Book Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer

Having read the Twilight Saga and loved it, I was really looking forward to this book. But now, after finishing it, I am left feeling disappointed. When I first read Twilight, I was obsessed, and had to read the next books as quickly as I could. After Twilight though, the whole series just went downhill from there. Of course, at the time I read it, I thought they were amazing, but, looking back, I’m not so sure.

Eclipse was my least favourite of the four books. All through it, Bella was moaning and whining, and thinking about it now, I think, ‘How did I ever think this was amazing?’ When the main plot line was finally revealed, I had high expectations, ones that were too high. I was disappointed.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, follows the story of one of the newborns who was created to attack Bella and the Cullens by Victoria. Bree Tanner is a ‘real’ vampire, one that hunts and eats humans, one that can’t go out in the sunlight (or so they think) etc.

The characters, I thought, weren’t particularly well written, and Bree was very annoying. Supposedly, Stephenie Meyer was stepping into the shoes of a real vampire, a monster, a hunter. While Bree may be a real vampire, drinking blood from humans, she is no monster, and not that much of a hunter either. Bree never gets into any trouble, does anything remotely dangerous, and always hides in others (Freaky Fred’s) shadows, or follows behind at a distance. Bree is just a vampire version of Bella really, one who reads, stays out of trouble, and relies on male characters to do the thinking and the hard stuff.

As part of an army to take down the Cullens and their ‘pet human’, you would expect there to be lots of action and fighting on Bree’s part, but in fact, there is none. The newborn vampires are always fighting, ripping each others limbs off, and then reattaching them with saliva, or burning them up into a pile of ashes which is then left in the middle of the floor. All they seem to do is talk about which cartoon superhero is the best, and then go out and imitate them, such as Spider-Man kid.

Eventually, the ‘army’ of new born vampires head out on their suicide mission, to kill the Cullens. But, as we know from Eclipse, they all just end up getting killed. It is all the same as Eclipse, but then Bree looks into Bella’s eyes, and there might maybe be a connection, but maybe not. And the Volturi arrive and Bree is killed, just as we knew she would be.

Overall, the book is not what it was made out to be. Don’t bother buying it, just read it online here http://www.breetanner.com from noon tomorrow (7 June). At £11.99, this 178 page book is pricey. While I read it quickly, that’s all it was, a quick read, one that I definitely wont be reading again.

I give it 2 Feet!