Plenty of fun.
The 12th episode in the Morganville Vampires series finds the town besieged by the terrifying draug, water beings that feed on vampires.
Throughout their history, the vampires have never defeated the draug. Human Claire, the series heroine, her boyfriend Shane and her friends, Eve and her vampire fiancé Michael, will find new ways to fight, but not without cheating death. All the while the town’s leader Amelie lies dying from a draug bite. Indeed, it looks as though Morganville has had it. Although readers know that Caine won’t allow that to happen, she works the tension beautifully, keeping the cliffhangers coming. She delves into Shane’s character most deeply in this installment, after he’s captured by the draug. The eccentric vampire Myrnin, Claire’s scientist boss, stands out as the book’s most interesting and entertaining character, providing both comic relief and some nice plot turns. The romance scenes in the novel don’t rise above most other paranormal romances, and the writing relies on frequent use of italics, but the author’s imagination easily tops the average, keeping the book constantly interesting. Her suspense scenes, the heart of this series, crackle with vitality and occur frequently enough to induce white knuckles. The plot includes enough explication that new readers can orient themselves. This series continues to provide terrific action and great entertainment.
Plenty of fun. (Paranormal suspense. 12 & up)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-451-23671-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
IN THE NEWS
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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