Twihards who were on tenterhooks about “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” had a new verve to plug into and build up the hype for the movie’s release with the publication of “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella.”
Stephanie Meyer reopened the world of Bella Swan on June 5 with the novella, which acts as an insert to the series’ third book, “Eclipse.” The novella is written from the eyes of 15-year-old Bree Tanner, a minor character featured at the end of “Eclipse,” who was killed only three months into her vampire life.
Tanner is a Seattle girl turned newborn vampire by Victoria, a villainess vampire who creates an army of newborns to destroy Bella and the Cullen family. Quick to learn the ropes in the dangerous and bloodthirsty coven, Tanner takes fans to a darker side of Twilight than they’ve previously seen, a world of merciless murders, little love and little hope, all which ultimately leads Tanner to her second death.
With fatality on every page and a lingeringly tragic undertone between the lines, Meyer dispels the romantic, glamorous warm fuzzies that fans typically associated with the vampires in the previous books. She brings to light what she sees to be the “reality” of her fantasy world, where the immortals aren’t so immortal.
Meyer said on her website that she never sought to publish the novella as a stand alone book, but that it had been in the creative works before the “Twilight” movie was even released.
“I was thinking a lot about the newborns, imagining their side of the story, and one thing led to another,” she wrote. “I started writing from Bree’s perspective about those final days, and what it was like to be a newborn.”
During the three weeks between the novella’s release and the movie’s release, the book sold more than one million copies and shot to the top of the year’s best-selling book so far, according to the Associated Press.
This adds to publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers’ figures, which cite a staggering 100 million copies sold of the Twilight books in 50 countries.
With only 195 pages, the book doesn’t have much space for character development and was about as satisfying as I could have hoped it would be – not too terrible, nothing stellar, just another interesting viewpoint I could’ve picked up for free from any online fan-fiction site. Given that, I’m glad the book was put online for free download for four weeks at BreeTanner.com for lucky fans who paid attention.
Though the promotional book offer concluded last week, one dollar from each hardcover book sold of the original 1.5 million printed continues to be donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund.
For hardcore fans who wish to contribute to the series’ success, the book can be found at full price at most local and national bookstores for $13.99. It can also be ordered for half-price from several online vendors.