The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: Twigh- Lite

I love knowing that a main character is going to die. Call it morbid, but it's a refreshing change from "happy-ever-after" endings and in particular it's a nice way for Stephanie Meyer to end "the short second life of bree tanner". I felt like Meyer was able to appease my "Pulp Fiction" loving side by writing a novella that was merely created to explain the lead up to a newbie vampire's death at the hands of the Volturi and the Cullenses.

I picked up TSSLBT only because a student brought it in to me and handed it to me to read. And, I'm a sucker for suggestions from my students-- particularly when they deliver the book to my desk. I'd read all four of the Twighlight books (again, because of my students' pressure and/or nagging), so I wasn't really feeling ANOTHER piece by Stephanie Meyer. I was worn out on love stories and for the glittering vampires, I just have to laugh a bit. However, while I felt like Meyer took her good old time building Bree's life as a vampire, I felt like she finally started to hit her stride once Bree was in the hands of the Cullenses and the Volturi.

The simple breakdown is this: Bree is a newbie vampire who is trying to figure out the characters of the other vampires in the clan she's been into. She goes hunting in a small group that varies every couple of days and she starts to trust on of the other characters, Diego. She and Diego bond over some of the bone-headed decisions some of the other young vampires make and ultimately these two start to figure out that the main leader of their vampire clan is using them, but they aren't quite sure what for. Come to find out that this clan leader is trying to build a mini-army of vampires to deal with some other vampires. (This is where the Cullenses and the Volturi come into play.)

Did the book make me feel like some of the vampires the Cullenses/ Volturi killed were innocent? Yes. I guess they didn't deserve it because vampires have feelings too, but as a whole I didn't really feel very emotionally attached to Bree even though she and her vampire-beau did figure out that light doesn't actually kill the Meyer's-version of vampires. I was hoping that Bree would get her head ripped off (seriously, there is lots of nonchalant limb-ripping in this book) and burned for something witty she might retort to the Volturi. Instead of feeling satisfied with having knocked out another YA lit. phenom, I felt a twinge for some Tarantino vampires (Think: "From Dusk 'til Dawn") in my life. At least with Tarantino's vampires, I can laugh at the gore and punchy one-liners.