A vampire who first features in Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel Eclipse but dies shortly afterwards is being resurrected by the bestselling Mormon author in her first new book for two years.
Meyer's novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner will be told from the perspective of newborn vampire Bree, who is bitten by the vampire Victoria as she creates an army to kill her enemies Bella Swan and the "vegetarian" vampire family the Cullens. Bree dies shortly after she is introduced in Eclipse, the third in Meyer's bestselling Twilight series about the love between human teenager Bella and handsome vampire Edward Cullen.
"This has been a surprise to me, too," Meyer said. "The reason why it's a surprise was that I never intended to publish this story as a standalone book. I began this story a long time ago – before Twilight was even released. Back then I was just editing Eclipse, and in the thick of my vampire world. I was thinking a lot about the newborns, imagining their side of the story, and one thing led to another. I started writing from Bree's perspective about those final days, and what it was like to be a newborn."
She'd originally envisaged the tale as a short story for her website, and then as a piece for The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, but at almost 200 pages it ended up longer than she'd anticipated. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a novella, will now be published on 5 June by Little Brown imprint Atom at £11.99. The book will also be available for free between 7 June and 5 July on the website www.breetanner.com.
The character of Bree will also feature in the film version of Eclipse. The film's director, David Slade, and the actor who plays Bree in the film have both seen drafts of the novella already. Meyer, who scrapped the final episode in her Twilight series, Midnight Sun, after a draft leaked online, is determined to keep this latest novella confidential until publication: she showed a picture of actor Jodelle Ferland "next to the bucket of waterlogged ashes that were once the pages of her copy of the Bree manuscript" on her website.