When Bella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks, she meets a mysterious boy with a dark secret. His skin is pale white and ice cold, he moves at the speed of light, seems to have super strength and he glows in the sunlight. Oh, and the only way he can satisfy his hunger is by drinking blood. Yep, he's a vampire.
Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series consists of four books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) which have been made into a successful and popular movie franchise. The first book was released 10 years ago, and to celebrate the occasion Stephanie Meyer has released a new (not really) book called Life and Death. The roles of vampire and human have been reversed, the characters have been given new names, but essentially it is the exact same storyline as the original novel. It is 'Twilight reimagined'.
Although Meyer did release another book, many Twilight fans were disappointed that Midnight Sun was not the novel released for the 10th anniversary. Midnight Sun is Twilight told from Edward's perspective. I know it sounds exactly like Life and Death, but it's not. The difference between the two novels, aside from Midnight Sun being unfinished, is that the characters are different.
Midnight Sun is the story of Twilight from Edward's point of view. He's the vampire, Bella's the human. Life and Death is the story of Twilight in which the vampire is a girl and the human is a guy. Bella and Edward are not the characters, instead they are Edythe Cullen and Beau Swan (technically they're new people).
So if fans were demanding Midnight Sun, why did Meyer give them Life and Death? Meyer explained in the Foreword of her new book that she simply didn't have enough time to finish writing a new novel. Rewriting Twilight in a new way would be a lot easier. The Foreword also talks about how "people have complained about Bella being the typical 'damsel in distress'," but Meyer intended for Bella to be a human (I'm emphasising the human here) in distress, not a damsel. The main character was surrounded by vampires (not to mention she was a total klutz and prone to accidents) which made her life dangerous. Bella was constantly being rescued because she was in peril, not because she was a female. Meyer wanted to highlight the idea of the main character of Twilight being a human in distress, rather than a damsel. Meyer has done this by making the main (human) character of Life and Death a male.
Meyer also stated that revisiting Twilight gave her the opportunity to "fix almost every word that had bothered (her) since the book was printed", as well as add things to the novel she wishes she had the first time, but didn't.
I have to admit that I used to be obsessed with the Twilight series (and I kind of still am), so when my Mum brought home a copy of the 10th anniversary book the other day, I was rather excited. But I had to wait to read the new material because Mum insisted that she had to read it first (she may be a bigger Twilight fan than me).
I guess once a Twi-hard, always a Twi-hard.