Bree Tanner

Last night, and into the early hours of this morning, I was reading.

I was reading a novella that, try as I might, I couldn't put down. I had to pick it up again to finish it. At 2:45am I closed The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer.

And my verdict?

I enjoyed it. I'm not going to give a plot breakdown or anything. I do have a few thoughts I wanted to share.

I found the whole events leading up to the battle in Eclipse absorbing. Why? Because of Bree and the way she drew me into her world. It made me feel connected to her in the same way I did for Bella when I first read Twilight. In other circumstances she could have been just like Bella.

I know she is supposed to be a 'bad' vampire, but she's also a young girl. Scared, alone, unsure of her true place in the world. She wants to be good. She wants to belong. To love. To live. She fights the nature that has been thrust upon her to quench someone else's revenge.

There's also some pretty cool Volturi info we didn't know about. It did make some stuff Edward alludes to clearer. But you have to read it first. All I will say is the Volturi are tricksy.

What made it sadder was I knew her fate. Still, I wanted a happy ending for her all the same. In some alternate universe Bree could have fitted in with the Cullen clan. Become one of the 'yellow eyes.' Yet, in the end, Bree became a victim of the Volturi message. A warning to other's to control their newborns.

If I do read Eclipse again -I'm sure I will -I'll see Bree with new eyes. As Meyer says in her Introduction:

"You know this: It doesn't end well for her. But at least you will know the whole story. And that no perspective is ever really trivial."

I hope I can remember this message when I'm writing/revising my own stories. No perspective is trivial. :)