Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★★★☆☆“Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles.”
Has it been a decade since Twilight was first published? It’s weird. It feels like just yesterday. You must know that going into Life and Death I had no real expectations for this gender swapped retelling. Stephenie Meyer breathes new life into her bestselling romance with changes of pronouns and the ending, promising a new twist for readers new and old alike.
My first thought was ‘why’ followed by ‘well maybe it’s improved’ and finally to ‘okay, I’m sold’.
And because my fondness for the Twilight Saga is purely built on my nostalgic nature, I couldn’t resist picking up a copy as soon as possible! What can I say? Even if I grow to dislike a series, to even loath it somewhere down the line, I’m in it for the long haul.
In Life and Death we’re introduced to the familiar storyline. There are very few exceptions in the dialogue and characters, beyond their genders, and it can be a bit… well, dull. I was hoping that Meyer would have spiced things up a bit more by taking the plot we already know and twisting it around, changing the dialogue and such. All the angst and drama and romance is present, though, and this will be the ultimate selling point to longtime fans.
Breaking Dawn (Twilight #4) by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★★☆☆☆ "You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers – the monsters, the enemies. When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?"
Breaking Dawn gave me a m a s s i v e headache this time around. That’s my first thought when rereading it: BD is headache inducing.
Way back when, I loved this novel with all my heart but now my feelings about it are mixed at best. As I’ve said before in past revisions and reviews, the Twilight Saga will always have a special place in my heart–it’s just that I’ve grown out of it and in place of the love I once had for it, I mostly am indifferent towards it.
Hailed as a romantic and action packed finale to the much beloved series, Breaking Dawn follows Bella and Edward as they prepare and celebrate their upcoming nuptials with friends and family. Together, they plan their future and Bella attempts to make a compromise when it comes down to sex, college and when she shall be changed to a vampire. After all, becoming one is the only way Bella and Edward can have a “true” happily ever after.
But is happily ever after really in the cards for these two?
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★★★☆☆“And the sound of your heart," he continued. "It's the most significant sound in my world. I'm so attuned to it now, I swear I could pick it out from miles away. But neither of these things matter. This," he said, taking my face in his hands. "You. That's what I'm keeping. You'll always be my Bella, you'll just be a little more durable.”
Upon finishing my reread of the entire Twilight Saga, I have come to the conclusion that the series is incredibly dull and I can’t understand how I was so into it way back when. While Twilight was a solid introduction to Stephenie Meyer’s supernatural romance, New Moon was thoroughly horrendous. I had little hope for improvement while going into Eclipse regardless of the fact that it was at one time my favorite in the series.
What frustrates me most about the book is that Stephenie has a great grasp on human emotions. She does wonderful describing it; letting you into her characters minds. Meyer’s is also good at creating a new take on supernatural creatures as well as painting us a clear image of what the world her characters live in is like. It’s only when she tries to put it all together and make the story go a certain way when things get a bit wobbly.
Eclipse improves on a lot of things, in particular what New Moon failed. Bella is happy to have Edward and the Cullen’s back in her life and is now certain that one day soon she will become a vampire and live happily ever after with her friends. Blah-blah-blah. Her only struggle is trying to maintain a friendship with Jacob, her shifter best friend who is openly in love with her.
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★☆☆☆☆While I do have a certain fondness for the Twilight Saga, more out of nostalgia than actual love, New Moon is the exception to that interest. I absolutely loathed this book then, and my feelings remain unchanged: I hate New Moon far more than I do of almost any book in the world. Somehow Stephenie’s writing weakened and remains her worst to-date and soils the already weakened plot.
I’m honestly not trying to be mean about it, either. It’s just so bad.
Aside from the flaws: Twilight was romantic, adventurous and sometimes charming and funny, New Moon is a bore and downright offensively flawed. It shows us true emotional turmoil, breaking our hearts – that is true, but it’s so painfully unhealthy that it’s obvious a lot of concerns have been brought out from its original publication.
There is to say, though, that Stephenie’s still pulling our heart strings, even if it’s in pure irritation.
All that follows isn’t realistic (beyond the supernatural elements) or believable or healthy. It’s painful to read because with the amount of times the secondhand embarrassment and annoyance hit you, you find your interest and patience dwindling. I wanted to shake Edward, I wanted to shake Bella, I wanted to roll my eyes at the melodramatic tone the entire damn story took on because holy crap was it B-A-D.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★★★☆☆This is a reworked review based loosely on one I wrote in 2008 after first reading Twilight. Very little of the original review remains as my views of the series have changed drastically over the years.
I’m not ashamed to say that when I was in high school, like a lot of people my age, I was absolutely captivated by the best selling Twilight Saga. It was everything a [then] teenage girl, who wasn’t a massive/serious reader at the time beyond Harry Potter and Gossip Girl, could long for in its genre. Twilight breathed new life into its genre and sparked a loyal fanbase as well as a new interest in reading for teenagers.
Mysterious, dark, supernatural/mythology themes and truly a whirlwind romance are what fill up the sometimes lackluster story. While it isn’t the best written piece of fiction, it’s easy to follow and in such it’s easy to see why so many people have had a so-called-Twilight-phase. There’s something oddly endearing and relatable about the characters in spite of the supernatural elements that are so prominent.
When you’re younger, it’s easier to see past what flaws a relationship has. You aren’t oblivious by any means but in some cases it does slip past you. Bella and Edward are, looking back, by no means healthy or realistic but to a teenager who is rather unaware to the world, their relationship was everything.
