What did you find surprising?

[jlight]

love everyone's thoughts on this short sweet sad story.
the book was full of surprises, as mentioned in this thread. but the most surprising things to me were:
1. that the sunlight burning was "just a story".
2. the Volturi's meeting with Jane and allowing her to go ahead with her devious plans to (try) and kill Bella and the Cullens.
3. that what i thought was a wild feral thing (Bree), turned out TO BE A BOOKWORM! and Freaky Fred too.

Shimmerskin: you have quite the way with words! especially loved the whole judge not post. because man, was i mis-judging Bree bigtime.
JQ48: and yes, Bree was a beautiful shooting star!

now i can't wait to see ECLIPSE again after having read this book with all the new insights.
bravo, SM!

[edwardstemptation]

The Volturi meeting with Victoria surprised me and I really liked Bree.

[chickie]

Shimmerskin, JQ48 & Lynn, WOW! Excellent points!

What's surprising about Bree is her physical appearance. She is small, petite, so non-threatening. Her desire to be not noticed is very much as Bella wanted her first day @ Forks, HS, (anonymity). Bella had Edward to save her after being bit by James; poor Bree didn't have an 'Edward' to save her, but she did have Diego ~ who was there to give her albeit brief, happy feelings as a vampire.

Up until that point all Bree ever thought about or wanted was blood. In turn, Bree's dilemma is Bella's biggest fear ~ the constant crazed hunger for blood.

[TwilightTINK]

chickie, thanks for pointing out the Bella/Bree comparison. I hadn't thought of it from that angle.

[Sheree2u]

I get what you're saying, but I think centering the story around a "real" newborn would be tiresome. I was satisfied to see those characters at one remove rather than from any first-person perspective. Their narrative would go something like this: "Thirst! Hunt! Kill! Fight! Drink! Thirst! Hunt! Kill! Fight! Thirst!" Bree was exceptional but she wasn't entirely unique. After all, there were two other vampires in her coven who had a similar capacity to function at a higher level than the rest. And Riley would also fit in that category, though he used his superior control to manipulate others and further his selfish aims, while Bree and her friends simply weren't that venal.

I think any young vampire is going to be at the mercy of all its lusts, with bloodlust being absolutely the most prevalent. As it gets a little older, its other drives will gain in intensity. I believe the fighting and maneuvering that went on around Bree had components of rage, thirst, rampant sexuality, competitiveness, jealousy, greed...almost the seven deadly sins, on steroids. But because Bree was still basically a child, she wasn't lit up with sexual lust, and her rapid acquisition of (relative) self-control meant she was less prone to the other pitfalls. I believe her early history prepared her to be a more sensitive and sensible newborn; I'm sure she had spent her lifetime surviving under the radar, being cautious, subverting her wants and needs, and doing without.

Hmm. In many ways, she is similar to Bella. Bella does not have the same history of abuse but she did survive neglect, had to grow up quickly and assume a lot of responsibility. She did not have a natural childhood, and neither did Bree. I think this has a lot to do with how they behave as vampires.

I'm not certain Bree's feelings for Diego were romantic as much as they were a need she had for loyalty, trust, friendship, someone to believe in...and someone to believe in her...and romantic love would then become a logical extension of that. In that sense, Diego was the obvious connection for her to make, but it's possible it could otherwise have been Fred if she'd discovered his true self first. Both males were the kind of persons she needed in her life--strong, secure, not so aggressive, intelligent, with better self-control than most newborns.

Or, perhaps it could only have been Diego, with her reaction to him being the type of bonding in vampires that resembles the wolfpack imprinting. I'm thinking of how, without him, she really doesn't mind dying, does she? And yet the survival instinct in vampires is extremely strong. Hmmm. Bonded/imprinted. Was she?....

I agree with you about how tedious it could have been to have read about the life of a "typical" newborn who's ruled only by their thirst. Keep in mind that Riley chose his newborns from the "dregs" of society. Most of these people were not well-educated, intelligent people. Most of them never really valued human life. These were druggies, uneducated homeless teens & prostitutes. Bree was intelligent & just extremely unlucky (in both of her lives, sadly). Diego was intelligent and ambitious as a human. He was motivated to be more than his lot in life was probably destined to be. He was also full of love & protectiveness for his brother. Although we don't know too much about Fred from the book. But we do know that he was intelligent, logical, private & protective of Bree. He also had a strong survival instinct.

It seems to me, that from what we know about vampires, they do bring much of their human personalities & traits with them into immortality. Their entire lives are overpowered by overwhelming thirst initially which they slowly gain control over. However, they can be logical & intelligent & even caring. They do not become stupid during their change. I actually found it strange that Bree & Diego were not more conflicted by killing humans to feed. It seemed to go against their nature since they were never bad people. They were taught by Riley NOT to value humans.

Bree was only 3 months old but I think I remember her saying something about how she had changed, in terms of her hunger. She was slowly gaining control. Distractability is definitely also an issue for newborns. Even Bella has trouble with focusing initially. It seems that newborns do tend to be driven by the most basic of "human" urges (substitute thirst for hunger, of course).

I strongly agree that there are many parallels between Bella & Bree. Bree even wants to be "good" & obedient to Riley. "Goodness" means so much to Bella. I'm not sure about Bree's lack of sex drive.

I loved your "7 deadly sins on steroids" concept! I'd agree with that. GREAT concept! This seemed especially true of the actual dregs... like Raoul & his nasty gang of idiots. I also agree that Bree would be less likely to fall into & be trapped by those desires. Of course her thirst would be ruling her often. I liked how Bree described the thirst & how she would almost transform once she was on the hunt. She'd become all hunter & instincts. Like she'd leave her logic & level-headedness behind when hunting.

As for a vampire almost "imprinting", I think I know what you mean. It's like once they fall in love & bond with their partner, that's it. It seems like they can never love again... at least not the same way. Edward even tells Bella that love is a powerful thing fr a vampire. It changes them permanently. They do not change again like that. He also gets to hear what imprinting is for the wolves & says that it's almost as strong as how he feels for Bella. Bree was definitely changed by Diego. I even think that she could allow herself to trust Fred because of Diego's influence on her. She was extremely skeptical & it was hard for her to trust Diego at all, initially.

As for what I found surprising in this book:
~I was surprised Jane was not only aware of what Victoria was up to... but that she encouraged it. She was really trying to get Bella & the Cullens killed.
~I was also not expecting Bree to have been as smart as she was or to have communicated purposefully with Edward.
~The gingerbread house was a strange detail that was unexpected.
~The torture of Diego was sickening & unexpected. I was pretty upset by that.
~That venom glues back limbs.
~That vampires feel physical pain (not ONLY of thirst).
~That Bree sort of wanted to die.
~That Edward was talking to Bella & Bree when he said not to look.
~I didn't expect the Newborns to be as ridiculously, conspicuously idiotic as they were! Throwing cars around & ripping humans in half!? What fools! Raoul's group was really exceptionally stupid & terrible.

[Rebecca Black-Cullen]

What I found surprising about The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner was how Bree was never actually guilty of any wrong doing technically. She was just guilty by association. Jane was too quick to assume that she was guilty to find any of that out. Jane is probably the most evil of all of the volturi. I actually expected that the volturi knew exactly what was going on with Victoria and her newborn army. They wanted Edward and Alice more than anything, and they were anxious for Bella to become immortal because Aro knew she would be powerful, but Jane wanted her dead because she was jelous of that fact and if Aro got her to join them she would be the new favorite instead of Jane. What honestly surprised me the most was the fact that Bree fell in love. Diego was so good for her. His only flaw was that he put too much trust in Riley. Bree tried to warn him, but he thought that their friendship was stronger than that, but their ties weren't as deep as vegetarian vampires. He was starting to get suspicious of Riley, but he put those aside and told himself that Riley must be being lied to also. He should have known better. What also surprised me was that Bree didn't get vengeful like most vampires when someone killed their mate. She didn't even try to die. She just gave up, and she didn't fight her survival instinct when it took over. I think she knew deep down that he was the one that burned in the middle of the room the night they found the volturi threatening Victoria and Riley. She should have gone with the repulsive vampire so that she could have survived. She wanted to believe so badly that Diego was still alive. I was surprised at how much I felt for Bree. I knew the outcome of the book, but I found myself hoping that she could convince Diego to not trust Riley and run away with her. She wasn't stupid and conspicuous like most of the other newborns in the army. She didn't want to disobey because she knew there was a good reason for it even if she knew that Riley was lying about those reasons. She tried to tell herself that Riley was innocent and nieve, but she could never quite shake the bad feeling she had about him. She knew better, and I just wanted to yell at her to force Diego to go with her when she wanted them to stay away from the rest of the newborns and go off on their own. I wanted to plead with her to beg Diego to just trust her gut feeling and let them believe them to be dead. What was the most surprising over everything else though was just how curious it made me about all of the other character's stories that were mentioned in the saga. Like, the Danali sister's mother and her immortal child, the story behind why Aro was so obsessed with power, Jacob and Renesmee's future together, Eleazar's time with the volturi, Jasper's time in Maria's army, Carlisle's stay with the volturi, and more adventure's that Bella and the cullens would have in the future. I want to know what happens when the volturi come up with another excuse to try and take down the cullens. I want to know about the cullen's lives before they met Bella in more detail. I want to know all of the stories from the rest of the family's perspectives one at a time. Stephenie Meyer could go on and on with these books probably for the rest of her life. What would be really interesting would be a novel about Aro's perspective as all of the stories take their course and he learns about the goings on, and when he figures out what Bella can do as an immortal. she could start from when Aro met Carlisle and end when they get back to volterra after the conflict with the Cullens. It surprised me just how much more Bree's story made me want to know.