Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Glass Houses
****½ Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the first book in the Morganville Vampire series.
Claire Danvers is a 16-year-old college freshman in Morganville, a town run by vampires. She'd fought with her parents to be allowed to go to college away from home, so she's not going to let a little thing like a vicious, violent clique in her dorm get to her.
So she moves into a house off-campus with some very interesting roommates.
I bought this because I've thoroughly enjoyed the other books I've read by Rachel Caine--most notably, her Weather Wardens series. While this is quite different--it's aimed at a young adult audience, for one thing, while the Weather Wardens is decidedly not--it's still just as entertaining.
The clique did bother me, though I've seen the same sort of thing often enough to ignore it, mostly. It's Hollywood's version of high school and college, where the bullying is much more overt than in any school I've ever experienced (including my own and the several different schools my kids attended). But maybe people get more vicious when they live in a vampire town.
Claire is an engaging character, who struck just the right note for me. She's very smart--as evidenced by the fact that she's in college at 16--and she acts like it. She behaves exactly as I'd think a 16-year-old college freshman would act. She figures things out quickly, and comes up with intelligent solutions, but she also has a bit of the naivete you'd expect from a 16-year-old. The other characters are likewise well-developed and people I wouldn't mind spending a few more books with.
And the vampires.... These are interesting vampires. They're kind of like politicians. Very sneaky and full of hidden agendas. And just as dangerous.
I've read the second book since, and I have the third in my TBR mountain.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
