Publication: October 6th 2015 by Little, Brown
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary: Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, 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.
Goodreads Page
My Thoughts:
| Aw man, where do I even start? I think it was already obvious, but this book is really, truly just for hardcore "Twilight" fans. This just wasn't that good. It wasn't what I expected for one thing. And it held none of the nostalgic magic "Twilight" has held in my heart. I thought that I would still be able to read this and appreciate it for its cheesy, nostalgic feeling but I just didn't enjoy it. Start this off with saying: I was never a super fan of "Twilight," but it holds a special place in my heart because I'm pretty sure I was only fourteen when I read it (it had been out a couple years by then and I think even "New Moon" may have already been published), and the entire reason I read it was that the boy I liked wanted me to read it. Yeah, I was that girl. I also only read "The Hunger Games" for him too, not because I had any actual interest in it on my own, but, anyway, moving on. For me, "Twilight" is full of nostalgia and many memories which sounds a little ridiculous, but if you're a book lover, you'll understand the emotions, just maybe not me feeling this way about "Twilight." It wasn't the first book that got me into reading or anything like it was for a lot of people (I've always loved reading) but it still has a hold in my heart for various reasons that nobody actually cares about and therefore I won't take the time typing out. Quick summary of my feelings on the actual "Twilight" plot: I always just liked it, never loved it. Didn't get the vampire craze when it first came out. I think it's the first young adult book I had ever read that was from first person point of view and had characters that were as old as 17 which opened a whole new world to me in the reading world. I loved Bella's sense of humor and sarcasm in her narration. Never liked Edward, always liked Jacob (in the books at least; I will never understand anyone's fascination with Taylor Lautner, gag me). I loved the love story behind Edward and Bella. Bonus: I actually love "New Moon." But this. Okay, I don't know why I expected this, but I thought it was going to be Bella as the vampire and Edward as the human, with their personalities and characteristics still intact. But it's new characters (kind of) which bummed me out from the beginning. Of course, no one can go into this after reading "Twilight" and not have some bias with it, but I tried to keep an open mind about it. But, just no. The characters didn't hold anything for me. Edythe is boring and lacks the intensity that we got from Edward. Beau was even worse, without any of Bella's dry humor and sarcasm which is something I always love in books. The most amusing Beau ever was for me was him turning all of the girls down about the dance. The supporting characters were just as flat. She took away all of their personalities and left them in a gender-swapped one-dimensional hell. What happened to my beloved, adorable Alice/Archie?! My awkward, intense Jasper/Jessamine?! My exuberant, slightly jerky Emmett/Eleanor?! They've all disappeared in this, replaced with boring, gender-swapped, stupid-named shell versions of themselves. So disappointing. I didn't like the alternate ending. It's just messy and thrown together and cheesy. It was like Meyer turned info-dumping into an art form in the last 50 pages. And there was one part in particular that killed it for me: the ballet studio scene. It was like Meyer had gotten to the point where she forgot some of the most important things "Twilight" is even based on. I could go on but I think overall my whole issue is just that I'm biased from reading the first one and it just doesn't hold any of the magic "Twilight" does. I know that if this had come out first all those years ago and I'd read it, I would've hated it and had never read any of the other books. And if it had been the first one to come out, I honestly think it wouldn't have gone over as well as "Twilight" did and Stephenie Meyer wouldn't have been the woman who really opened the doors for YA fiction, especially YA paranormal romance, and we wouldn't have some of the books that have developed today. It was amazing to see what "Twilight" became and to see the fan websites and the millions of fanfiction stories and the way that young adult sections exploded in bookstores. "Twilight" changed the literary world, and although I appreciate that Meyer chose to do something for the 10th anniversary of it, she really did herself an injustice in releasing this. I know she gave her lame excuse about why "Midnight Sun" is not included in this. But, seriously? It's been 10 years and you never managed to finish it? Although I was never a fan of Edward, I still would've rather had "Midnight Sun" in my hands right now than an awkward feeling gender-swap. |
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