E is for Edward

Debra is firmly in the Team Edward camp.

I know we've had the vampire discussion before, and I know some of you aren't big fans, but I couldn't let E go by without giving tribute to my favorite vampire: Edward Cullen.

Okay...now that's out of the way.

What I really want to discuss is Stephanie Meyer's intriguing twist on the original Twilight novel in honor of its 10th anniversary. She rewrote the story and switched the genders of the lead characters.

Here's the blurb:

Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight with this special double-feature ebook! This new edition pairs the classic love story with Stephenie Meyer's bold and surprising reimagining of the complete novel with the characters' genders reversed. In Life and Death, readers will be thrilled to experience this iconic tale told through the eyes of a human teenage boy in love with a female vampire. This edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new cover art. Fans of Bella and Edward will not want to miss the opportunity to see these iconic characters portrayed in intriguing new roles.

So now instead of vampire Edward, we have vampire Edythe. Bella has become Beaufort (Beau). And the other secondary characters have swapped genders throughout the book as well. I have not read the book (yet?), but apparently the story is exactly the same with just this reversal of gender.

Hmn? I'm not sure I get it. I'm not sure why she did it. I'm not sure if I'm going to read this new version...although I probably will at some point just out of curiosity. It's gotten some good reviews, but the first ones that pop up on Amazon are poor reviews (one and two stars).

I don't think I'd ever, ever do this with one of my own books.

At one point Meyer started writing Twilight from Edward's POV (the original is in first person from Bella's view point) but the beginning of the mss got leaked and she stopped writing, but made the draft available on her web-site. This I loved. I loved getting into Edward's head and seeing the story unfold from his POV. What I would have really liked, and several reviewers agreed with me, was to have her finish that particular endeavor instead of doing the gender swap thing.

All in all, an interesting choice to say the least, but who am I to disagree with a bestselling author?

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com