Twilight took the world by storm with charming, gorgeous vampires who live peacefully among humans, attending school, saving lives, and falling in love. In her new Eclipse novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, bestselling author Stephenie Meyer decided to shed a darker light on the vampire phenomenon.
The Dark Side of Twilight
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella focuses on the adventures of newborn vampire Bree who lives, Oliver Twist style, with Riley and his band of out-of-control blood fiends. Her existence consists of hunting, reading, and staying out of trouble – the latter accomplished mostly by hiding behind Freaky Fred, a vampire whose special skill is to repel people.
Bree makes good use of Fred’s talent as she tries to dodge the vicious attacks that are part of everyday life with Riley’s savage crew. When she befriends Diego, Bree finds in him an ally, and a unique breed of vampire: one who functions well in his role, while maintaining the cognitive thought and compassion most humans leave behind when they first become vampires.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Bree’s world has little to do with the lovely Cullens with their perfect hair and equally immaculate manners, and Stephenie Meyer fans who fell in love with Bella Swan in the opening pages of Twilight and remained loyal throughout the series may be disappointed.
“I was looking forward to spending time with some real vampire-y vampires,” says Meyer. (Stephenie Meyer, in a Q & A with The Hachette Book Group.)
Gone are the teen angst, the romantic ramblings, the sexually charged vampire kisses, and the love triangles with well-meaning, feisty werewolves. Whereas Eclipse and the rest of the Twilight saga lured readers in from the start by feeding them highly-addictive snippets of doomed everlasting love and nibbles of sexual tension, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner fails to ignite such passion. The book feels cold, and impersonal. Bree is as far from lovesick Bella, charismatic Alice and beautiful Rosalie as can be, and the basic human compassion one feels obliged to develop for Bree is slow to materialize.
The American Red Cross International Response Fund
Meyer’s own compassionate nature is in evidence as much in her life as it is in her fiction. In an effort to help victims of the Haiti disaster, a dollar from the U.S. sale of each book from the first printing of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella will be donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. Visitors to the Bree Tanner website are also invited to click through to the American Red Cross website and make donations directly.
“I was very moved by the outpouring of support after the disaster in Haiti,” says Meyer. “A lot of Twilight fan communities did fundraising effort and I was so impressed by their efforts. I wanted to continue that movement.”
The Future of Twilight
While Meyer says that she always wanted fans to be able to read Bree’s story before the Eclipse movie came out, the author does not mention plans for any other novellas to be published before a Breaking Dawn movie is released.
“Given all the time in the world and no distractions, I could write a short story for every one of my characters,” says Meyer. “I don’t know that I’ll ever do a companion story like this again,” she adds. “It was a lot of fun, though.”
As for the existing stories, Meyer advises those new to the Twilight series to read the books in their original order – Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn – before getting a taste of Bree Tanner and life as a newborn vampire in the new Eclipse novella.
Author Stephenie Meyer
Best-selling author Stephenie Meyer came into the spotlight in 2005 with the publication of her first vampire novel, Twilight – a story that came to her in a dream, says Meyer. Since then, she has gone on to publish a science-fiction book, The Host (2008), as well as three follow-up Twilight novels focusing on star-crossed lovers Bella Swan and Edward Cullen: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007) and Breaking Dawn (2008.)
Later that year, a partial draft of Midnight Sun, Edward’s version of Twilight, was leaked on the Internet without Meyer’s consent. While the author eventually decided to allow fans to download Midnight Sun directly from the official Stephenie Meyer website, a final version of the book was never published.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella is the first book to be released by Stephenie Meyer in almost two years. Fans will be sure to devour it just as eagerly as they did previous Twilight adventures.
Publication Details
Title: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publication Date: June 5, 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316127875
To find out more about The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella or to download the e-book, visit the official Bree Tanner website.
Andree Lachapelle - Andrée reviews books, movies and local events, and brings you essential beauty, fashion, travel and wedding planning tips.
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