Midnight Sun is an exercise in character development that got wildly out of hand (as do many of my projects). While I was procrastinating some real editing work (I’m always at my most creative when procrastinating), I started to wonder how the first chapter of Twilight would read if it were written from Edward’s perspective. There is so much more to his side of the story than there is to Bella’s in that first chapter. After all, Bella only knows that an incredibly gorgeous boy is looking at her funny. Meanwhile, Edward is suffering through one of the most momentous days of his very long life! First there’s the shock and frustration of not being able to hear Bella’s thoughts, then the wild, monstrous reaction to her scent, followed by the incredible expenditure of self-control that it takes to not kill her His side of Bella’s first day at Forks High School is a hundred times more exciting than her own.

Though I didn’t have time to work on it right away, the idea of letting Edward have his chance to speak stuck with me. I couldn’t shake it. I found myself thinking his words in the middle of the night and jotting down phrases he would use while I was waiting in line at the post office. As soon as I finished my real work, I sat down and let Edward get his say.

Writing chapter one, “First Sight,” from Edward’s point of view was an exciting experience; I actually had my pulse racing as I typed. When I finished, I was truly pleased with my creation. Here was the other side of the story that no one knew. Here was the truth of what Edward had been through. I felt like I knew my Edward even better, and I was sure his dialogue would be more insightful in future novels. Exercise over. It wasn’t long before I was thinking about Edward in Alaska, Edward upon his return to Forks, Edward’s side of that fateful conversation in Biology Chapter two started to write itself in my head, while I kept telling myself that I didn’t have time to write a book for fun when I had real books to write.

(My mother seconded that opinion—she thinks I work too hard). But when a story demands to be written, there’s no way to resist. And the more I wrote, the more I became convinced that Edward deserved to have his story told.

At first I was planning to post it all here on my website, but I changed my mind for two reasons, the most important being that Edward’s version is much longer than Bella’s—Edward over-thinks everything. I’m not even half way done, and the page count is near three hundred. The second reason that I changed my mind is a little bit silly—I just would really love to have a pretty, matching, bound version of Midnight Sun to put beside Twilight on top of my desk. So I’m going to try to have it published as a complementary novel to Twilight. It will take a while, because I can only work on it between editing stints, but I hope that someday I’ll be able to see Midnight Sun on the bookstore shelves next to Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and etc (Fueling my belief that Midnight Sun is worthy of publishing is my mother’s about face—after reading the first eleven chapters, she thinks it’s magic and says I should go for it.) And here I was going to write just a short paragraph of introduction. You see what I mean about things getting out of hand? Because I just can’t wait out the years it will take to reach publication for people to begin to understand Edward, here is my original character development exercise, Edward’s version of Bella’s first day at Forks High School, the first chapter of Midnight Sun*: Download, * Please remember this is an unedited rough draft.

This is the official website of author Stephenie Meyer. Best known for her Twilight series, the 4-book collection has sold over 100 million copies globally.

It is full of typos and all the other flaws that unedited manuscripts have. Enjoy it for what it is, but know that the final copy will be infinitely superior. This material is copyrighted by Stephenie Meyer. Any retranscription or reproduction is illegal.

Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover 'flip book,' this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover 'flip book,' this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.

Disclaimer: I read to about 65%. Skim read to about 90% and read to the end. Also, this review will contain spoilers for the alternate ending that are not in spoiler tags.

Years ago, when Twilight was in its prime, someone told me that was never supposed to happen. That it was the book where Stephenie Meyer was given free reign to do whatever she wanted because the series was so popular, everyone would buy it regardless of quality, and rake in big dough-cheese for her and h No stars. Disclaimer: I read to about 65%. Skim read to about 90% and read to the end.

Also, this review will contain spoilers for the alternate ending that are not in spoiler tags. Years ago, when Twilight was in its prime, someone told me that was never supposed to happen. That it was the book where Stephenie Meyer was given free reign to do whatever she wanted because the series was so popular, everyone would buy it regardless of quality, and rake in big dough-cheese for her and her publishers. I don't really know how true that assumption is, but dammit if isn't true for Life and Death. Take me for example: I own all of the Twilight books, have read Twilight (just the first book) a total of 4 times, 5 if you include this (and I do), that came of the series (I'm not always a fire-breathing bitch queen), made fun of it, enjoyed parts of it, loathed chucks of it and everything else in between. I also attempted to re-read the series back in 2012 for this little thing I started called, and (I really wish she'd finish that), but (the book I dislike the most), I just couldn't continue on and.

Over the past few years, I've settled on generally disliking everything Twilight stands for while holding onto a morbid fascination and, begrudgingly, bestowing some sort of respect for a series that put YA literature on the map. So when I heard of Life and Death, literally the day it released, I knew I'd buy it. No questions asked. I was hoping many of the issues I had with Twilight would be corrected with this version.

It had so much potential to be great! I never expected there to be huge drastic changes to the story -- I did expect it to be pretty much the same as Twilight, so believe me when I say that was the least of its problems. I won't bother reviewing this book, because it's essentially the same as Twilight and. Just swap around the pronouns in your head as you read it. In the forward, Stephenie Meyer opens with this: '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.'

I don't think she was very successful. There were times when I wondered what Meyer was truly trying to accomplish here. Was she trying to basically say her novel features an unhealthy relationship even with roles reversed? As in, 'Hey guys, my book is horrible either way!' Or was her goal to further highlight how Twilight had a lot of instances of sexism, including sexual violence against women? Because if so, then I suppose, yeah, she was successful.

Here's a general run down: Beau is your classic Gary Stu who falls for The Ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Edythe. He has no aspirations to do or be anything until he spots the love of his life in his high school cafeteria. Not much has changed with our young, desperate lovers except for their pronouns, but Edythe is still a jerk/control freak/stalker and somehow less creepy than Edward.

And Beau is still a very weak character and as interesting as the dirt beneath my shoe. There is an alternate ending which is essentially a pathetic attempt to pack New Moon and Eclipse into a clusterfuck of info-dumping. But more on that later. What I really want to talk about is the treatment of the female characters. I don't know how this was even possible, but reading Life and Death actually made me hate Twilight even more than I originally did. This is mostly because it became shockingly evident that certain scenes (sexual assault) were purposefully left out in this version because the characters didn't have vaginas. Bella's attempted rape scene has now turned into Beau's assault scene.

If you remember, in Twilight, while Bella is getting lost in Port Angeles, she runs into a group of drunk men who attempt to sexually assault her. This is made clear by their jeers ('Don't be like that, sugar.' ) and Edward's later dialogue.

But for Beau, his assailants are a mix between female and male and have the intention of beating him up because they think he is a cop. The section is entirely re-written with more dialogue, a gun and threats of death. Then there is Rosalie's rape scene, now changed to Royal's assault scene. Instead of Royal being raped, he's tricked during the wedding and beat up within an inch of his life.

Now, one could argue the time period and say, 'Well, that's happened back then. It's just how things were.' And, maybe, before I read Life and Death I could have seen that point. But when the two biggest instances of female sexual assault are completely left out when you swap the genders, oy, that's an issue. Now that is not to say I wanted to see men get rape in Life and Death.

It's just a glaring problem where I now see those scenes as 'Literary Rape,' used as plot devices to add depth and sympathy to Rosalie's character, and to give Edward a reason to look super heroic in the face of rapists. Maggie Stiefvater said it best in: 'I’m talking about novels where the rape scene could just as easily be any other sort of violent scene and it only becomes about sex because there’s a woman involved. If the genders were swapped, a rape scene wouldn’t have happened.

The author would’ve come up with a different sort of scenario/ backstory/ defining moment for a male character.' That is exactly what happened here. One could argue that Meyer wrote a more progressive version of Twilight with Life and Death and that's partly true to an extent. Edythe does appear to try to make her relationship with Beau as equal as possible. But there are constant references to the gender changes as if Meyer is trying to prove something to the reader, and they only seemed to further resign me to the fact that Meyer has no idea what she's doing. (Bold is mine.) His straight gold hair was wound into a bun on the back of his head, but there was nothing feminine about it— somehow it made him look even more like a man.

I fumbled for my wallet. “Um, let me— you didn’t even get anything—” “My treat, Beau.” “But—” “Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles.” She turned toward the cafeteria, swinging her bag into place. “Hey, let me get that for you,” I offered. She looked up at me with doe eyes. “Does it look too heavy for me?” “Well, I mean” “Sure,” she said. She slid the bag down her arm and then held it out to me, very deliberately using just the tip of her pinkie finger.

It was like Meyer was shouting me, 'DO I IMPRESS YOU?!' And I kept going: In the hands of a more skilled writer, this might have been pulled off flawlessly. I found the changes she made with Beau's narration interesting. Meyer mentioned in the Forward that Bella is more flowery with her words, where Beau is not. This is a complete understatement. The one thing Twilight actually had going for it, was the occasionally pretty quote.

I say occasional, because the novel contains too many short, simple sentences than I usually like in my books. In Life and Death's case, the writing has been watered down so much that it feels on par with See Spot Run. And I don't necessarily think this is a gender thing. Just because a character is a boy, doesn't mean he can't be articulate or well-versed. “Bonnie, there’s something you didn’t know about me. I used to smell really good to vampires.” Corny.

So very corny. It's not uncommon to discover popular YA authors' inability to write convincing male POVs. *cough*Veronica Roth*cough* And I learned from Midnight Sun, that it's not exactly Meyer's forte either, but c'mon! This was really bad, even for her. The there's Beau's obsession with Edythe's unhealthy* body. Oh, god, I'm so disgusted with this part, and I don't really understand why it was included. 'Her pale arms, her slim shoulders, the fragile-looking twigs of her collarbones, the vulnerable hollows above them, the swanlike column of her neck, the gentle swell of her breasts— don’t stare, don’t stare— and the ribs I could nearly count under the thin cotton.

She was too perfect, I realized with a crushing wave of despair. There was no way this goddess could ever belong with me.' Is this supposed to show Beau's unrealistic expectations of women's bodies?

Erdas Imagine Version 9.1 Download. That only vampires can achieve this level of 'perfection' that society constantly forces on us? Because there is no other explanation that works well here and I'm really trying to give Meyer the benefit of the doubt and throw her a bone. The issue with this theory is, there's no indication in the book that this is an unrealistic view. Actually quite the opposite happens later in that same scene: I had a new definition of beauty. I don't think I need to go into why this is problematic, so I'll just leave that there for your critique.

*Unhealthy, as in for majority of women, this is an unattainable beauty standard. Apologies if that came off as body shaming women/girls where that is their healthy.

I'm speaking specifically about society's constant pressure on women and girls to be as thin as possible, many times to the detriment of their physical and emotional health. When Beau describes Edythe, he focuses so heavily on the sharp angles of her bones and it perpetuates the idea that these characteristics make her more beautiful than others. I find these descriptions irresponsible and feel there could have been a better way to describe her. So let's talk about the ending.

This part will have spoilers beyond this point. This is your one and only warning. Yes, it's re-written -- horribly, if I'm being honest. During the scene with the ballet studio (which, BTW, Beau didn't take ballet as a kid because HE'S A BOY.

*eyeroll*), everything is pretty much similar expect for the fact that Edythe can't suck out all the venom out of Beau's body, leaving him only one possible future: becoming a vampire super early and living happily ever after with his BAE, Edythe. I wouldn't have had an issue with the change if it had actually been written without the massive amounts of info-dumping. It reads like Meyer decided last minute that she wanted to only do 2 chapters of the gender swap (which she mentions in the Forward), realized she spent all of her deadline time on re-writing the entire book, and quickly wrote an ending hours before she emailed it to her editor. She crams the werewolf history, volturi history, rules of being a vampire, and Beau's human funeral altogether and it's just so goddamn messy. It also makes the insta-love look even worse because at least Bella had 3 other books and a pining Jacob to consider leaving Edward. It was just an overall hot ass mess that seemed so out of place. This is why I said they just let Meyer do whatever the hell she wants; half that stuff would have never flown with a debut novel or any novel that desired to actually be, you know, good.

Would I recommend this and should you read it? My first response is, 'Oh, god, no. Don't waste your money.'

$12.99 is an unacceptable price for an ebook (thank goodness for Kindle returns!). It doesn't really offer anything vital to the Twilight fandom/universe and is generally a horrible piece of writing that I want to fling stones. But then the other half of me enjoys the suffering of my fellow book lovers and is considering purchasing this as a gag joke to both of my lovely co-bloggers. Because that's really all this trite, wish-fulfilling, wankfest of a re-imaginging is good for, and I really, really need to stop being so damn curious about everything. But anyway, I'm rambling when all I really want to say is.

The ball's in your court now, E.L. I eagerly await your newest, fan fiction original book. For the heteronormative part: yup. We're never getting anything even vaguely gay from this woman. I mean, twilight is filled with her beliefs--women s for the heteronormative part: yup.

We're never getting anything even vaguely gay from this woman. I mean, twilight is filled with her beliefs--women should marry only men and have babies with them, don't have sex before marriage, have babies before marriage and others I probably forgot. Even the vampires are all het couples. Like, there should've been at least ONE vampire or werewolf where you were like 'huh.' 'cause like, there was bound to be someone gay or something between all that het, but well, we can't tell Steph what to do. I really wish she made at least ONE gay character, preferably one that doesn't hate themselves and is married to a woman/in the closet. Dezember, 17:44 Uhr.

*rubs hands together with glee* Sparkle for me, bitch! Annnnd that was how I felt before I read it.

I was one of those 5 people who didn't automatically 1 star this sucker. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Because it certainly looks like Meyer is milking the cash cow pretty hard when you look at the price tag. $13 for the Kindle edition?! But in all fairness, you are not only getting this (admittedly weird) re-imagining of Twilight, but the real book, as well. For those of you with a *rubs hands together with glee* Sparkle for me, bitch!

Annnnd that was how I felt before I read it. I was one of those 5 people who didn't automatically 1 star this sucker.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Because it certainly looks like Meyer is milking the cash cow pretty hard when you look at the price tag. $13 for the Kindle edition?! But in all fairness, you are not only getting this (admittedly weird) re-imagining of Twilight, but the real book, as well. For those of you with a copy of the original, that isn't much of a selling point, but since I didn't have Twilight in my personal library. *shrugs* Not a bad deal for me. And sometime in the future, I plan on going back and rereading the bestselling romance that made abstinence seem like the way to go.

Because death by vampire penis is kinda scary. Girls, wait till marriage. Otherwise, the boy is likely to eat you.and not in the good way! So, yes, I liked Twilight., in fact. Do I think it's the best book ever written? *snorts, falls out of chair laughing* Of course not. But I did have a blast reading these books with my BFF.

We got all caught up in the sparkly vampire wuv story, and spend hours on the phone discussing the plot. It was like we were teenagers again! And the entire time we were in the thrall of our Twitard mania, we would giggle about what a couple of idiots we were to get so wrapped up in such a cheestastic story. Because.ridiculous teenage angst is ridiculous. But those were priceless memories with my best buddy, and I just simply refuse to apologize for them. Alrighty, I said all that to say this: I'm not a hater.

I do realize that these books aren't exactly perfect, but they certainly aren't the worst things ever written. If you think that, then you obviously haven't read some of the true garbage that's out there. There are so many romances out there that actively promote rape as some kind of a forgivable scenario, that there's no way I can lump this book in with them.

And there are so many bloated, boring, unedited crap novels floating around, that I honestly can't understand all the hate this book gets. Is it simply because a lot of people liked it, and it pisses off those who didn't?

For those of you who feel that way, I bring a peace offering. Moving on to the main event! So, in my humble opinion, how did Life and Death stack up to the original? Sorry, switching the genders just didn't work out very well for me. Scenes that may have been only slightly awkward in the original, suddenly became glaringly awkward in the re-imagining. Because that monkey-piggyback thing was stupid to start with. And now you've got a super tall dude with his gangly arms & legs flopping all over the place.

There was no way I could get past the mental image of how absurd it would look. And there were lots of things like that I couldn't get past.

Like the part where Edythe gives Beau her scarf (stolen from Archie, so it's not a lady-scarf!) to keep him warm at the restaurant. He gratefully wraps his blotchy neck up like a mummy, sips his coke, and stares adoringly at Edythe. It was just about the least manly thing I've ever read. Or this little gem from Beau: 'Outside, I threw the quilt into the middle of the sunniest spot in Charlie's small square yard, then threw myself on top of it.' Was that seriously a sentence from a guy's point of view!? Are you for fucking real, Meyer?!

The deal was, you were supposed to switch genders. Not make Beau into the most feminine character I've ever read about. I guess I'm not a progressive as I thought I was, because by the end of the book, I wanted to punch him in his vagina! Let's not forget Edythe, though.

Although, that's pretty much what I did. She was nowhere near interesting, and I couldn't have possibly cared less what happened to her character. Other than the unbelievably pretentious spelling of her name, she didn't have much going for her.

I expected her to be. Something other than whatever was on those pages. How can I explain this? Ok, if Movie Bella were Book Edward, that would be Edythe.

It took me longer than I thought it would to slog through this, and I want to apologize to the lovely ladies I was supposed to be buddy-reading with. In my defense, was a little hectic this past week, so I'm hoping you guys forgive me. I think I probably would have given this 1 star, but I actually enjoyed the alternate ending. Especially the parts that poked at Twilight's ending. If Meyer had written the rest of the book as well as she did the last bit, I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more, I think. For those of you who are curious about the ending, but aren't planning to read this book, go ahead and click the spoiler tag. [ The whole Alternate Ending thing hinges on there being a 5 minute difference in Beau running away at the airport & Bella running away at the airport.

In other words, Edythe doesn't get to Beau in time to suck the poison out of Beau's veins, and he ends up becoming a vampire. Unlike Bella, who gets her wedding, and has the chance to get her ducks in a row with her family and friends, Beau has to immediately cut all ties & fake his funeral. The werewolves do eventually agree to keep the treaty, but Beau hadn't had a chance to get to know Julie (female version of Jacob) very well, so there was no love triangle that developed. The Volturi also have an alternate history (or at least I thought so) and seem to be run by different (nicer?) people. I can go back and check this out again for anyone who's curious, but I'm kinda tired of this book, and I don't feel like digging this info up right this second. But since Beau was immediately made into a vampire, there was no need for any sort of confrontation. Edythe (in her one funny moment) points out that she doesn't think having a showdown with them would go very well.

This gif make me laugh! You're welcome. Beau & Edythe decide to get married (natch!), but the Cullens plan on leaving Forks after a year, and not coming back until everyone who knew them is gone. Best part of this?

There's no creepy kid with a hilariously ludicrous name. That's right, folks! No Renessamamonster or whatthefuckever!

] To me, this ending was a fun What If story. If she could have re-imagined the whole thing, instead of just (mostly) changing pronouns, I would have been happy. As it is, I don't think this is worth the price tag, simply because it isn't (for the most part) a quality story. I actually had more fun on this review's thread than I did reading this painful rendition of Meyer's 'classic' novel. It was, on the whole, an Epic Fail.

If you need a good laugh,! Also reviewed for. (disclaimer: i love stephenie's writing and the twilight saga) This is the only book that I have EVER bought and in the same day, returned it. I jumped into this blindly because it's been so long since Stephanie Meyer has done ANYTHING (seriously) and although at first I was skeptical, I had to admit, I missed her writing, so I picked this up from target today. At home, I sat down to skim through the first few chapters, and then realized on page one my mistake of buying it without looking into it (disclaimer: i love stephenie's writing and the twilight saga) This is the only book that I have EVER bought and in the same day, returned it.

I jumped into this blindly because it's been so long since Stephanie Meyer has done ANYTHING (seriously) and although at first I was skeptical, I had to admit, I missed her writing, so I picked this up from target today. At home, I sat down to skim through the first few chapters, and then realized on page one my mistake of buying it without looking into it.

It's the same exact fucking book as Twilight, word for word in most places. I know that some things are changed, like apparently the ending is different, but this is bullshit. You can't just change the pronouns of all the characters in a book and then rerelease it. Whoever decided that this was a good idea is insane.

I can't believe it. Meyer specifically said in the author's note that she didn't have enough time to finish midnight sun so she did this instead. I think it's utter bullshit, because anyone can take their book and republish it giving the characters different names.

There's absolutely no creativity, no work being done except pressing Ctrl+F and swapping out a few pronouns. I am severely disappointed. All this just to prove a point that Bella isn't some damsel in distress. I was born in Connecticut in 1973, during a brief blip in my family's otherwise western U. Download Game Of Thrones Season 2 Episode 1 Free. S. We were settled in Phoenix by the time I was four, and I think of myself as a native.

The unusual spelling of my name was a gift from my father, Stephen (+ ie = me). Though I have had my name spelled wrong on pretty much everything my entire life long, I must admit that it makes it easier to Goo I was born in Connecticut in 1973, during a brief blip in my family's otherwise western U.S. We were settled in Phoenix by the time I was four, and I think of myself as a native. The unusual spelling of my name was a gift from my father, Stephen (+ ie = me).

Though I have had my name spelled wrong on pretty much everything my entire life long, I must admit that it makes it easier to Google myself now. I filled the 'Jan Brady' spot in my family--the second of three girls; however, unlike the Bradys, none of my three brothers are steps, and all of them are younger than all the girls. I went to high school in Scottsdale, Arizona, the kind of place where every fall a few girls would come back to school with new noses and there were Porsches in the student lot. (For the record, I have my original nose and never had a car until I was in my twenties.) I was awarded a National Merit Scholarship, and I used it to pay my way to Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. I majored in English but concentrated on literature rather than creative writing, mostly because I didn't consider reading books 'work.'

(As long as I was going to be doing something anyway, I might as well get course credit for it, right?) I met my husband, Pancho (his real name is Christiaan), when I was four, but we were never anywhere close to being childhood sweethearts; in fact, though we saw each other at least weekly through church activities, I can't recall a single instance when we so much as greeted each other with a friendly wave, let alone exchanged actual words. This may have been for the best, because when we did eventually get around to exchanging words, sixteen years after our first meeting, it only took nine months from the first 'hello' to the wedding; of course, we were able to skip over a lot of the getting-to-know you parts. (Many of our conversations would go something like this: 'This one time, when I was ten, I broke my hand at a party when--' 'Yeah.

I know what happened. I was there, remember?' ) We've been married for ten-and-a-half years now and have three beautiful, brilliant, wonderful boys who often remind me of chimpanzees on crack. I can't write without music, and my biggest muse is, ironically enough, the band Muse. My other favorite sources of inspiration are Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, The All American Rejects, Travis, The Strokes, Brand New, U2, Kasabian, Jimmy Eat World, and Weezer, to mention a few.