The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

A short second life for Bree Tanner, indeed, but not such a short title. 

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer was the thirteenth book I read this year. 

I was so excited when I heard that Stephenie Meyer was having a new Twilight book coming out!  I'm a die-hard twi-hard, so how could I not be jumping up and down in anticipation?  I told a lot of my friends about it, but a lot of them didn't remember who Bree was in Eclipse.  Now, you must keep in mind that a lot of my friends, including myself, read the books before they were popular and everybody wanted Edward to bite them.  With that said, the last time any of us had read Eclipse was a while back.  Except for the friends that read books over and over, which I can't do, no matter how much I love the book.  Long story short, it took them a while to remember Bree.

I was interested in this story - it was a different side to the vampires that I've grown to love in Meyer's world.  I bought the book a few days after it came out.  Before I actually begin to review the book, I'd like to point out a few things.  A few months ago I got this comment on YouTube saying that Stephenie Meyer doesn't care about her fans and she doesn't do anything to help the community or anything like that.  I can prove both of these statements false by only using this book as an example (although there are many more).  When this book first came out, it was available online to fans - FOR FREE -  for a limited amount of time.  I mean, Stephenie had to make some revenue some way, so they couldn't keep it on there forever, but she wanted it to be free to her fans at all times.  It was her way of saying thank you to her devoted readers who have made her story a success and have continued to support her and love her characters.  Also, this book was a contributor to the Red Cross.  One dollar from every book sold went to the Red Cross to help with the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti and Chile.  I know one dollar doesn't sound like a whole lot, but in only the first two weeks of its release, an estimated 700,000 copies were sold - that's $700,00 right there - in only TWO WEEKS.  Seven-hundred-thousand dollars.

Now, onto the review:

This novel was very different from the rest of the Twilight Saga, because you're not dealing with the perspective of a human, nor the life style of the 'vegitarian' vampires.  These vampires kill without mercy and whenever they're hungry.  They believe that the sun will turn them to ashes and that they must stay indoors at all times when the sun is up.  It's a surprisingly dark side to the teen series that girls (and guys - whom rock by the way) have fallen completely and irrevocably in love with.

With that said, I think the fact that it was so different made me take so long to get through it.  Also, knowing how the story ends, it made it a lot harder.  Not only do I have difficulty finishing a book if I figure out how it ends or if someone ruins the ending for me ahead of time, but also I fell in love with Bree and knowing her ending made me not want to finish it. 

The book was still great, don't get me wrong.  It was humorous and aggravating that Bree and her fellow "newborns" don't know the Volturi and other vampire rules, but that made me realize just how much the Cullens do know and how important it is that they know it.  With Riley (the ring-leader of the newborn army) keeping them in the dark - both figuratively and literally - it creates a lot more problems than it spares them.

Another thing about this book that somewhat bothered me - no Edward.  Well, until the end.  But his name is never mentioned.  But it at the end it explains a lot as to what was going on with Bree in Eclipse that we couldn't really understand before this book.

If you want to read this book, read Eclipse first - it will kind of ruin Eclipse for you if you don't.

With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired