Full disclosure, I've read all of the Twilight books, and The Host,
and I enjoyed them all to varying degrees. I credit Stephenie Meyer with
getting me to write. The thing I enjoy about her style of writing, say what you
will, it is easy to read. I wanted to do something similar in my own writing. Everyone seems to have an opinion on her writing, and my friends reactions when I announced I was going to read this were all over the map.
If you enjoyed Twilight you will likely enjoy Life and Death.
Meyer flipped the genders of all the characters, except for the parents of the
main character. The story is a re-imagining of the original book, and there are
differences . . . some significant and some trivial, but I won't put any
spoilers in this piece.
The bad stuff.
It is the basic plot scheme of the original, so the flaws with that story come along with this one. If you hated the premise, that hasn't really changed. I didn't though, so this is simply pointing out the obvious. She uses some filters in a few places that serve to distance
the reader a little, but barely noticeable during the read through. Some of the
plot ideas are weak, like the baseball game or the way that a kid with no
apparent skill can endear himself to a small school so quickly. The main
character, Beaufort, Beau for short, has no interest in sports or video games
or anything other than cleaning the house and cooking. I've raised two boys,
known lots of boys, hell I was a boy a long time ago, and I've never met anyone
that remotely comes close to this character. He's also clumsier than the
Keystone Cops, even more clumsy than Bella. Meyer explains that Beau has been taking care of his mom for
most of his life, and I can understand that, and even the "old soul"
idea, but she takes it a bit far. That's about it though. I actually like Beau
and he's not whiny like Bella was.
