Stephenie Meyer Says New Twilight Novel Is Just Bonus Material: 'This Is Not a Real Book, and I Am Totally Aware'

By Char Adams

@CiCiAdams_

10/09/2015 AT 11:20 AM EDT

Plot twist! Stephenie Meyer's new, gender-swapped Twilight novel isn't a real book. At least, according to Meyer herself.

On Tuesday, Twihards welcomed news of a new, gender-swapped story – titled Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined – which was released in honor of Twilight's 10th anniversary. But during a Thursday appearance at New York Comic Con, Meyer said she considered the extra 442 pages simply bonus material.

"I want to say this is not a real book, and I am totally aware of this," Meyer said at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, according to the Associated Press.

Some readers have complained that the new novel contains some of the exact wording as Twilight, the AP reported. But Meyer said she simply swapped the genders of the original main characters to prove that the story worked well with the genders reversed.



"Now, Bella is Beau and Edward is Edyth. I wanted to do something fun for the 10th anniversary," the author said during a Tuesday appearance on Good Morning America. "It's just a love story. It doesn't matter who's the boy and who's the girl, it just works."

Meyer said on GMA that the idea stemmed from claims that Bella is a "damsel in distress."

"That's always bothered me a little bit because anyone surrounded by superheroes is going to be in a little bit of distress," she said. "So I thought, 'What if we switched it around a little bit and see how a boy does?' "

Life and Death was No. 4 on Amazon's best-sellers list on Friday, down from the No. 2 spot on Thursday.

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