The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

BreeTannerCoverThe author Stephanie Meyer starts the book off with this brief introduction to Bree Tanner:

I hope you end up caring about Bree as much as I do, though that’s kind of a cruel wish. You know this: it doesn’t end well for her. But at least you will know the whole story. And that no perspective is ever really trivial.

I thought this was a good introduction to this book, and really made me want to read it. Honestly, Bree hadn’t even registered as a character in Eclipse, the 3rd book in the Twilight trilogy where Bree makes her all too brief appearance, so all this while, I never even thought of reading this book.

I am not a fan of the Twilight series. The books weren’t terrible, but not very interesting either.

However, this short novella on Bree Tanner was surprisingly pretty interesting. Probably because the protagonist Bree is not some tame pet vampire, she is deadly dangerous, and makes a much more traditional but believable portrait of a vampire than the clean cut Cullens. She also starts off seeming pretty smart, except of course for her dumb-ass decisions at the end of the book.

I’m not going to go into the plot in this review here, because frankly, if you’ve read Eclipse you won’t need details and if you haven’t read Eclipse, you won’t understand the point of this book anyway. It makes no sense at all to read this book without reading the first 3 books of the Twilight series.

Briefly, this book provides the back story to Bree’s life, and the other newborn vampires who are part of Victoria’s army who are out to destroy the Cullen coven. Thankfully, Bree and her friends are much more complex and well-written characters and this novel is pretty short making it more absorbing than any of the actual Twilight novels. Plus, Stephanie Meyer refrains from sugar coating the lives and actions of these people.

One insight I found interesting was the duplicity of the Volturi, and I really wished that they were called out for it. And after reading this story, it seems a shame, that an innocent girl gets made the scapegoat for the crimes of the powerful. But, I guess that’s some of the harsh realities of life.

All in all, this was a pleasant good read. I enjoyed this little novel, just a pity that it was all so very short.

PS: Don’t you think the cover is really well-designed? It’s so apt for this story, showing how quickly Bree’s time is running out.

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  3. Thomson Voucher Code

    Twilight ! I didn’t like the books but read them all. Don’t ask why ? 🙂 But I never felt I needed to read this one though it keeps coming into my field of vision each time I visit the book store . There was so much hype around it’s release .

    Anyways good to know that the plot is interesting

  4. Shweta

    Twilight ! I didn’t like the books but read them all. Don’t ask why ? 🙂 But I never felt I needed to read this one though it keeps coming into my field of vision each time I visit the book store . There was so much hype around it’s release .

    Anyways good to know that the plot is interesting

  5. diana

    i actually liked the books (the first 3) and didn’t see the point of this one at all!! at least the proceeds from my copy went to some charity

  6. S. Krishna

    “She also starts off seeming pretty smart, except of course for her dumb-ass decisions at the end of the book.”

    This line had me laughing out loud. I loved it!!!

    I didn’t love the Twilight books either, so I think it’s really interesting that you found this novella to be interesting. I’ll have to keep it in mind.

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