Sunday, June 20, 2010

Book review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer




A short synopsis:
Bree Tanner were one of the newborns created by the evil, vampire Victoria. We met Bree for a brief moment in Stephanie Meyers Eclipse(the third installment in the Twilight saga). This book tells the readers Bree's story leading up to the battle and her death in Eclipse.

My thoughts:
To be honest I kind of lost my faith in Meyers vampire stories after pining myself through Breaking Dawn. Breaking Dawn was a huge let down for me so you can say my expectations about The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner was very low. I'm happy to announce that I was very pleasantly surprised with this novella.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a rather dark story with real vampires(even though these vampires also sparkle ;)), blood and body parts flying all over the place. It's not all blood and gore, there is some wonderful friendships being made and even a little bit of love in the air. Bree and the rest of the vampire army knows very little about being vampires. Riley, the leader of Victorias vampire army, controls them by playing on their fears and ancient vampires myths. Bree feels so alone in this group but quite by coincidence she makes a friend in Riley's second in command, Diego. They both feel like there is something weird going on, still Bree is not sure Diego can be trusted. Perhaps he is just a spy, checking to see if some of the vampires are a little to smart for their own good?

When Bree is inside the vampire nest, she always keeps close to a vampire called Freaky Fred. Fred has the ability to make other people nauseous in his presence, so Bree is always left alone in her hiding place behind hos sofa. As time passes it might seem like Fred isn't such a creepy vampire after all. I just loved Fred's character and I wish that Meyer would write a story of Fred's life as well, it would be a great addition(spin-off) to the Twilight world.

Like we all do I knew how things would turn out for Bree, but Meyer kept me hoping that maybe, maybe Bree could be saved.

All in all an excellent read which I finished in no time.

The cover:
Just perfect. An illustration of how fast Bree's time disappears, how short her life is.

My rating of this book:

4.5 out of 5 stars.


Want a second opinion? Check out the reviews below written by some of my book blogging friends:

Jenny from Wondrous Reads:

In my fangirly conclusion, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a freakin' awesome addition to the Twilight Saga series
Carla from The Crooked Shelf(I just thought this quote was so fun, you will understand it even better after reading the book):

And, to be quite truthful, I can't be objective.  If I said I could, I would be a big liar, just like those damn Volturi *shakes fists* so i'm just going to babble a bit.  Okay?
Sarah from YA Vampire Books:
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is an indispensable read for Twilight lovers!
Want to know more?
You can read the full novella for free on BreeTanner.com until midnight EST July 5th.

Full disclosure: My own book, bought form a Norwegian on-line bookstore.

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores.