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The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Review written on July 16, 2010 




I should start by saying that I've become disillusioned by the whole Twilight series.  When I first read the books, I whizzed through them and enjoyed them.  If I think of them only as light, fun, fluff, then I can still find them enjoyable.  But as a member of a committee that selects the best teen books of the current year, I can't help but cringe when I think about the books.  They are fast reads, and if you want something that you don't really have to think about, then they can be enjoyable.  But they really aren't that well-written, and there are certain things in the books that I dislike in regards to vampire mythology.  I have seen the movies - I felt that the first movie was just okay, the second movie was better, and I liked the third movie too, but there are still things that I cringe over.  As far as characters go, I've never been a fan of Bella, or Edward for that matter.  As far as the books go, I love Jacob and Alice.  And for the movies, I still love Jacob, and Jasper is growing on me too after seeing the third movie.  Even in book form, I'm becoming more interested in Jasper.

All that said, I've just finished The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and I have some initial thoughts about it.  Through the first half, I wasn't particularly fond of the book, still so disillusioned with the series as a whole, I think.  There were certain things, such as Bree and Diego's first experience with how they look in the sun, that I really didn't care for.  I also wasn't sure if I liked Bree all that much at that point.  During the second half of the book, she did start to grow on me, and I was fond of Diego as well.  I can at least say that I like Bree more than I do Bella.  I was again intrigued by Jasper at the end.  I know that eventually I will reread the whole series, and I think I'll pay more attention to Jasper throughout the books.  I think that my favorite character of the novella is definitely Fred, or Freaky Fred, and I think that if Stephenie Meyer wanted to, she could definitely write more books about him.  his character was intriguing and has the potential for a great book.  Over all, for a disillusioned fan, the book was fairly good.

Stephenie Meyer, if you're listening, please give us more Fred!
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Comments

  1. HarmonyAugust 11, 2010 at 7:21 PM

    I have to say I agree with completely everything you said here about the entire series. I have't read this one yet though and I wasn't sure if I wanted to (since I've also become a little disillusioned with the series), but after reading your review I'm more curious about it and whether or not i'll be fond of bree. So, I guess I need to see if I can grab a copy off of freecycle (there is a backorder for this on our library's website of over 130 people waiting to check it out...crazy!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Across the LibraryAugust 12, 2010 at 10:49 AM

    Wow, it's just sitting on the shelf at my library. Not sure why. I don't think a lot of people here know about it. If for nothing else, read it for Fred, I think you'll like him :)

    ReplyDelete

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