The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella [Hardcover]

Honestly? I don't even remember who the heck Bree Tanner is. But apparently she was a very minor character in Stephenie Meyer's third Twilight novel, "Eclipse."

And as a writing exercise of some sort, Meyer decided to write a novella centering upon the last days of a character that nobody really cares about. There's a good idea behind it, but the story itself feels thin and padded -- and Bree is not exactly a interesting character.

Bree Tanner is only three months into her "second life." She's also part of a gang of teen malcontents, thugs and runaways that Riley is collecting from Seattle, who are learning the ropes of being vampires. However, she doesn't know much about the true (SPARKLY) vampiric nature, or what Riley has in mind for them.

Since it would be boring to read just about "baby vampire mayhem," Bree and her friend Diego soon realize that there's a lot that Riley isn't telling them -- especially when they overhear Riley and a female cohort talking about their plans for the newborn vampires. And finally, Riley reveals the reason he's creating a newborn army -- to crush his enemies, aka the Cullens.

Let's be frank: "The Brief Second Life of Bree Tanner" is an extremely short book (both in plot and in pages), and feels like it was whipped up to cash in on the "Eclipse" movie. As Meyer's works go, it's a fairly decent story with some interesting scenes -- such as Diego and Bree examining their sparkly diamond vampire bodies in the cave.

Unfortunately, it's STILL not very good. It feels like Meyers had a good core idea, but rushed through writing it without fully fleshing out the story. The novella is padded with rambling conversations, brawls, and Bree and Diego skulking around eavesdropping, as well as some of the worst street-kid dialogue I've ever read ("Super-secret ninja club sounds way cooler than the whole BFF thing").

And what's more, she also avoids tackling the ugly, all-too-realistic subject of a cruel person recruiting lost teenagers -- a wonderfully chilling concept that isn't even explored.

But what makes this novella REALLY unnecessary? Bree. At the end, we don't know much more about her than we did before -- Meyer deliberately avoids revealing anything about her past, her family, her life, how she ended up a street kid, and why she chose to become a vampire. She's a complete blank, and she doesn't become much more interesting as the book goes on.

"The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" has an interesting idea behind it, but the thin storyline and 2-D protagonist makes it seem like Meyer just rushed through it all.

I was going to wait and just read this story online, but since I love the other 4 books so much I thought I'd probably want to have it for my collection of books anyway. I knew this was going to be sad before reading, seeing as we all know how it turns out for Bree. Typical of Stephanie Meyer, this book being no exception - I couldn't put it down from start to finish. Really not to hard I guess seeing as it was only 178 pages. Learning about Bree and her story was so interesting, it really made you get a feel for how the newborns felt and how they were used by Victoria and Riley! The Cullen's of course make an appearance later on and they have the same affect on Bree (though very short lived. no pun intended.) as they do on everyone else! If you love the twilight series, you will want to read this book! The writing style is exactly the same as the other books, it's like you're reading another part right out of Eclipse. It was Fabulous... but you do leave this book feeling sad!

I loved this story - I found it to be a bit short - but then it IS a NOVELLA not a NOVEL so I guesss it's ok that it is a bit short. - I really liked reading about the newborn fight from the perspective of a newborn - and how she finds out what her job is - why she was created, that kinda thing - I also liked reading about her finding out about talents that some vampires have - and how she was feeling while the others (the Cullens and Voltori) decide her fate. This book is really worth buying if you are a fan of the series.