52. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Book 52: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer (A-)

Seriously, I'm not planning all this vampire fiction reading. It's just happening this way.

Honestly, after the disappointment of Breaking Dawn, the Twilight Saga's ending novel, I was worried about Meyer's attempt to write a spin-off for a character from Eclipse. Bree battled against the Cullen clan as a distraction for vamp Victoria to carry out her revenge against Edward and Bella. Bree makes only a brief appearance in the large novel that focuses and is told from Bella's point of view. According to Meyer, she felt a special connection to the character when editing the novel. From it, The Short Second Life... was born.
Bree's story begins in her third month as a vampire. She keeps to herself and tries not to die by the hands of her fellow newborn vampire brethren. Their tempers are deadly, literally. One night, Bree is sent out to hunt and becomes friends with Diego, the favored right hand vamp of their leader, Riley. They travel around the city of Seattle together and discuss the holes in Riley's regular speeches. Then, they discover Riley's first lie: they don't burn up in the sun! Instead, they glitter! Diego and Bree decide to team up together and discover the truth about Riley and their creator Victoria. What is really going on? Why are they being made? What other vampire myths aren't true?
This short story was a wonderful, descriptive inside look at what was going on in Seattle while Eclipse focused on Forks. I was quite impressed by how well Meyer was able to separate herself from Bella and write a completely new voice in the same story.
The beginning was a bit shaky. I thought the cave scene where Diego and Bree discover how they sparkle in the sun was a bit quick and understated. Instead, Meyer focused on Bree's thought process. Because Bree was so in the dark about everything, however, it couldn't be nearly as in depth as a character like Bella. So, the passages of Bree's thoughts and feelings are extremely repetitive until the final scene. Still, Meyer did a commendable job exploring this new side of vampires and breathing additional 'undead' life into a new character. I would love to see a short film based on this piece.

44. The Vampire Diaries - The Awakening

Book 44: The Vampire Diaries - The Awakening by L. J. Smith (B)

I am absolutely in love with the CW TV series based on this book! However, the book... not so much. I feel like Smith doesn't have the skill to write as well as she could, but the novel has become popular because it's another one of those boy-vampire-meets-human-girl novels. It really is a knock-off of Twilight, but there's no loving Cullen family. Instead, there are feuding vampire brothers.

Damon (L), Elena, and Stephan (R)

Elena is your stereotypical high school queen! She is everything anyone would want to be - beautiful, skinny, blonde hair, cheerleader, Homecoming Queen, and any man can be hers! She even has an entourage following her throughout her school day. Her dark feelings about her parents' sudden death in a car crash are hidden away in her diary. Along comes Stephan Salvatore - handsome, Italian, and vampire! He resists Elena at first, but eventually succumbs to her identical beauty to a past love, Katherine, that he and his brother, Damon, murdered. Katherine, unable to decide between the love she felt for both brothers, changed them both into vampires, which led to Katherine's withering away to dust by the sunlight and the Salvatore brothers' forever-long feud.
However, when Stephan comes to Fell's Church, VA, murders occur in high numbers. An old man is attacked, a high school girl has her neck slashed, and the high school history teacher is drained of blood. Stephan can't explain it. He's often found blacked out in the woods, in the cemetery, in the high school boys locker room. He is racked with guilt at his inability to control his thrist for blood and decides to leave town when Elena declares her love, even after he tells her what he is.
Ok, pause! Here is another crazy, stupid girl who doesn't run when a bloodthirsty monster announces he's undead and wants to snap her neck and drain her. Bella, are you listening to me right now? In the television spin-off of this novel, Elena actually pushes Stephan away for two episodes before the inevitable "I'll love you forever no matter what you are." Here, Elena is completely blind and stupid and probably possessed by something unnatural at the way she throws herself at Stephan without thinking! Even Bella had more self control than that. And, I'm not saying that's horrible fiction, I myself being a Twilight fan, but the way Smith wrote Elena... it was just dumb! It's like the girl who goes back again and again to the guy who beats her up. Ladies, take a stand!!! Dump the testosterone-filled loser and quit chasing after the vampire!! In both situations, your life is in peril! 
The show is definitely so much better than this book! The show not only has beautiful actors playing the vampires (oh Ian Somerhalder, you are my Edward Cullen) but they really expand the very simple plot of the novel. I've only made it through The Awakening and I'm on the second season of the show, but the series makes a whole lot more sense and is more entertaining on TV than I think it'll ever be in the book.

30. New Moon

Book 30: New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (A)

I always read this book when I’m depressed and overly upset. This is my third time reading this book and this time, I got through it in three days. I’ve had a lot of downtime without Stuart around as well as having no Internet. The first time I read this book was after returning to school for my sophomore year and dealing with being near The Viking again. Now, Stuart’s gone and I’m wishing that I had a Jacob Black.

You’d think that living with Joe and Anna would help the situation. And, it does… in a way. But they have each other and I’m just a third wheel, or that’s how I feel. They’re a pair and I’m just me. But anyway…

Edward, Jacob, and Bella

If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past like 4 years, then New Moon is the second installment in the Twilight saga. Bella Swan returns with the love of her life Edward Cullen, who is also a vampire. When things go horribly awry at Bella’s birthday party thanks to Edward’s brother’s newly acquired habit of no longer drinking human blood, Edward decides it would be best if Bella didn’t have any contact with him or his family and lead a normal life. Unfortunately, due to the nature of how deeply Bella loves Edward, her life becomes a miserable pit of hell and spends her days trying to fight of the “aching hole in her chest.”
This is my favorite book in the series because it’s so raw. It’s none of the mushy love magical stuff from the first one. It’s none of the baby stuff from the fourth one. And, it’s not an Edward vs. Jacob match like the third one. While technically I’m on “Team Edward,” I still really enjoy New Moon because there’s no fairy tale… except when Jacob changes into a werewolf.

However, the reason it gets only a “A” is because I feel like Stephanie Meyer needs to find herself a thesaurus. It seems that she doesn’t know any synonyms for the following words:

1. ·         “Hole”
2. ·         “Chest”
3. ·         “Shudder”

I think those words come up more than “Bella,” “Jacob,” and “Edward” combined! Read it again. I bet the book is going to be ruined for you now! Muhaha!

I like the Twilight series, the books and the movies, but I understand why people make fun of them so. If you see the movie and if you read the books, there’s a huge gap between the two in quality. The books are excellent. Not superb. I’m not going over the top for Meyer, who basically wrote a Romeo + Juliet with vampires and werewolves. Seriously… the second book? That comparison is right there in your face throughout the entire novel! And… the movies are good. Compared to the books, not so great. Standing alone, I think the movies are all right. They could be better, of course! We could have some better acting, but I think overall they do a good enough job of telling the story within two hours. It’s easy for people to get caught up in the books and then get really angry over the fact that the movies cut out a lot of their favorite parts. 

First off, stop picking insignificant favorite parts and then they’ll be in the movie! 

Secondly, it’s called an adaptation! Important word here… look up the definition because it’s not the same thing as “exactly the book.” Otherwise the Twilight films would have credits that read “EXACTLY LIKE THE NOVEL BY STEPHANIE MEYER” instead of “BASED OFF OF…” or “ADAPTED FROM A NOVEL BY STEPHANIE MEYER.” Understand? So relax, folks, when Breaking Dawn Part 1 comes out in November. It’s not going to be exactly like the book you pored over day after day. That’s why it’s a book! You’re supposed to spend time with it and enjoy it, really get into it. A movie is supposed to entertain temporarily.