait, what? Anyone notice something? Six weeks have passed and the beach trip is where? Not only that, but the girl's choice dance was also two weeks away and here six weeks have passed...
‘I was surprised he would remember the name; I'd mentioned it just once, almost two months ago.’
Moving on, some random shit happens to cause Edward to swoop in and save danger prone Bella. The worst thing about Twilight is how incredibly dependent Bella is on Edward. When she's not with him, she is always thinking about him. And that doesn’t make any sense. She barely knows him. They've had like three conversations and already pledge their love for each other.
I won't bore you with the details of the ending. Everyone know that Bella got hurt and then Edward takes Bella to prom, he kisses her neck. The end.
On to Life and Death review.
This has been a really bizarre experience for me and I don’t know how to feel.
In the forward, Stephenie Meyer opens with this:
"But I’ve always maintained that it would have made no difference if the human were male and the vampire female— it’s still the same story. Gender and species aside, Twilight has always been a story about the magic and obsession and frenzy of first love."
She wasn't very successful with this. There were times where I wonder what Meyer was truly trying to accomplish here. Was she trying to basically say her novel features an unhealthy relationship even with roles reversed? This book (if I may call this a book) is so crappy I don’t know how I managed to actually read it.
Here's a general rundown: Beau is your classic Gary Stu who falls for The Ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Edythe. He has no aspirations to do or be anything until he spots the love of his life in his high school cafeteria. Not much has changed with our young, desperate lovers except for their pronouns, but Edythe is still a jerk/control freak/stalker and somehow less creepy than Edward. And Beau is still a very weak character and as interesting as the dirt beneath my shoe. There is an alternate ending which is essentially a pathetic attempt to pack New Moon and Eclipse into a clusterfuck of info-dumping. But more on that later.
Now, this was Twilight, Stephenie just changed the pronouns and that was it. I don’t care if some lines aren’t the same, the whole thing reminded that way. I had a really hard time liking Beau (in the end I didn’t) and that never was a problem with Bella. Stephenie said Beau wasn’t flowery as Bella was but that’s not an excuse for a poor plain writing just to make it all mainly. It is her job as a writer to make the world appealing and the Main Character to stand out. That was not the case and because of the dialogues were the same, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at my brain throwing the original paragraphs while reading this. It was not fun.
I don't know how this was even possible, but reading Life and Death actually made me hate Twilight even more than I originally did. This is mostly because it became shockingly evident that certain scenes (sexual assault) were purposefully left out in this version because the characters didn't have vaginas. Lovely.
Meyer changed Rosalie’s rape for a beating for Royal. Oh, and that scene when Bella was almost sexually assaulted? Nope, Beau was mistaken for a police officer and they almost beat the shit out of him. What? Don’t men get raped? why she did change that. She’s a Mormon and I honestly don’t know anything about that religion so I can’t shit about it but did that have anything to do with this? Do they or does she think guys cannot be victims of sexual assaults? If so, that’s just wrong. There went another missed opportunity.
The ending? That was just bullshit. She tried to pack three books in 4 paragraphs and the result was messy and senseless. There Beau's obsession with Edythe's unhealthy body. Oh, god, I'm so disgusted with this part, and I don't really understand why it was included.
"Her pale arms, her slim shoulders, the fragile-looking twigs of her collarbones, the vulnerable hollows above them, the swan-like column of her neck, the gentle swell of her breasts— don’t stare, don’t stare— and the ribs I could nearly count under the thin cotton. She was too perfect, I realized with a crushing wave of despair. There was no way this goddess could ever belong to me."
Stephenie, for this I totally blame you. I do not care at all about your personal belief, this is just wrong. There are people—girls—that look like this, and they’re sick. If you can count a person’s ribs, then that person is very, very skinny and we all know how problematic that is.
Having guys idolize that kind of body is already bad enough and a very serious issue we have and I hate when books promote this shit.
I normally don’t go around telling people to avoid certain books. We all are different and see things differently but this? I would not recommend this book. Not even if you’re a Twilight fan, just don’t. This book should have never been printed.
Book#: 1.75 out 4
Date Read: 12/18/16 to 12/21/16
Rating: 1 out 5
Summary: Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising re-imagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.
Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.
Twilight has enraptured millions of readers since its first publication in 2005 and has become a modern classic, redefining genres within young adult literature and inspiring a phenomenon that has had readers yearning for more. The novel was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 USA Today bestseller, a Time magazine Best Young Adult Book of All Time, an NPR Best-Ever Teen Novel, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The Twilight Saga, which also includes New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, and The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, has sold nearly 155 million copies worldwide.
Review:
Ten ago, Twilight gained immense popularity and commercial success around the world. The first saga in the Twilight series, present seventeen year old Isabella “Bella” Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington. Endanger herself after falling in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire. Meyer re-release of Twilight comes with a new twist In Life and Death: Twilight Re-imagined.
Okay, funny story, I was at the library when I came across Twilight Special Tenth Anniversary Edition at the Teen section. I decided to check out the book due to my curious foremost on me to see if Life and Death are worth to read. I start to read Twilight first since it been years since I read the book.
The coolest thing about re-reading Twilight is how utterly dull and a waste of time. Bella is dull as a doorknob. The first few chapters of the book are nothing full of Bella grumble and tears. The fact she says she is not allowed to call Charlie by his first name.
Bella goes to school and during lunch, she first cast her eyes on the Cullen Family. She describes in long detail on their appearance. Her next period happens to be Biology II as she walks past Edward turn hostile toward her. And she’s like ‘Do I smell?’ His reaction is so off-putting that she cries when she gets back to her truck. All because Edward doesn’t like her. Instead of getting over herself, She just obsesses with it
‘Every day, I watched anxiously until the Cullens entered the cafeteria without him.’
Meanwhile, poor Mike is trying to put the moves on Bella and invites her to a beach trip. Speaking of the beach trip, here is something the editors should have picked up on. When he beach trip is first brought up it’s supposed to be happening in two weeks. Until Bella goes on and on about nothing in particular, a few pages later she mentions.
‘… just because he’d happened to look at me for the first time in a half-dozen weeks.’
Wait, what? Anyone notice something? Six weeks have passed and the beach trip is where? Not only that, but the girl's choice dance was also two weeks away and here six weeks have passed...
‘I was surprised he would remember the name; I'd mentioned it just once, almost two months ago.’
Moving on, some random shit happens to cause Edward to swoop in and save danger prone Bella. The worst thing about Twilight is how incredibly dependent Bella is on Edward. When she's not with him, she is always thinking about him. And that doesn’t make any sense. She barely knows him. They've had like three conversations and already pledge their love for each other.
I won't bore you with the details of the ending. Everyone know that Bella got hurt and then Edward takes Bella to prom, he kisses her neck. The end.
On to Life and Death review.
This has been a really bizarre experience for me and I don’t know how to feel.
In the forward, Stephenie Meyer opens with this:
"But I’ve always maintained that it would have made no difference if the human were male and the vampire female— it’s still the same story. Gender and species aside, Twilight has always been a story about the magic and obsession and frenzy of first love."
She wasn't very successful with this. There were times where I wonder what Meyer was truly trying to accomplish here. Was she trying to basically say her novel features an unhealthy relationship even with roles reversed? This book (if I may call this a book) is so crappy I don’t know how I managed to actually read it.
Here's a general rundown: Beau is your classic Gary Stu who falls for The Ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Edythe. He has no aspirations to do or be anything until he spots the love of his life in his high school cafeteria. Not much has changed with our young, desperate lovers except for their pronouns, but Edythe is still a jerk/control freak/stalker and somehow less creepy than Edward. And Beau is still a very weak character and as interesting as the dirt beneath my shoe. There is an alternate ending which is essentially a pathetic attempt to pack New Moon and Eclipse into a clusterfuck of info-dumping. But more on that later.
Now, this was Twilight, Stephenie just changed the pronouns and that was it. I don’t care if some lines aren’t the same, the whole thing reminded that way. I had a really hard time liking Beau (in the end I didn’t) and that never was a problem with Bella. Stephenie said Beau wasn’t flowery as Bella was but that’s not an excuse for a poor plain writing just to make it all mainly. It is her job as a writer to make the world appealing and the Main Character to stand out. That was not the case and because of the dialogues were the same, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at my brain throwing the original paragraphs while reading this. It was not fun.
I don't know how this was even possible, but reading Life and Death actually made me hate Twilight even more than I originally did. This is mostly because it became shockingly evident that certain scenes (sexual assault) were purposefully left out in this version because the characters didn't have vaginas. Lovely.
Meyer changed Rosalie’s rape for a beating for Royal. Oh, and that scene when Bella was almost sexually assaulted? Nope, Beau was mistaken for a police officer and they almost beat the shit out of him. What? Don’t men get raped? why she did change that. She’s a Mormon and I honestly don’t know anything about that religion so I can’t shit about it but did that have anything to do with this? Do they or does she think guys cannot be victims of sexual assaults? If so, that’s just wrong. There went another missed opportunity.
The ending? That was just bullshit. She tried to pack three books in 4 paragraphs and the result was messy and senseless. There Beau's obsession with Edythe's unhealthy body. Oh, god, I'm so disgusted with this part, and I don't really understand why it was included.
"Her pale arms, her slim shoulders, the fragile-looking twigs of her collarbones, the vulnerable hollows above them, the swan-like column of her neck, the gentle swell of her breasts— don’t stare, don’t stare— and the ribs I could nearly count under the thin cotton. She was too perfect, I realized with a crushing wave of despair. There was no way this goddess could ever belong to me."
Stephenie, for this I totally blame you. I do not care at all about your personal belief, this is just wrong. There are people—girls—that look like this, and they’re sick. If you can count a person’s ribs, then that person is very, very skinny and we all know how problematic that is.
Having guys idolize that kind of body is already bad enough and a very serious issue we have and I hate when books promote this shit.
I normally don’t go around telling people to avoid certain books. We all are different and see things differently but this? I would not recommend this book. Not even if you’re a Twilight fan, just don’t. This book should have never been printed.