The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010
192 pages

Like most other females, I'm a fan of the Twilight series, so when I heard that Stephenie Meyer had published a novella about a character only briefly mentioned (I don't even remember, to be honest) in . . . Eclipse, I think? . . . I thought: "Hmm. That sounds sort of interesting." Here's the deal. Remember Victoria, the vampire whose boyfriend was killed in the opening book? You may recall that she raised an army of "newborns" (newly-created vampires) to go to war against the Cullens as a sort of revenge. Well, Bree Tanner is one of those newborns.

When the story opens, Bree's still getting used to vampire life. She's living in a coven of newborns led by charismatic Riley and a mysterious female leader (whom the reader assumes is Victoria, but this is not known to Bree). There's a lot of political maneuvering in the coven, but Bree doesn't really want to be a part of it. She finds herself drawn to Diego, a trusted follower of Riley who shares some vampire secrets with her. For example, the newborns all believe that vampires can't go out during the day, but Diego proves that's not exactly true.

When it becomes apparent to Diego and Bree that something's up that they don't want to be a part of, they hatch a plan to break apart from the group. But first, Diego has to do one final favor for Riley, so they plan to meet later. This is where my description of the plot stops, because I don't want to give too much away. Suffice it to say that I knew how the story would end, but I allowed myself to get so caught up in it, that I really didn't believe it was going to end the way it did. Until the very last sentence.

I liked the concept behind The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and I can see where this might lead to other spin-offs from the series. I was impressed that the author was able to create such a fresh new voice. I would have loved to know more about Bree's past and how she became a vampire, but who knows, maybe there's another story (short or long) just waiting to be written.