Title: Glass HousesSeries: Morganville Vampires Book 1
Author: Rachel Caine
Release Date: October 2006 (US). January 2011 (Australia)
My Rating: 4/5
Blurb:
Welcome to Morganville, Texas. It's a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is enough evil that lurks in the darkest shadows - one that will spill out into the dark light of day.
Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks on the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire doesn't have the right connections - to the undead who run the town. When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new room mates don't show many signs of life. But they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out. Hungry for fresh blood...
My Review:
I quite liked Glass Houses. It's different from your average YA vampire novel because in this, vampires are actually bad! OMG!. While I did think it was a bit slow at the beginning and wasn't really sure where the story was going, I soon became immersed in the characters we were introduced to and while I was preoccupied with them, the story unfolded before my eyes.
Claire is an awesome character. She's at college/university and she's only sixteen. If that isn't hard enough, she pissed off the most powerful (read: crazy psycho b***h) girl on campus and now she is out to get her. If you thought name calling was as bad as it could get, what Claire goes through is worse, much worse. First, all her belongings get thrown down the trash shute. Then she gets punched and thrown down the stairs and almost dies. This is at the hands of an eighteen year-old bimbo and her minions. And it only gets worse.
Claire is such a strong girl and she takes everything that comes at her and refuses to give up. She's actually kind of stubborn. I like that. She picks herself up and, not only tries to 'defeat' these psycho girls but also take on what she has recently discovered is a town run by vampires. She is one kick-ass girl.
Claire's new room-mates are really cool, and of course, they all have their own issues and secrets. Goth girl Eve, smoking-hot slacker Shane and mysterious Michael introduce Claire to the secrets of Morganville as she struggles with school bullies, vampires stalking her, getting home before dark and vampire politics. And Claire still insists on going to class, she's not going to let the undead get in the way of her dream to attend an ivy-league school, especially since a smart, logical science geek shouldn't even believe in the possibility of vampires in the first place!
This book seemed to not really have a very strong plot line, it took a little while to really get down to business, although I feel this is because it is more of an intro to the series. To me, this was ok because I really liked following what was going on in Claire and her room-mates' lives before the vampires came and screwed it all up. For those of you who may pick up the book and think, 'I'm not really liking this, I won't bother with reading the next one' the joke's on you. Glass Houses finishes with a cliff-hanger so you have to read the next book, and it is so worth it. You will be hooked on the Morganville Vampire series from then on out (like me).
And a really cool plus, at the moment Penguin is in the process of releasing the whole series in Australia for the first time over three months, so you don't have to wait the standard six months to a year for the next book!
The Morganville Vampire series:
1. Glass Houses
2. Dead Girls' Dance
3. Midnight Alley
4. Feast of Fools
5. Lord of Misrule
6. Carpe Corpus
7. Fade Out
8. Kiss of Death
9. Ghost Town
Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks on the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire doesn't have the right connections - to the undead who run the town. When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new room mates don't show many signs of life. But they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out. Hungry for fresh blood...
My Review:
I quite liked Glass Houses. It's different from your average YA vampire novel because in this, vampires are actually bad! OMG!. While I did think it was a bit slow at the beginning and wasn't really sure where the story was going, I soon became immersed in the characters we were introduced to and while I was preoccupied with them, the story unfolded before my eyes.
Claire is an awesome character. She's at college/university and she's only sixteen. If that isn't hard enough, she pissed off the most powerful (read: crazy psycho b***h) girl on campus and now she is out to get her. If you thought name calling was as bad as it could get, what Claire goes through is worse, much worse. First, all her belongings get thrown down the trash shute. Then she gets punched and thrown down the stairs and almost dies. This is at the hands of an eighteen year-old bimbo and her minions. And it only gets worse.
Claire is such a strong girl and she takes everything that comes at her and refuses to give up. She's actually kind of stubborn. I like that. She picks herself up and, not only tries to 'defeat' these psycho girls but also take on what she has recently discovered is a town run by vampires. She is one kick-ass girl.
Claire's new room-mates are really cool, and of course, they all have their own issues and secrets. Goth girl Eve, smoking-hot slacker Shane and mysterious Michael introduce Claire to the secrets of Morganville as she struggles with school bullies, vampires stalking her, getting home before dark and vampire politics. And Claire still insists on going to class, she's not going to let the undead get in the way of her dream to attend an ivy-league school, especially since a smart, logical science geek shouldn't even believe in the possibility of vampires in the first place!
This book seemed to not really have a very strong plot line, it took a little while to really get down to business, although I feel this is because it is more of an intro to the series. To me, this was ok because I really liked following what was going on in Claire and her room-mates' lives before the vampires came and screwed it all up. For those of you who may pick up the book and think, 'I'm not really liking this, I won't bother with reading the next one' the joke's on you. Glass Houses finishes with a cliff-hanger so you have to read the next book, and it is so worth it. You will be hooked on the Morganville Vampire series from then on out (like me).
And a really cool plus, at the moment Penguin is in the process of releasing the whole series in Australia for the first time over three months, so you don't have to wait the standard six months to a year for the next book!
The Morganville Vampire series:
1. Glass Houses
2. Dead Girls' Dance
3. Midnight Alley
4. Feast of Fools
5. Lord of Misrule
6. Carpe Corpus
7. Fade Out
8. Kiss of Death
9. Ghost Town
You know what? I think I just might have to start this series.
ReplyDeleteThe first sentence of your review made me laugh out loud, haha. This makes me want to read them! Might have to borrow the first one from you sometime if possible :) xo
ReplyDelete