This is not a drill: Stephenie Meyer has written a gender-swapped version of Twilight! Get ready for the epic love story of Beau and Edythe.
So… Stephenie Meyer is now releasing fanfic of her own work. Your move, E.L. James.
The 10th anniversary version of Twilight, which was announced last month and only teased cryptic “bonus features,” actually has a huge surprise inside: a gender-swapped version of the original story. This is no little project either — the new book is 422 pages in length and has swapped every character in the story.
In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Bella is now Beau, and Edward is… Edythe. (Albus Severus doesn’t sound so bad now, huh?)
The book is hitting book store shelves today — grab it here via Amazon. We also have two copies to give away (see below).
“I wanted to do something fun for the 10th anniversary and the publisher wanted like a foreword and I thought, ‘Well, maybe something more interesting,'” Meyer said on GMA.
“It’s always bothered me a little bit because anyone surrounded by superheroes is going to be…in distress. We don’t have the powers,” she continued. “I thought, ‘What if we switched it around a bit and see how a boy does,’ and, you know, it’s about the same.”
“The further you get in, the more it changes because the personalities get a little bit different, but it starts out very similar and really, it really is the same story because it’s just a love story and it doesn’t matter who’s the boy and who’s the girl, it still works out,” she said.
“I wonder if it will change how people look at Bella a little bit, to see her as him,” she added.
Meyer seems to have all the right reasons for re-framing the Twilight saga. Clearly, she’s aware of the criticism surrounding the series, which mainly centers on Bella’s role as a passive damsel in distress.
Swapping their genders and telling the exact same story will, in Meyer’s opinion, fix that issue.
Of course there are many ways the Twilight series could have been re-imagined — perhaps with a same-sex love story, or with a heroine that had more agency from the outset? Meyer’s gender-swap approach is curious, mainly because it is one of the most overused fan fiction tropes of all time. It’s interesting to see a published author making use of it for her own work.
We’ll definitely be checking this book out, if for the character names alone! We can’t wait to find out what girl-Jacob’s new name is. Jacy? Jacalonia? The possibilities are endless!
It’s nice to see that she still has love for the Twilight saga after all these years. (It’s not Midnight Sun, but we guess this is as close as we’re gonna get!)
More on the big news
In defense of the gender-swapped Twilight
How will Edward Cullen handle being a girl? And other important ‘Life and Death’ questions
Want to win a copy of your own? We’ve teamed up with Little Brown Books for Young Readers to give away two! Contest open to United States residents only now through October 13. The more ways you enter, the higher chance you have of winning! Good luck to all.