John Berendt did it to Savannah, too.

Trapped in a mega-best-selling genre but needing to feed the publishing beast again, author Stephenie Meyer has decided to recast her Twilight novels by flipping the genders of the main characters.

Will she also repeat her achievement of ruining life for the locals in towns on two continents?

Some locals have complained about the city becoming a Disneyland, while others were upset that a neighboring town served as the set for the movie. 

A tourist visiting the high school attended by adolescent vampires Edward and Bella. (Photo: Neeson Hsu/flickr)

Meyer had never visited Volterra, but simply found it through the internet and thought it was fitting for her story. Same goes for Forks, Washington, where another arbitrary literary decision (she Googled “rainiest place in the U.S.”) produced a physical and aesthetic impact. Forks, which was not featured in the films, jumped on the opportunity to turn itself into Twilight Town. 

Twilight tours, info signs, and tourist maps direct Twi-hards to places vaguely matching those in the books—residential houses, local restaurants, the town high school. The Book is everywhere—you can findTwilight-themed motel rooms, “Bella Bundles” of firewood, and “Bella-sagna” at the local pizza joint. It’s been a major and totally unexpected boost to the local economy.