The Twilight Saga has sold 160 million copies worldwide. Satisfy your *thirst* for more books with this novella, a companion to Eclipse.
Bree Tanner, a self-described “vampire nerd” first introduced in Eclipse, lives in terror in a coven of newborn vampires. She is a member of Victoria’s vampire army, and as that army closes in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, she finds her first friend and discovers a truth about daylight.
While fans may know how it ends, they don’t yet have the full story: Bree’s tale of danger, mystery, and romance is one for the books.
“People do not want to just read Meyer’s books; they want to climb inside them and live there.”-Time
“A literary phenomenon.”-The New York Times
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Sexual Content - 0/5
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Violence - 3/5
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Language - 1/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 0/5
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Summary
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a novella that is part of the Twilight series and takes place concurrently with certain events in Eclipse. It’s kind of a paradox of a book in that, if you read it before reading Eclipse, you’ll get some significant spoilers for that book, but if you read it after Eclipse (which I highly recommend), you’ll already know how this story ends. Unfortunately that ending is not a positive and uplifting one, which is why I haven’t categorized the book as romance, even though it does have a touch of romance in it. All that said, I did enjoy it, because it gave me new insights into certain parts of the Twilight story that we couldn’t see since the entire series is written from Bella’s first-person POV.
Bree Tanner is a character who inhabited the pages of Eclipse for only a short while, but she left a big impression on me. So much so that I couldn’t help wondering “what if… ?” When I heard that Stephenie Meyer had written her story, I was excited to learn more about this young girl turned newborn vampire, and I wasn’t disappointed. Bree comes from a throwaway background as do many of the newborn vamps in this scenario. This makes her a sympathetic character right from the start, even though she’s pretty consumed by the blood lust that is common in new vampires. However, she does have a better grasp on it than most of the others in her coven, with the exception of Diego and Fred, the other two stand-out characters in this story. These three at least seem to have their higher brain functions still intact, whereas the rest are little more than an unruly mob. Bree tries to keep to herself and remain “invisible” by hiding behind Fred, who has some special talents. Then she meets up with Diego one night while out hunting and the two become friends. As they talk and begin to realize that some of the things they’ve been told by their leader about being a vampire aren’t true, they forge a bond that turns a bit romantic.
Although I’m on my second reading of the Twilight series, this is my first time reading The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. The main reason for this is that this novella came out two years after Breaking Dawn, and I felt like I was too far away from having read the rest of the series to remember it well enough. So it’s been languishing on my bookshelf while waiting for me to do a re-read. I’m so glad I finally got a chance to read it. It was nice to get some behind the scenes insights into the building of the newborn army and a slightly unexpected twist involving the Volturi. I also enjoyed seeing the Cullens through an outsider’s eyes. I really liked Bree, as well as Diego and Fred. Even though I kept telling myself not to get attached, because I knew what was ahead, I couldn’t help myself, which made the ending all the more bittersweet. Much like Ms. Meyer said in her introduction, I almost regret her decisions regarding these characters and wish the outcome had been different. But even still, I enjoyed reading about them. My only slight complaint is that the early parts of the story seemed a tad slow-paced, but otherwise, it was a great read that I highly recommend to fans of the series.
Review provided by The Hope Chest Reviews