Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Title: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Genre: Paranormal Romance

hardcover, 178 pages

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

-Summary from Goodreads

I'm not a Twilight fan. I stopped reading the series after New Moon, and I found that book so boring I never actually finished it. I skimmed through most of Twilight. But this book, compared to the ones in the saga, was not bad, and I would say it was definitely better than the two books that I did read by Stephenie Meyer. It was a well paced story. It wasn't a page turner, but it also wasn't a "I-have-more-important-things-to-do" books either.

The head of the coven, Riley, and his head-honcho, only referred to as "She" or "her", were able to leave me to try to fill in the mystery of who they were, exactly. Bree and Diego were a good match. When the separated after spying on Riley and "She", I was excited to see what would happen with they planned to meet again. I had a gut feeling I knew. It was a little predictable.

There were some very unclear parts, such as Freaky Fred's power. Apparently he was a special vampire, but I never figured out his special abilities until the last event in the book, even though there were multiple scenes mentioning him and his special power, which apparently caused constant revulsions.I finally realized that he could be invisible, but at that point i was too confused to care. What did revulsions have to do with being invisible?

Stephenie Meyer ruined the ending before the book even began. She indirectly says Bree dies. What if the reader has never read Eclipse? She should have let the readers find out for themselves. Also, I found that several times, Meyer contradicted herself. For example, on page 71 Bree describes lips of kisses. She says "Lips like stone, no give." Eleven pages later, Bree is kissing Diego, describing it: "His smooth lips". Okay, so how is it that lips are like stone one page, and then smooth the next? Don't confuse and contradict.

Lastly, Bree's character development was...underdeveloped. Just like Bella in Twilight, she had no voice. She was a very bland character who I didn't understand or find myself relating to in any way. Overall, I think this was just an average book, and I would only suggest it to readers if they want an average, short read.

3 Beasts