So if you have any interest at all in the Twilight books then you may know that about a week or so ago Stephanie Meyer did a freaking Beyonce and dropped a new book without telling anyone about it. Well played Stephanie, well played.
Now, after screaming and fangirling a lot on twitter I knew I just had to have it. I read Twilight back in 2009 and was utterly obsessed. If I recall correctly, I used to try and get away with reading it in class and more than once had my book confiscated.
I'm a firm believer that the reason why Twilight has such an unpleasant relationship is down to the movies. Kristen Steward just couldn't act and Rob Patterson (god love him) hated his character. So really, there was no hope. With a string of bad directors, frankly dire scripts and tragic acting I completely get the bad vibe surrounding Twilight. But for me, I just feel for Stephanie Meyer. She's an amazing writer who's quirky characters and lovely storylines just don't translate well into movies.
So for me, as a firm Meyer supporter, the excitement was real when this book was released. And it did not disappoint.
Initially, when I heard about what it was I was kind of disappointed. Of all the things Meyer could have picked to write about she was essentially just giving us Twilight but with all the genders swapped around. Oh yeah, if you didn't know, the new book is a rewrite of Twilight but Bella is male... Edward is female and so on.
Before I enter the spoiler section I just want to give my overall rating: 5 stars and a 98%. For sure. I loved it!
*
When I started this book I didn't really know what to expect. I wasn't sure if we were getting a new story or just a literal gender swap of Twilight. What we actually got was somewhere in the middle. At first I do have to say that it was very similar to the original story, but as soon as the plot began to develop you could really tell all of the differences in characters... and dare I say it I actually prefer Beau to Bella!
Character wise I loves Beau. He was so funny and awkward and definitely a lot less confident than Bella. I wouldn't have described Bella as a self confident character but Beau was 100% lacking in this department. However he made up for it by being super funny and quirky and in general very likeable.
And then there was Edythe. Okay just quickly before we talk about her I wanted to mention the names... Oh my gosh did Steph literally just pick random words out of the dictionary?! Every time a new character was introduced (particularly the Cullens) I had a little giggle. It was just too funny. Okay back to Edythe. Now, she seemed a lot more like Edward than Beau was like Bella. And that's okay because I love Edward. I really enjoyed reading about her and the way she protected Beau especially in the scene in Port Angeles. And in all honesty I think if Twilight had been written this way with the main protagonist as a boy it would have gotten a whole lot less hate. Which is a shame because if you haven't got it yet, I think Meyer is a fab writer.
So... who else had a minor breakdown at the ending?! I was not expecting that at all! When male Alice (I've forgotten his name already omg) said that the only two futures remaining were Beau as a vampire and Beau dead I was like 'yeah lol watch her suck out that venom' and then it didn't happen and she bit him and I almost died a death! Like holy what?!! Beau's becoming a vampire I AM NOT READY FOR THIS!!? And then we skip to his freaking funeral?! And Charlie and Renee think he's dead and holy bejesus it's all too much!
For me, I loved the ending! I kinda wished it had stayed true (because I want more books from Beau's POV) but it was so interesting to see the future as what would have happened if Bella had died at the end of book one.
All in all I loved this book, I do think maybe it would have been better if Meyer had only swapped Edward and Bella's genders and kept everyone else the same (anyone else get so confused over which Cullen was which?!) but nonetheless I enjoyed this little surprise a lot! Cheers Steph!
Would just like to apologise for the extreme fangirling in this review!
No comments
Post a Comment