Reviewing Bree Tanner

If you haven't already, I encourage you to read part one of this review of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, which tells a bit about where I'm coming from in writing this post.

These are my thoughts on the book:

I. The ending
I didn't understand the ending of this book when I read it. I assume this is because I haven't read the series. For me it's hard to like a book when the ending is so...incomplete on its own. From the title I could only assume that Bree was killed in the end. From just reading this book on its own, it's left a little ambiguous and I didn't know for sure until I looked it up online.

II. The vampires
I hate vampires. Like I said before, this is the first book I've ever read with vampires playing a major role. Reading from one's point of view is disturbing to me, especially all the human hunting. A certain fascination with evil is the only reason I can come up with for people enjoying it. I'm not entirely against dark books--horror, supernatural, dark fantasy--I often like them, but in small doses. So however interesting being inside Bree's head can be, it's not a place I want to dwell for very long and I'm glad this book was short.

III. The romance
The romance wasn't too bad if you ignore the fact that the characters are all bloodthirsty vampires. I don't think this book was meant to be heavily romantic so what's included is fairly light. Like it's only there to satisfy the expectations of Meyer's fan base. What bothers me a bit is that the relationship between Bree and Diego is very quick in developing. Maybe that's the norm for romance fiction, but this book takes it to the extreme. If we're talking about realism though, since when do people fall in love with each other at the exact same time? Right after they meet each other? Not to mention if a guy tried to kiss me the day I first met him I'd probably slap him (at the very least).

What I noticed about Diego is that, unlike some male characters in romantic novels I've read, he's likable. He's willing to think for himself and blood isn't the first thing on his mind. But the more I thought about why he's likable, the more I realized it's because he doesn't have a very distinct personality. He's nice and he has a brain. From Bree's point of view he has no flaws except perhaps his trust of Riley. That could describe any girl's dream guy in the most general terms possible, but if that's all there is to him...how boring for a character. It makes Bree's love for him more unrealistic because it shows that she barely knows him.

IV. The writing
It wasn't as bad as I expected. In this book I didn't notice the kinds of glaring mistakes people have told me exist in Twilight. I assume this means Meyer is improving as she writes more books and this is a good thing.

For the most part the story flows well enough and the pace is good. There were a couple spots where I was a little confused because the narrative seemed to jump just a little or wasn't super clear about what was happening but not too bad. It took me a little while to figure out what a "coven" was, and you'll notice I replaced it with the word "pack" in my synopsis figuring I wouldn't be the only one in the dark about occult terminology like that. And of course there are a few cringe-worthy lines and lots of eye-rolling moments I'm sure you can find by reading the Amazon reviews.

One thing I can compliment Meyer on is her consistency in locking into one point of view for the whole book. (That's one more thing to keep in mind while reading this review: I only have Bree's point of view on the Twilight Saga and Bree doesn't understand much of it either.)

V. Short and simple: did I like it?
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is not brilliant. It's already slipping out of my memory. I think it comes down to the somewhat generic characters. They're good enough to carry a short story line like this, but not unique enough to leave a lasting impression. If the book wasn't about vampires I might have liked it, but the whole thing revolves around a form of unrestrained vampirism that I cannot enjoy. Also, it doesn't stand on its own very well and to fully understand it requires some research into the rest of Meyer's world.

VI. Waste of time or is there something to be learned from it?
First impression: nothing more than an entertaining story. An easy read. Nothing that forces the reader to think very hard. But this book has been on my mind a lot as I write this review and I've realized that it does have a message. And I don't like that message.

What Meyer's done is create a cast of evil vampires and then try to separate them into protagonists and antagonists. I have to commend Meyer for making me sympathize with Bree's situation, despite her being a viscous, bloodthirsty vampire, but I'm not rooting for her as she kills human after human to satisfy her thirst. Conversely, Meyer holds back on making the antagonists distinctly more evil than the protagonists. Instead, every action stems from self-preservation. Thus Bree kills humans, Victoria creates vampires, Riley lies, the Cullens kill Bree. And that's the message this book sends: all these things are perfectly okay as long as they keep me alive. If every character lives by the same rule, whose side am I supposed to be on?

People say the Cullens are "good" vampires but I think the ending of this book kills that argument. Bree kills humans because it's the only way she knows to stay alive. Upon meeting the Cullens she genuinely tries to restrain herself, if only because the Cullens say they'll kill her if she doesn't. And then the Cullens kill her anyway to save themselves from the Volturi. They effectively squash any possibility of redemption for Bree that the rest of the book might have set up.

I think the lack of contrast between Meyer's relatively "good" characters and relatively "evil" characters weakens the story. As a reader, I want to invest sympathy in one side. I want a reason to care about what happens to the protagonist. Instead what emerges from it all is an egocentric, self-serving worldview I strongly disagree with.

The unexpected review

I have a confession to make. I did something last night I never thought I would.

I read a Stephenie Meyer book. 

Only the novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, because I could never make it through a whole novel. Especially since I would have to start with Twilight, her first book, which I hear has terrible writing, and the plot....I can't read that. No way. It would be torture. And then I'd probably feel obligated to read the rest of the series. More torture. I have better uses for my time.


I. So why did I read the Bree Tanner book?
1. It was offered for a limited time as free to read online.
Since it's on my list of books I will not buy or be seen carrying out of a library it was now or never if I was going to read it.

2. Curiosity killed the cat, but I must not be on my last life yet.
I suppose I wanted to know what people saw in her writing to make her a bestseller. Going into this I had heard from different people: that her writing craft in Twilight was terrible, that her writing sucks you in.

3. It's a lot shorter than her novels.
I went into this fully expecting to not like much of the experience. Here was a way to get a feel for her writing without wanting to kill myself before the end. 178 pages sounded much more palatable than 544+.

4. I can finally claim to have my own opinion of Stephenie Meyer.

II. Disclaimer
I think it's important to emphasize that this book is a side story to the events in Eclipse. I have not read Eclipse. I therefore do not understand the context of Bree Tanner's life. That also means that I fall outside of this book's target audience, because it assumes that the reader is familiar with Meyer's vampire novels. Furthermore, this is the first book I've ever read about vampires. I have also not read very widely in the genre of romance books.

In other words, I don't know what I'm talking about. This book is so far outside of everything I like to read I don't have much to compare it to. I guess you should know that everything I'm going to say is largely uninformed and extremely biased. Uniformed because of my decision to read a book meant for an audience familiar with its context in relation to the other Twilight books, biased because I have absolutely no intention of reading those other books for a lot of biased reasons.

All that to say: don't take me too seriously.

III. A brief synopsis with spoilers:
Bree Tanner is a "newborn" vampire (she's only been a vampire for 3 months). She's struggling to survive in a pack of vampires who like to rip each other apart and set each other on fire. While on a hunt she meets Diego, who is not like the other vampires. He's nice to her and actually has a brain. Romantic blah blah blah. Together they discover that their leader Riley has been lying to them about a lot of things (like not being able to go out in the sunlight) and that there are other vampires in the world who want to kill their pack. Riley sends his army of vampires out to kill the smaller, older group of vampires and their pet human (Bella). Really he's just sending them to their deaths because they cannot possibly win against the more experienced vampires, who also apparently have brains. Meanwhile, Bree and Diego are separated and Riley tells her Diego has already gone ahead to the fight. This is another lie and when Bree cannot find Diego she jumps to the conclusion that Riley killed him. Not wanting to fight she surrenders to the older vampires while the rest of the pack is slaughtered. They try to get her to control her thirst for Bella's blood. Then some sort of vampire police come because the creation of newborn vampires is forbidden and they want Bree to be killed.

Since I can already tell this review is going to be long I'm breaking it up into parts. Stay tuned for what I thought of the book.