Stephenie Meyer swaps genders of lovers in new Twilight novel

Surprise new novel, partnering 10th anniversary edition, reimagines vampire lover Edward Cullen as Edythe, and Bella Swan as Beau .

On the tenth anniversary of its publication, Stephenie Meyer has “reimagined” her original Twilight novel, reversing the genders of not only Edward and Bella, her centenarian vampire and the human teenager he falls in love with, but most of the characters in the book.

Edythe Cullen and Beau Swan are the inter-species love interest in Life and Death: Twilight .

 

Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition

“I’M SO SORRY,” writes Meyer in a foreword explaining how she’d been asked to write some extra content for Twilight’s 10th anniversary. “I know there is going to be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth because this new bonus material is A, not entirely new, but mostly B, not Midnight Sun” (her unreleased companion novel to Twilight, written from Edward’s point of view, which Meyer abandoned after 12 chapters were leaked onto the internet). 

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. Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover "flip book," 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.

Stephenie Meyer stated “I’ve always maintained that it would have made no difference if the human were male and the vampire female - it’s still the same story. Gender and species aside, Twilight has always been a story about the magic and obsession and frenzy of first love.”

She decided to put this claim to the test by “converting” the original opening chapters, and found it “not only fun, but also really fast and easy”. Thus the book opens with teenager Beau arriving in the rainy town of Forks in Washington State to live with his father Charlie (Meyer decided not to gender-swap Bella/Beau’s parents). While in the original Twilight novel Bella wears her favourite white lace shirt for the journey, in Life and Death Beau wears his favourite Monty Python T shirt.