The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

                  (An Eclipse Novella - The Twilight Saga)

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner follows a newly transformed Bree Tanner through her dangerous and confusing new immortal life. She’s managed to survive as a vampire for 3 months under the strained rule of notorious vampire Riley mostly due to luck and her clever notion that hiding behind Freaky Fred (a large and intimidating vampire with a knack for mentally repelling other vampires) will render her invisible. She falls in love with Diego, Riley’s trusted right-hand man. Out of respect and fear they both support Riley’s rules and follow them to a T. They know only one thing for certain, the most important of his rules, you must be home before sunrise unless, of course, you want to explode into ashes.  However, when Bree and Diego become trapped inside a sun-infested cave after coming back from a late hunt they learn the truth about the sun, and begin to question not only Riley’s knowledge but also his motives. They want to know exactly what source he ‘s been extracting these lies from. Is it the woman in the house he frequently visits, the one they’ve never seen? Is it the group of hooded figures that rarely come to call, giving them chills down their already frozen spines? When Diego suddenly disappears one day Bree is left to question their existence alone. As Riley’s army makes their journey from Seattle towards Washington (Forks, to be exact) Bree struggles between her need to reach Diego and her fear of what lies ahead. She’s faced with a terrible choice of fight or flight, but just what exactly are they fighting for and who’s commands are they truly fulfilling? She’s heading towards death itself with only half-truths and half an army on her side.

In all honesty, I didn’t like this book. Not because it wasn’t interesting or was poorly written, but because it took one of my favorite characters from the saga and completely twisted her into something I didn’t care for. I had a fixed image of Bree, a character I easily felt sympathy for, but when she began calling herself a god I realized this wasn’t a character I could relate to. She was revealed to be something completely opposite of what I had envisioned. What I did like about this book was the glimpse into the backstage action that we finally got to see. My sympathy immediately shifted from Bree to Riley himself, as he was dragged over and over through the maze of lies Victoria pulled him through. He was just as much a victim as any of the other newborns, only he was the one left holding the blame. I think this book allowed his character to redeem some respect and brought closure to some of the unanswered questions fans of the saga still had.