Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

A discussion of the novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

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dandyvampgirl_13
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by dandyvampgirl_13 »

December wrote: But you're quite right that Stephenie is still soft-pedalling the grisly side of this. But not entirely. Clearly, she's more comfortable keeping the blood and gore tactfully offstage...
For all of us who ever fretted about the way Stephenie kept the grisly realities of a vampire's life from striking the reader too vividly (just as Edward kept them from Bella), well, there's her answer. Yes, it's more of a moment than a prevailing mood -- most of the book's violence still has the muffled generality we're used to from the Saga -- but it's enough. At least, it certainly stopped me in dead in my tracks.
I was actually disappointed that there wasn't more gore. Were I to compare this book to a vampire, it'd be like... Riley. Capable of ripping off heads and limbs with abandon, but he doesn't do it in front of people. Its like... polite gore. Honestly, if people are going to be dying right and left, couldn't we get a little more description?
Now, I'm not saying the lack of serious bloodbaths is a bad thing- I understand the viewpoint Stephanie's coming from, seeing as I'm Mormon too. We're discouraged from watching/reading overly violent media, therefore, she wouldn't put that sort of thing in her books. That's good. However, I have serveral other favorite Mormon authors who are excellent at giving us a good battle scene without going over the line. Maybe she'll learn to do that someday- with her talent at descriptive writing (one of the few things I still like about the series. The way her characters put things to words (at least at first) is almost awe inspiring.) she might be able to do an awesome battle scene.

And if she ever does do an awesome battle scene, it should be from Emmett's perspective, because I just love Emmett. I'm sooooooooo happy we got to see him in here, ripping off someone's head. That was the best part of the book for me. GO EMMETT!

The only other piece of the book I liked was Fred. Reminds me of Marcus, mostly in the lack of talking area. Which is nice. I'm happier when her characters aren't talking.

As for the rest... I felt it was too BAMBAM fast, like BD. Just suddenly we were finding out new stuff and solving mysteries and making friends then suddenly falling in love with those friends and magically figuring out powers and using them even though we haven't ever before and making friends with powerful people and ninja stuff. At least Stephanie caught on to the popularity of ninjas, but I'm worried for her health- if the ninjas don't like this book too, will they take her out? O.o
vampbball
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by vampbball »

MiVidaLoca wrote:
The ferry scene was very hard to read, very heartbreaking. I lived in WA for 10 years and have ridden on the Ferries hundreds of times to go to Seattle. I pictured children in the scene and that was probably the hardest. I don't know why, but I just assumed they didn't feed on children. I mean I know they changed them when they wanted babies. But seeing just the Cullens, and then how Aro wanted to wait to change Jane and Alec until they got older, I just didn't ever picture the Vamps feeding on children and babies until reading that Ferry Scene.
Yeah, I know. In New Moon the movie (not the book), there are children part of the tourist group walking into the chamber in Volterra, and I think one of them looks back at Bella as Edward rushes her out. My stomach always drops.
twilightfang27
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by twilightfang27 »

I just read Bree Tanner and it read a lot like what it was - something written for the script writer and movie producers so they would know what was going on with Riley and the newborns. It didn't seem like it was really written for the fans, or to get any type of reaction from the reader. Overall I had a hard time sympathizing with Bree when she just killed people without any remorse or second thought, but i guess it's okay since they were prostitutes???

There were little things in it that just irritated me too, mostly in the first part of it. I thought the slang was very poorly done and that bugged me. No one says True that, sing it sister, or amen sister. I think she was trying to write them to sound like street kids, but I promise you druggy homeless kids don't say any of those things. And Diego - did the Latin guy really have to have a violent past? Also, the only time Diego speaks Spanish is when he tells her he's not on fire...don't you think he would want to say that in English so she would know he wasn't on fire? It would have been better if he called her Mija (sort of like calling someone honey) towards the end or used Spanish intermingled with English at certain places. That would have been more realistic. The ninja and secret club thing was kind of dumb. Diego treated her like his little sister and then all of a sudden he kisses her. It was not romantic at all, especially since she didn't seem to have any serious feelings for him.

I'm from a rez town in Washington, so there are little things throughout the whole series that bug me, but I forgive them because I love the story so much. In Bree Tanner, I didn't like the story quite as much, so they bugged me more. I know it's nitpicky, but at the same time, it's pretty easy to avoid. In Bree Tanner she talks a lot about swimming in the sound and climbing up the cliffs...first of all, there really aren't many cliffs around the sound that I've seen. It's all trees and pretty low elevation. The cliffs are on the coast. Also, we don't have Sandstone or Limestone in Washington. Those stones exist in Arizona and Utah, not up here. We have Basalt and volcanic rock. If you don't know that, then just say rocks or stones and leave out the specific type. It created a picture in my mind of them climbing out of the sound onto a big red sandstone cliff that you would find in the Southwest. It was totally out of place.

And Fred with the revolting thing...okay. That power was dumb at first, but got better towards the end. Another newborn had the opposite effect though...they could attract people or something. It just seemed like she couldn't think of new superpowers.

Also, why did Diego get killed if Riley just told everyone the sparkle thing anyway? And the whole motivation behind getting the newborns to attack was pretty shaky. Then she has her eyes closed through the whole fight. I felt a little cheated by that.

Anyway, not a huge fan of Bree Tanner, but I can't wait to see Eclipse anyway.
Gochiruzeru
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by Gochiruzeru »

I have to admit, I wasn't as big on the Bree Tanner book as I thought I would be. I was really interested in her character after reading Eclipse, but the novella just didn't sit right with me. In particular, I had a lot of trouble with the ferry scene. It wasn't because I found it heartbreaking -- it was because I found it to be too random. An entire ferry of people being slaughtered is not something that most people take lightly -- something like that probably would have put the country into national emergency mode. How could it just go unnoticed? Why wasn't it mentioned in Eclipse? And if Riley didn't want the newborns to be noticed, why did he have them do something as obvious as that? It just didn't make sense.
dandyvampgirl_13
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by dandyvampgirl_13 »

^^You forget that humans, we being as stupid as we are, would most likely just write it off as a tragic accident or something, not a slaughter. Riley would have had the ferry sunk to disguise the mess. Thus, problem solved. No human freak out, lots of omnomnoming.
jennaentrust
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by jennaentrust »

I like the book and I see what you are saying about the way that Bree and Edward communicate. I also agree that the secret club thing is very stupid and not at all believeable.
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suzzeeQ
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by suzzeeQ »

Overall I had a hard time sympathizing with Bree when she just killed people without any remorse or second thought, but i guess it's okay since they were prostitutes???

So it was okay for them to die because they were prostitutes?
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Re: Review Time: The I Didn't Like Bree Tanner Thread

Post by JustcallmeRiley »

I didn't like the book that much. I didn't like her character much either. She just seemed too tame for a new born. I always thought a new born would literally think about blood all the time. I really liked the "conversation" between her and Edward though. I liked Jasper in it too, we got to see a side of him we've never seen before. I wish she described the taste of blood more, since I liked how when she was describing the taste of the blood.
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