Twilight Lexicon Discussion Forums

A thread to talk about Life and Death, Stephenie's new gender-reversed version of Twilight.

So what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Bored by it? Intrigued by it? Did you think changing Edward and Bella's positions redressed the gender-imbalance Stephenie has been criticised for in the original novels — criticism she always responded to by insisting that she wasn't portraying inequality between male and female but inequality between superhuman and human? Did the characters work as well for you as the originals? Did you find it hard to imagine Beau as actually a boy — or Edythe as a girl? If so, do you think that was just because you already had Bella and Edward in your head (and so much of the book is the same as TW!), or was it something more than that?

If you haven't read the book and/or don't want to be spoilered, there's another thread for talking in general terms about the whole idea of Stephenie's writing a book like this.

As always, please remember that courtesy to the author and other posters on this site are a must. Questions of gender are a hot-button topic for many people, so please be especially respectful of each other's opinions!

If anyone has a topic of burning interest they would like to see started, please pm me. The ordinary Request a Topic thread isn't watched very closely these days...

Ok, so I have not even got past the introduction, but there was something there that made me so happy I simply had to post about it NOW.

Stephenie wrote: I truly had the best time ever creating this new version. I love Beau and Edythe with a passion I didn't see coming and their story has made the fictional world of Forks fresh and happy for me again.

Those of you who know me have had to listen me banging away over the years since BD came out — and MS was leaked and the movies began and Stephenie's relationship to her fans was insensibly and irreversibly changed — about how I hoped someday she'd be able to find a quiet space where she could hear the characters in her head once more and find pleasure in her own story again. It had seemed so clear when TW and NM came out that Stephenie was having as wonderful a time as we were; by the time that BD hit the fandom, it seemed as clear that the joy had been leached out of it for her — as though the breathtaking, unbridled romantic fantasy that had swept us all off our feet no longer had any charms for her. Which just seemed terribly terribly sad.

I have no idea whether I'm going to like this book or hate it. But I feel like saying: Stephenie, I am just so so happy that it has given you Twilight back again. Of all people, you deserve joy in your story. It truly is a wonderful fantasy. Many happy returns of the day!

The voices are all wrong for me. I only hear Bella. Granted I often find that when i read female authors writing male protagonists, I struggle

Ouisa????

SO happy to see you here!

No spoilers here, haven't even gotten the book yet, but I did want to pop in and

I'm at chapter 9 now and I'm struggling to read Beau as well.
I'm not viewing Beau as Edward. I'm viewing Beau as Bella. And because of that, I keep thinking that all SM did; is re-create Bella, but now only a "stronger" version. Because, you know, boys are stronger.
Boys need explanations and reasons for cleaning.
Boys need explanations for fainting.
Boys aren't attacked without any explanation late at night on the streets.

It's because my mind is thinking Bella instead of Beau, that I feel this character is stronger than Bella's character was.
And that's weird to me. I never, ever, saw Bella as a weak character. Now, because of a new (male) version of Bella, I feel that she's weakening the original Bella character because of it. *

I think I might have to read the book 2 or 3 times before I can view it as a stand-alone book and stop imagining Bella.

*I'm Dutch and it's late, so my ability to explain my thoughts in English aren't at it's best right now


By the way; edit: it only took me 5 years to get to 1000 posts