Young Adult Literature

Happy Anniversary, TWILIGHT — Fans Are Getting A New Book!

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Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

Stephenie Meyer

 

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the young adult phenom Twilight. It’s a book that incited so much love and hate over the course of its decade. But it’s a book that, without any question, left — and continues to leave — a tremendous mark on the YA world.

It’s been pleasant to read tributes to Meyer and her series like this one and this one, both of which reflect upon Twilight‘s problems while extending a lot of reflection upon what these books do. They show the inner life of a teen girl and what it is she does or doesn’t want.

Meyer herself is a fierce feminist. As much as people love to rag on her and her series, Meyer dedicates time, energy, and money to promoting and supporting the work of other female creators.

The book world has been wondering for a while whether or not anything would happen to mark the 10th anniversary of this mega series. There were talks about a special edition of Twilight that would feature “bonus content,” but the details were left vague for a long time.

Now we know.

Stephenie Meyer is releasing a new title into the series called Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined. It’s a gender-bent version of Twilight, starring Beau and Edyth. It is part of the anniversary edition of the original novel, so you can snag a copy of the anniversary edition of Twilight with the new story right here. From EW:

Meyer explains in her foreword to the anniversary edition of the novel that she decided to go with the gender bending to underscore her position that Bella isn’t a “damsel in distress” as certain critics have charged. Rather, the author insists, the character is a “human in distress,” or as Meyer calls her, “a normal human being surrounded on all sides by people who are basically superheroes and supervillians.” Meyer also takes issue with the criticism that Bella was “too consumed with her love interest, as if that’s somehow just a girl thing.”

Talk about a surprise for fans . . . and those who love to hate on the series, who now will have to suck it up and accept this book made — and continues to make — an impact.

Keep ’em on their toes, Meyer.