The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner ~Stephanie Meyer

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner ~ Stephanie Meyer

SPOILER ALERT! (If you have not read Eclipse, read at your own risk!)

In Eclipse we learn the vampire Victoria has been creating an army of vampires near the city of Seattle, and she hopes to use them to help her kill Bella (and just maybe some of the Cullens too). The novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, is the events just before the battle in Eclipse and the battle itself written from the perspective of one of those newborns.

Bree Tanner has been a vampire for 3 months. She can barely remember the life she had before as a human. By day, she lives in a house full of other newborn vampires. She has perfected the art of making herself inconspicuous in order to survive. The vampires she’s living with turn on each other at a moment’s notice and the results are deadly. None of the newborns know who it was that created them. They only refer to the vampire as “her.” Their leader is a slightly older vampire named Riley. He tells them when they can leave the house to feed and cautions them never to go out into the sunlight or they will die. (Fans of the Twilight series, this should make you a little suspicious). Bree befriends a vampire named Diego, and together the two of them begin to discuss their new life. Together they begin to realize a few things: They have been created for a purpose; they have been deceived; their lives as vampires may end very soon if they don’t figure out who they can trust.

It took me a while to get into this book. Edward and Bella are such a huge part of why I love the Twilight series, and they are missing from the first part of this story. At first I wasn't really sure I cared about what happened to Bree. There is a love story in the novella that I felt was very forced. I didn’t get invested in it, maybe because it was so rushed. As the title indicates, this is a very short book. Once the story began to intertwine with the occurrences in Eclipse, I became intrigued. There were some things I didn’t know about that affected the outcome of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. It was also just really cool to see the events before, during, and after the battle from the opposing side. Ultimately, I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the series. After all, can you live with the fact that there might be info about Edward and Bella’s story that you don’t know? J I couldn’t.