A disclaimer before I begin

This weekend I am going to liveblog my reading of Life and Death, the new gender bent (and apparently awful) retelling of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Before I started, I wanted to make sure people knew that...

I don't hate Twilight. I may mock it, be a little ashamed to be rereading it, and I may cringe many times at it over the next few weeks but once upon a time I was Twilight obsessed. I went to release parties for the final book, I went to fan conventions for the films (and met a lot of the lovely cast, who I now feel quite sorry for, in hindsight) and have signed copies of the first 3 books in the series. Only the first 3, because after Breaking Dawn was released I lost a large amount of my love for the series. It's not really worth talking about why, because if you've read it you probably understand.

So, yes, I loved Twilight. And things changed. I look back on that part of my life a little bit ashamed. I certainly don't often admit I went to fan events for it. But that isn't to say some good things didn't come out of Twilight for me.

• I had been in a rather large reading slump, probably the second one of my life ever (I was 18). The first one was beaten through discovering Cate Tiernan and Holly Black. This one was broken by Twilight, and my renewed confidence in the YA section of my local Waterstones. 

• It was my first introduction to online fan culture...and this probably explains why I became such a hardcore fan girl. I don't think I would have been nearly so obsessed if there wasn't so much conversation and extra material available online.

• I have friends, who I had never seen read for pleasure, that  I introduced the book to (through pure peer pressure) who went on to become bookworms, with bookshelves to rival my own.

• I met some amazing people. These girls all know who they are. A group of us started a conversation on a Twilight facebook group (remember how good facebook groups used to be for this type of thing?) and then created our own group chat. That was in (I'm guessing) March...2008? The chat lives on, and the majority of us are still friends. One of the girls now lives minutes down the road from me (in London terms), and I have friends who live in Canada, the US and France who I would not have had if not for this group...and therefore Twilight. It's because of these ladies that I am even contemplating this liveblogging...so I am going to dedicate it to them! I'm sure if no one else finds it entertaining, they at least will!

So for me, although it is a cringy awkward remnant of my teenage self, Twilight is not all bad. Life and Death, however, is promising to be a truely horrific ride.

I'll keep you all posted.