Morganville Vampires (1) - Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Now to my favourite Vampires - starting with Glass Houses, book one of The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine (in German Verfolgt bis aufs Blut, in French Bienvenue en enfer). I read it in German, where it had 309 pages. The series contain, as far as I know 15 books. Age: 10 - Death (girls and boys). Orginally published in 2006.
Usually modern vampires in literature are good guys, they are like humans, except for the blood-sucking. "Usually" doesn't fit to any part of the whole series. Sixteen(-nearly-seventeen)-year-old Claire Denvers is a genius, but thanks to her over-protective mother send to TPU in Morganville, Texas. A sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. Between classes Claire is bullied by the town's First Daughter and her friends. When Claire has an accident with death threat following soon after, she knows she has to move out. Her only chance to find refuge: the home of Michael Glass, an attractive nineteen-year-old boy who plays the guitar; and his house mates: the equally attractive, family-less Shane Collins and Eve Rosser, a gothic girl who believes in vampires. Vampires? At first, Claire doesn't believe any of it - until she gets to know Morganville better. But vampires aren't the only secrets Claire has to find out about first...
These books are wonderful. I read the first part a million times and it's still tense. Shane and Michael are (good-looking and) cool and Eve is a little insane but so sweet. Monica is a b* but that fits.
Michael especially is an interesting character, the big-brother-type. Protective, caring etc. And this little secret of his really rocks. I mean, I'm sorry for him. But it's a wonderful, original idea and very, very well done.
As for Shane: I really like how he makes fun of everything and how he helps Claire surviving Morganville... Especially the thing with breaking in that professor's house. He's cool. But this Alyssa-thing is so sad! I have a vague idea how I'd react if something would happen to my brother – or the other way around, how he'd react if I was Alyssa. Good God. But, what's actually a little strange is... well, why does Shane ask Claire about this Michael thing? I mean, whether or not he's a vampire? She barely knows this guy. Sure, she knows his secret. But shouldn't it make more sense if he'd ask Eve?
Morganville is an interesting place to live and die at, a place, where you make deals with the devil and risk your life once a day. Of course you want to know why so many people are living with vampires: The students of the TPU don't know about it and the rest, well, they CAN'T. It's not possible.
The only things that are irritating are that the Morell's patron is Brandon, who is a small fish in vampire hierarchy. As well as... content mistakes: SPOILER ALERT: First, if the vampires can't read, why did Miss Pink read A Tale of Two Cities aloud? Michael mentions at a certain point in the story Eve's family, her parents and her sisters - unfortunately, Eve has no sisters. Ups, sorry, Mike! And I'm pretty sure the diary entry about Shane being an absolute idiot (even more stupid than usual, at least after Eve) is to early.
I give this book a star for vampires, äh, I mean characters, ideas and style minus one for the mistakes in content, plus SoGH.
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