Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
Do you ever wish as a writer you could go back and redo something? Change a character here or there, rewrite a line? As a reader do you ever wish an author had done something differently? Changed a scene, made a character stronger? In Life and Death Meyer did just that. She also decided to make a point to all the haters who said Bella was weak and Edward was creepy. In this reimagining of Twilight with a gender!swap we get a new story with the same familiarity as the world-wide phenomenon.
Beau, a semi-awkward independent guy moves to Forks, Washington from Arizona to live with his Dad. In this new town he meets new friends like Jeremy, McKayla, and Erica, but it’s hard to deny the allure of the mysterious Cullen clan. Jessamine, Eleanor, Archie, Royal, and of course Edythe. Beau works his way through his days trying to figure out Edythe’s mystery while getting himself into a world he doesn’t understand.
I’m going to be up front, I liked Twilight. Whatever. Did I think the fans were insane, yes. Did I think the story could have used improvement? Of course. But it was fun. Vampires, werewolves, evil plans, clumsy girls. What’s not to like honestly? It’s a formula I read a lot (substitute a vampire for a witch, a werewolf for an angel potato potaaato). The point is I’m going to be upfront and say I don’t care, I liked Twilight so you have to keep that in mind as I’m going through Life and Death.
One of the things I didn’t like about Twilight was that Edward was a massive creeper and Bella was too infatuated. I felt like Edward used his power (vampiric not masculine. That’s a whole separate issue) to control her. It wasn’t sexy to me, it was controlling. I’ve had many arguments that he was “nervous” and “worried about her fragile human state”. Okay. Fine. But he was still a dick. This is usually the point where I remind them (whoever I’m talking to) that I’m a big Jacob fan and I get angry looks about how he “manipulated her into loving him”. Okay fine so they’re all terrible how about that? Team Mike Newton? (Also terrible).
Anyway, in reading this reimagining of the story I instantly went into it with an “oh, so this is a gender!swap fanfic. Cool.” Mood and I think that really helped put me in the right headspace for this novel. I wasn’t expecting something new or groundbreaking, just a new look at a familiar story. I was really interested by the fact that within the first few chapters I immediately noticed Beau’s character as being… arrogant? In a way I didn’t see Bella being originally. He wasn’t outwardly so, but even though the lines were verbatim a lot of the time coming out of Bella’s mouth it didn’t sound as narcissistic as it did coming out of Beau’s. For example, there’s a line where Bella in the original is talking about Mike Newton and how he’s clearly interested in her because she’s like the new fresh meat and she goes “I had gained an unwelcome fan” and it just seems like she’s kind of snubby but not in a rude way? Even though the line itself is rude. More just like she’s an introvert who doesn’t like being ogled. But when Beau says the same line about McKayla it almost gives off a tone like he expected nothing less? Which does still make sense for his character because he realizes he’s the new guy “fresh meat” so to speak and he knows everyone’s going to be fascinated with him for a few weeks until it wears off. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe I guess, but there’s just something about the way the gender swap happens that makes me really dislike Beau whereas I only mildly disliked Bella.
Let’s move on briefly to Edythe. Yikes. She was insane. I mean I always knew Edward was so maybe I went in with some prejudice, but changing Edward to Edythe really gave off a succubus vibe I think. The way she played with Beau and all her “mood swings” really just made her seem crazy even more than Edward. I will say that Edward was a lot stronger than Edythe. Once Edythe and Beau connected though I felt she opened up more than Edward. By the end of the book I felt Edythe was almost too vulnerable. And even by the end of the whole Twilight series I didn’t see Edward as vulnerably as I saw Edythe. Which was really a fascinating realisation for me.
I liked that the conversations didn’t really have to change that much when it came to basic stuff; but when they did it was also very interesting. When Jeremy and Beau are discussing Edythe being potentially into Beau Jeremy teases that maybe Beau “doesn’t have game” and that Jeremy himself should “be more pathetic if that’s what Edythe is into” and it comes off as joking and fun. When Jessica and Bella have a similar conversations about Edward it comes off snarky and caddy. So there’s a really interesting element to the gender reversal there.
I have to just add that one of the biggest power shifts from the original to this is that Beau has a lot more power in Edythe and his relationship I think than Bella had in Edwards. I feel like Beau ultimately does get to decide his own fate where as Bella was always being told what was best for her. I think even though Edythe viewed Beau as fragile it didn’t quite compare on the same level as how Edward viewed Bella as fragile.
I liked that Life and Death had a different ending (no doubt owing to the fact that she didn’t want to write the whole trilogy (yes Breaking Dawn never happened) again. Overall I thought it was a really interesting exploration and I think it’s worth reading them back to back and seeing how a simple gender swap can rearrange an entire story. (Also might be an interesting experiment for aspiring writers. Prompt: Take one of your scenes/chapters and switch the characters genders. See what happens. Could help you learn more about your characters or why they do what they do).
Anyway, I’d love to hear some other thoughts. And as always, happy reading!
Jah Will Provide 