College freshman Claire Danvers is a 16-year-old math whiz whose parents decided she should spend two years at a small local college instead of taking her scholarships to an Ivy League school. And she has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation.
When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates 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.
Will she be able to face the town's terror or will she drown like everyone else?
The theme for this month's Vampire Book Club was start-to-a-series. I actually have owned this book for ages but haven't had a good excuse to start a new series (hence this year's reading goal), so I welcomed this chance to finally pick it up. Straddling the line between YA and NA, would this be the start to a compelling series I'd be chomping at the bit to continue, or would these vamps leave me feeling stale?
Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the vampires—I mean, we barely saw them! Sure, they're a big threatening presence overshadowing the entire town, but we actually see little of what they can do until the very end of the book, and even then they're mostly kept at bay by magical protections. About all we see is a flash of fang, the ability to hypnotize with eye contact, a bit of speed, and their influences on the town as a whole. But actually seeing their threats up close and personal? Not so much. Add in all the damage and outwitting our plucky heroes accomplish with little-to-no training, and I'm just wanting more.
As for our heroes, Claire was by far the most fleshed out. As our protagonist, it's hard not to root for her, but I'll admit there were times where she came off a bit snobby. She's smart, like attending college at 16 smart, but she's also kinda judgey of clothes and fashion and other girls' looks. She's very jaded against the "preppy" girls who rule her dorm (though I'll grant you, they are hazing her pretty hard by this point), and gets on the queen bee's bad side by "automatically" correcting her history knowledge, shaming her in front of a group. I'm not saying she deserves any of the abuse she's getting, but she's not exactly endearing herself to her dormmates either.
Luckily, Claire is able to fall in with a better group of friends at the Glass House. Eve is described as Goth, but really seems to skirt the line between Goth and Punk in clothes, and her personality is a mix of bubbles and snark. Seemingly the responsible one of the group, she's the only one of the current Glass House residents holding down a job, and also acts as a sort of mother hen in welcoming and educating Claire. Shane is a bit of a goof and slacker, quick to make jokes and enjoy the moment, but he's also reliable and intensely loyal, not to mention a pretty good cook. Michael is the owner of the Glass House, and by far the most mysterious of the group. He's slow to warm up, but once he trusts you he'll support you in whatever ways he can. Though a bit rudimentary in their characterization, each worked okay for their roles, and I'm excited to learn more about each of them as the series continues.
Our villains, on the other hand, weren't very impressive. Monica and her lackeys were playground bullies set to 11—happy to punch Claire in the face, push her down a flight of stairs, and abduct her in broad daylight—yet they also seemed reluctant to get their hands dirty, leaving Claire's fate to the vampires. Having them be fearless of reprimand at first, then having them do nothing but verbal taunting second, just didn't work for me. Is there some rule against killing? Was Monica punished for losing a vampire's meal between the scenes? I mean, give me some explanation, or else her actions come off as rather toothless and contrived.
Thankfully, we got to see other villains show their faces in this story, with cops and other vampire sympathizers showing themselves as a clear threat of numbers and resources. Now, 15 years after the book's original release, shady and overly-aggressive cops reads a bit differently to me than it might have back then. Just goes to show how susceptible power is to corruption, and how easy it is for those "going with the flow" to commit truly heinous acts. Chilling, right?
Well, maybe chilling isn't the right word. Perhaps tragic?
I will say the tone of this book doesn't read tragic at all. If anything, it's more akin to a 90's or 00's popcorn flick—fast and action-heavy. What few scenes there are of talking, it's almost always establishing an important plot point or some essential characterization that will come into play later. For all the dark subject matter—vampires, death, tragic backstories, etc.—there's always a good amount of comedic banter, romance, or general hopefulness that carries through. It may not be an in-depth character study, like I prefer YA books these days, and it may have its fair share of logic fails (loving physics but hating calculus? and that's not how wifi works), but it delivers an engaging and well-plotted story nonetheless. And sometimes a fun popcorn book is just what you need.
What I didn't need was that cliffhanger ending. I know I said I was open to starting a new series since I'm in the process of finishing a few this year, but that ending was just plain mean. It's one thing to entice readers with dangling plot threads or unsolved mysteries, but a knife plunging toward a character's chest? Really?!?
Overall, I think this is the start to a fun and fast popcorn series. If you're wanting something a little melodramatic, action-packed, and twisty, with a sprinkling of teen romance, snarky banter, and bloody fangs, then you might want to check out this series. It may come off a tad dated with its reliance on the I'm-not-like-other-girls protagonist and cartoonish-bully tropes, and a noticeable lack of smart phones, but that also just feeds into its nostalgic charm. I don't know when I'll get the chance to come back to this series, but its a safe bet that it won't be too long from now.
Read by Cynthia Holloway
Unabridged Length: 8.7 Hours
Listened at 2.25x Speed
Unabridged Length: 8.7 Hours
Listened at 2.25x Speed
I don't know if it's due to the age of the production, or simply the quality of audiobooks I've been listening to recently, but I wasn't too impressed with this one. Emotions and inflections at certain parts seemed off, like they were recorded non-sequentially and the proper emotion wasn't given to the reader. Like Claire would be speaking, and getting kinda freaked out, then another character would ask her a question, and her one-word response would be unusually peppy. Nothing against Ms. Holloway, as her overall voicework was fine, and her delivery worked well on the whole, just some weird misses for me here and there.
I also couldn't help but notice some alterations to the text every now and again. Nothing huge, for the most part, but there were a lot of omitted and/or changed words that I caught while reading along. The most obvious omittion was towards the end when a character asks to be invited into the Glass House and makes mention of the house's strong protections barring them entry. That sentence about protections wasn't in the audio at all, which I'd usually chalk up to the ebook having editing after the audiobook's recording, but as my paperback also has that line in it, I'm leaning more towards it being a mistake.
Overall, this audiobook is serviceable to get you through the story, but it's definitely not the best I've heard. The tweaks to the text are mostly benign but pervasive, and it seemed like the editing or direction of the production wasn't as invisible as I've come to expect. I'd still recommend it to those who regularly use audiobooks as their reading preference, but it's perhaps not the best sample to woo new prospective listeners. When I inevitably pick up the next story in the series, I hope to see some improvement in these aspects.
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