Saturday, June 12, 2010

“The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner”: A Review

By Nicole S.

When Stephenie Meyer first announced that she would be releasing a new book, like everyone else – I was a bit bummed that it wasn’t “Midnight Sun”. However, I decided to give it a shot because after all, it is a book about the Twilight world and really just excited to see that she wasn’t done with “vampires” (even though she admitted that this was written while she was working on Eclipse, so it wasn’t done recently). And when Stephenie went on to say the book would be about Bree and the newborns, ultimately leading up to Bree’s death in Eclipse, I was honestly intrigued. We only received Bella’s perspective in Eclipse, so we never really knew what was going on with the newborns beforehand. Overall, my excitement for the book was high and the actual product delivered more than I could have hoped for!

On to my review of “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner”:

I’m going to try to avoid giving away any spoilers, as I know not everyone has read it – some people are waiting for the e-book to be released on June 7th, so I’ll be nice.The book is a little under 200 pages and honestly, you’ll be able to read it within no time. The best thing about this novella is that it gives us insight into what took place BEFORE the battle. In “Eclipse”, we got to see everything through Bella’s perspective – we knew how the Cullen’s and the wolf pack were preparing, but we didn’t know much about the newborns. In this story, you get to see everything leading up to that final battle and in the end, you WILL feel for Bree – and you’ll understand WHY Stephenie choose to tell her story.

Bree had a small part in Eclipse, but I honestly feel as though this book was necessary to fully understand the “newborns”, Riley, Victoria, and why Edward wasn’t so trusting of the Volturi ‘s actions in the end… all of that is explained through Bree’s eyes. You get to see what Riley’s relationship was like with Victora, how the newborns were manipulated from the very beginning and hidden away except when allowed out to feed every few days, you get to see where the Volturi were when everything was taking place…and in the end, you’re able to see that Riley wasn’t much different than Victora, that Bree managed to give Edward some important insight before her death, and that maybe Bree wasn’t such a small part in the story after all.

Overall? If you're a fan of the series, this novella is a must read!

I’m also going to make a note in here about “Midnight Sun”, as I feel the fandom is being a bit unfair towards Stephenie. While we all want “Midnight Sun” (one of the few things this fandom agrees on), we should all be ecstatic that Stephenie is giving us SOMETHING concerning the Twilight universe. When Stephenie is READY to release “Midnight Sun”, she will, and honestly – she’s not obligated to do so, but if she decided to – she’ll do it when she’s ready. So let’s stop harassing her about it and just enjoy what we have for now?

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