***The Tales Compendium blog is currently on hiatus. However you can still following along via the Instagram feed!***

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Title: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Series: An Eclipse Novella
Author: Stephenie Meyer

Release Date: 5th June 2010

My Rating: 3/5

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, who they know only as her. As they come to realise that the newborns are pawns in a game larger than anything they could have imagined, Bree and Diego must choose sides and decide who to trust. But when everything you know about vampires is based on a lie, how do you find the truth?

Die-hard fans of the Twilight series will not be disappointed with this short story spin-off from the third book in the series, Eclipse. For those of you who do not remember, Bree was the newborn vampire at the end of Eclipse who Carlisle gave the option of surrendering after the fight with the other Seattle newborns. Meyer had originally written this short story as a piece to be included in her yet to be released Official Twilight Saga Guide. Upon completing the novella, it was discovered it was far too long to include in the guide and it was suggested it be released as a separate title. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner was released world-wide on the 5th June to mixed reactions. It will also be available for a limited time from 7th June to 5th July to read for free online. You can find it here.

I had mixed reactions after finishing it. I was really interested in reading about the newborn vampires, their habits and exploits, but once we got up to the part where Bree comes into contact with the Cullens, my interest was lost. I think this was because I already knew what was going to happen and while I know the point was to see it from Bree's perspective, all I discovered was how sorry I felt for her. I think what I would have preferred was the release of a story about a newborn, with no mention of the Cullens. Bree is a very likeable character and there could have been a great novel created using her, rather than wasting that character on someone who ends up dead. I also loved the introduction of the character Fred and would have enjoyed reading how his story evolved.

My other gripe was with all the hype in Eclipse about how terrible newborns are. The ones in the novella weren't really that violent. Sure, they killed people, but I was expecting more.

Maybe I'm over Twilight. Maybe I just don't like the idea of anything trying to attach itself to the four Twilight books...or maybe I really would have just liked a completely separate book using the characters of Bree and Fred, or even Fred's own story, with NO mention of the Cullens...

1 comment:

  1. Personally, I didnt like the book it was a kind of "Try too hard to get money" book.
    -Leyah xoxo

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...