Book Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Title: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Published: June 2010

Bree Tanner can barely remember life before she had uncannily powerful senses, superhuman reflexes and unstoppable physical strength. Life before she had a relentless thirst for blood... life before she became a vampire.
All Bree knows is that living with her fellow newborns has few certainties and even fewer rules: watch your back, don't draw attention to yourself and, above all, make it home by sunrise or die. What she doesn't know: her time as an immortal is quickly running out.
Then Bree finds an unexpected friend in Diego, a newborn just as curious as Bree about their mysterious creator, whom they know only as "her". As they come to realize that the newborns are pawns in a game larger than anything they could have imagines, Bree and Diego must choose sides and decide whom to trust. But when everything you know about vampires is based on a lie, how do you find the truth?

My Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is an indispensable read for Twilight lovers! This novella tells us the story of the creation of Victoria's army of newborn vampires, from the point of view of Bree Tanner, one of the members.

When I first heard about this novella, I had no idea who Bree was - and I still can't remember her contribution in Eclipse. But nevertheless, this novella was an interesting, fun and instructive read.

In The Twilight saga we learn about the "good" vampires, but in this novella Meyer shows us the hard life of newborn vampires; their struggle with their always present hunger for blood, their uncertainty about their new lives and their aggression. Bree was a good character, she wasn't perfect, but she gave us a realistic picture of a newborn vampire. She was smart and careful - which she needed to be in order to stay alive. Diego and Freaky Fred were other great characters I immediately liked.

This novella doesn't include many details from the big fighting scene in Eclipse, when Bree turns up at the battlefield the fight is already over. (According to this novella the battle took like 2 minutes, because I can't imagine that Bree was further behind than that!) The death scene in the end was also a bit of a disappointment, so short! Other than that, this novella gave a great insight into "the enemies" lives and deaths, and I believe reading this novella before watching Eclipse the movie is a smart choice! After all, it's only 180 pages short and available for free online!

Read the book for free here.

Rating: 4 of 5