Happy International Women’s Day!
I realized that the majority of my shelves are filled with female authors 🙂 Who are some of your favorite female authors?
(Not pictured: Amy Poehler’s book, which I read her narration of, and Frankenstein which I forgot! Boo.)
7 Vampire Novels That Go Way Above And Beyond ‘Twilight’
You guys already know how I feel about Twilight and Discovery of Witches. Any other ones on here that you’ve read or are on your list?
Also you may have noticed I just posted a bunch of lists from Bustle. I follow their book lover’s facebook page and the lists are excellent! Definitely worth checking out.
Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
Stephenie Meyer
Pub: Oct 2015 Little, Brown
Rating: 4/5 Stars
I was pretty excited about this. I love Twilight and I am not ashamed to admit it and I don’t think you should ever be ashamed to love the things that bring you joy. Yes, people have said over and over that Twilight gives young girls an example of an unhealthy relationship. To those I would say 1: it’s fiction, he’s a vampire, he’s not even human and they are often betrayed as possessive due to their animalistic nature. This was never meant to be a book about relationship advice. 2: in the foreward to this Stephenie Meyers states: “She’s [Bella] also been criticized for being too consumed with her love interest, as if that’s somehow just a girl thing. But 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.” Gosh, she hits the nail on the head here. We all remember our first love. Mostly, it wasn’t healthy. It was obsessive, all consuming and tortured. You could think of nothing else and it was filled with a childish innocence and beauty. Isn’t that what Twilight does for us? I think it’s beautiful and that my life has been made better for this story.
Now, mushy stuff aside. I love Edythe…I might actually love Edythe more than Edward (shh don’t tell). She is way less broody and tortured and suffering. She is strong and she says stuff like “Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles” BOOM (Stephenie probably put this in here to appease us, but I still love it). There’s also a scene where Beau sees Edythe in his dreams and it’s really quite beautiful. I will say I wasn’t as attached to the other Cullen members as I was in the original series, but I think that’s due to the fact that I kept picturing them in the original. It was a little bit more confusing to keep track of everyone.
If you’re a team Jacob fan…sorry guys, Jules role is minimal to nothing. Stephenie hints at a budding friendship but this story is different. I won’t spoil it but the ending is a total surprise and is INCREDIBLE. I wish the original could have ended this way but I can see why it couldn’t (plus we would have had way less books). It’s more practical and I love it, I really do. I’m also really impressed that Stephenie kept this a secret, it wasn’t public until the release day. Considering what happened with Midnight Sun I can see why she pulled all stops and probably had legal documents alllll over this. Good for her. That is seriously difficult to do in this day and age.
I would say if you’re a Twilight fan then you definitely need to read this. If you kind of liked it but were unsure about the gender roles, read it. Otherwise, check your negativity at the door, this is a safe space 🙂
(Also I’ve been really excited to see the fan art coming out and they all make Edythe a red-head even though it’s supposed to be golden. Weird?)
Bibliophilia Reviews 