‘Twilight’ Gender Swap: New Book ‘Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life And Death Dual Edition’ — Meet Bella As Beaufort And Edward As Edythe [Spoilers]

A full decade after Twilight author Stephenie Meyer introduced the world to her first book, which came to her in a dream she didn’t want to wake up from, Meyer is still surprising Twilight fans. That surprise involves the main characters switching genders.

In the Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition, Bella is now Beaufort and Edward is now Edythe. The hardcover version of that Twilight 10th-anniversary book is already No. 428 on the Amazon Best Sellers list in books, while the Kindle version of the book — published on October 6 — has an Amazon Best Sellers Rank of #3,308 in the Kindle Store.

Already, fans are reacting to the new Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition book on Twitter, Amazon, and elsewhere online. Searching for Twilight on Twitter brings up a ton of tweets about the new gender-swap of Bella’s role to a man and Edward’s role to a woman. The Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition is a hefty book, according to Amazon’s description, which calls it nearly 400 pages of new content — along with a new photo on the back cover that already had booksellers talking.

“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.”

Obviously, the Twilight 10th Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition is pretty topical with current news trends. Seeing as how the transition of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner filled plenty of web pages this past year, it seems Meyer is right in line with capitalizing on the thoughts toward gender fluidity and transgender issues.

“I’m a book manager and had received this book yesterday for our bestseller wall. I was totally caught off guard yesterday when on the back of Twilight Tenth Anniversary edition there was another photo. It was a pale hand, holding a green apple with the title Life and Death. I opened it, and turns out this is a reimagined version of Twilight where Bella is Beaufort and Edward is now Edythe. All the characters are gender swapped and is similar to the original Twilight but still great! I’m only half way through, but I’m loving this. The high school me would have died of excitement for this.”

According to EW, the 10th anniversary Twilight caused Meyer to write a 442-page gender-swapping version of the novel, Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined. On Amazon, however, it only says there’s nearly 400 pages of new content. Either way, Bella Swan is now Beau — a nickname for the longer name of Beaufort. The fact that Meyer switched Bella’s gender and made Edward Cullen a woman named Edythe surprised fans who watched Meyer Tuesday morning on Good Morning America.

The Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition means that Beau is the mortal one — and he’s a boy. Beau meets the girl vampire Edythe Cullen, and a great and epic love story ensues. The fact that Meyer has exercised her creative control and her imagination to the point of switching the genders in this reimagined version isn’t sitting well with some Twilight fans, and they are making their voices heard on Amazon and Twitter.

“Was hoping for continuation of Midnight Sun. Stephenie Meyer even addresses it. Instead the bonus feature is a rewritten/edited version with gender reversal on most of the characters. Good thing Charlie and Renee didn’t change. Oh come. What a huge let down. Sorry Beau and Edythe. Not interested. Will be using this book as a White Elephant Gift for the holidays.”

As expected, fans are freaking out over the role reversal. Some Twilight fans love the change in the new novel Meyer has created, while others are rolling with the change and looking forward to devouring the Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition book.

However, the author explained that she made Bella a man in order to address the critics who called the female Bella a “damsel in distress” all those years — claiming that Bella’s whole life was consumed by her relationship with Edward. In the new Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition book, Beau will appear as more OCD than Bella. Bella will change as well, not having a chip on her shoulder all the time, says Meyer.

[Image via Twitter]