Plot summary - Morganville. Texas. Just south of normal. In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, a master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil dead, and let chaos rule.
But Bishop isn't the only threat. Violent black clouds promise a storm of devastating proportions. As student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against the elements - both natural and unnatural - the unexpected happens: Morganville's vampires begin to vanish one by one. Discovering why leads Claire to one last choice: swear allegiance to Bishop...or die.
The only problem with these books is the complete and utter lack of recapping. It wasn't that long since I read the fourth book, but I still spent at least the first few chapters desperately confused and completely out of my depth. Feast of Fools broke off right the middle of the action (as they all seem to) and we rejoined the story in exactly the same place in this book. It's hard to follow.
I genuinely believe that there doesn't need to be this many books in the series - every two books could easily be condensed into one with (much) smaller font and an only slightly thicker book. Instead of each book containing its own separate story, it has a chunk of the overarching plot and these don't always seem entirely distinct from each other. There's little passage of time or story progression inbetween. So, although I love these books, they can be a little frustrating to read.
The afore-mentioned overarching plot really is good though. The tone, language and relationships are definitely YA, but it wouldn't take much to ramp the story itself up to adult. It's quite complicated and sophisticated, with new twists and turns in every installment. I've genuinely never seen a paranormal series quite this interesting.
The fundamental point of irritation with the Morganville books though, is something I rant about in every single review. Claire is not twelve. She is not mentally handicapped or in anyway disadvantaged in society. So why does everybody else in the book insist on treating her like she's made of porcelain? They're always going on about how she's too young or how they promised her parents she wouldn't be allowed to do that... they're a year and a half older than her. I'm pretty sure a small group of 18 year olds would let a 16 year old say 'bitch' if she wanted to. For God's sake.
Out of interest, for everybody that's read any of these books, what does Amelie look like in your head? To me she looks kind of like Angela Lansbury, only less smiley. I only ask because I read a phrase in this book that implied she looked much, much younger but that just doesn't gel in my head in the slightest.
However, these books do have a knack of ending on the most thrilling cliffhangers. I'm glad I have the first eight books all lined up as I immediately want to get my hands on the next one.
Read my reviews of Midnight Alley (#3) or Feast of Fools (#4).
Do you know what's weird? I was *positive* that I'd already posted a comment on this review.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of pointless me posting it again since the gist of it was basically, "I only skimmed this review because I'm still dawdling over starting book 2" but the sentiment remains true so I am!
I do really keep meaning to get back into this series (because it's about the only series which Leeds library's eBook site actually has in full!) but then I keep remembering how grumpy I got with how people speak to clear and apparently that's still a thing so...*shrug*
And if this disappears again, I will be sad...