Tuesday, February 2, 2016

(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) February Book of the Month - Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined

Twilight has enraptured millions of readers since its first publication in 2005 and has become a modern classic, redefining genres within young adult literature and inspiring a phenomenon that has had readers yearning for more. The novel was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 USA Today bestseller, a Time magazine Best Young Adult Book of All Time, an NPR Best-Ever Teen Novel, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

The Twilight Saga, which also includes New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, and The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, has sold nearly 155 million copies worldwide as well.

So how else to celebrate this romantic month than to celebrate the tenth anniversary of eternal love between star-crossed sweethearts which bestowed some sort of respect for a series that put YA literature more concretely on the map?

Ten years ago, Stephenie Meyer put a twist on the whole boy-meets-girl thing and, later, werewolf. The supernatural romance between Bella and Edward sparked a series that includes four books translated into more than 50 languages and five blockbuster movies.

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined is a special double-feature jacketed hardcover "flip" book which includes the classic novel and a surprising additional 400 pages of non-canon with an exquisite new cover art from a male point of view. It's still not Midnight Sun (that unreleased companion novel to Twilight retelling the events of the first novel, but is written from the perspective of Edward) since the new story was inspired by criticism that the Stephenie has received about Bella fitting the “typical damsel in distress” trope instead.

Life and Death is set in an independent, parallel universe where the most significant difference is that the genders, names and roles of the main characters have been reversed, with only a few exceptions. It essentially follows the same plot as Twilight but with necessary adjustments and slight changes to the story, dialogue, backgrounds, and personalities of the characters to accommodate the switched roles. Another thing to look out for is the alternate ending ;) Happy reading!

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