The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Bree was a character that made a very brief appearance in the book Eclipse, the third book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. The young, newborn vampire surrenders when it becomes obvious that she is going to die if she continues to fight the Cullens alongside her fellow newborns. While being held captive, she cannot take her eyes off of Bella and wants nothing more than to kill her. Bree has a particular impact on Bella, who views her as being much the same as she herself will be when she finally becomes a vampire. When the Volturi arrive, the Cullens explain that she has surrendered but she is killed anyway.

Stephenie Meyer wrote the novella just for fun and as an added bonus for fans. The book began as a brief side story before Twilight was even released, because Ms. Meyer was fascinated with the life of the newborns and could not stop thinking about how life was for Bree in those first days of her new life. The story also serves to answer several questions that cannot be gained from other perspectives about what, exactly, was going on in Seattle at that point in the story.

Prior to being publicly released, the actors that played Bree, Riley and Victoria in the movie read the story in order to gain a stronger knowledge of the characters that they were playing. After reading the short story, all of the actors destroyed their copies in order to keep it confidential.

Originally slated to be released as part of The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, the book ended up being too long for inclusion. The decision was made to release the story by itself, and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner was born. Ms. Meyer generously made the book available to fans for nearly a month on her website free of charge as a courtesy to her fans. After it was published, one dollar of every book sold was donated to the American Red Cross for relief efforts in Haiti and Chile.