I truly do not know where to start with this...book.
Let's start by saying that if you've read twilight, you've read 90% of this book. Much of it is siI truly do not know where to start with this...book.
Let's start by saying that if you've read twilight, you've read 90% of this book. Much of it is simply text replacing names and pronouns with no other changes, and the changes that are made are...horrendous. My main thought the entire time, page after page, was that this was clearly published without one single person reading through it to edit; which is HILARIOUS given that in the Foreword, Stephenie Meyer specifically says that the best thing about "writing" this (*cough* replacing a handful of scenes *cough*) was that she got to go back ten years later and fix all the things she would have changed about Twilight. This is SO much worse. The writing is downright painful at times and the dialogue is...not good. If you ever thought Bella was overly dramatic, oh boy just you wait for Beaufort. (and can we talk about how the best male replacement she could come up with for Bella was BEAUFORT?) If you thought Bella was over the top about how she thought about how attractive the Cullens were, Beau is so much worse. Literally monologuing about how he should drop to his knees and worship this gorgeous creature in front of him and it just...keeps...going. I think my favorite quote from the entire book might be when he's looking at Edythe and describes "the fragile-looking twigs of her collarbones." I audibly cackled at that.
Based on Meyer's comments in the foreword, beyond the obvious attempt at a cash grab (which I would assume didn't work because I've never met another person who knows this exists), Life and Death seems to have come about largely due to her having a chip on her shoulder for people coming for the sexism in Twilight and the fact that Bella is often described as a classic, boring Damsel in Distress, to which Meyer replies that Bella is simply a Human in Distress and it would be no different were she a man. I guess this book is supposed to prove that? Anyway the years of being called anti-feminist must have really gotten under her skin, because Edythe (our new Edward) at one point says - and I quote - "Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles," when paying for dinner for Beau. This from the same author that felt the need to change the School NURSE to a School MEDIC now that they're male. The irony is...astounding. Bella's near-sexual-assault becomes Beau's near-shooting (which, good god, don't even get me started on how asinine that entire scene is) because apparently sexual assault - or the implied danger thereof - is only for women.
There are really only a few areas where there's any meaningful change from the original, and they are nearly always for the worse. And don't even get me started on the NAMES! If I had to pick, I think Rosalie Hale becoming ROYAL Hale is my favorite. And by "favorite" I mean "who the hell decided that was okay." It bothered me so much that I actually had to look up the statistics of the name Royal. It was at peak popularity in 1922 - More than a decade before ROYAL was supposed to have been born - and even that year it was just 200 babies born and named that. All that has nothing to do with the story, but the names bothered me the entire time. Jessamine (Jasper's female name) wasn't a particularly popular name until the 1900s, when the character was supposed to have been born mid-1800s. It really just feels like all the cullens names were chosen by saying "sure that sounds vaguely old-timey" and are just another part of why this book feels so incredibly lazy.
It's not until the end that it seems like Meyer finally went "oh wait I can change things" and started to mess with the storyline, but it feels SO rushed. The last 50 or so pages are so chock full of useless information and it just really doesn't work. Nothing about this book works. It's so bad. There's nothing else to really even say, it's just SO BAD. ...more