Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine (The Morganville Vampires #13)

Title: Bitter Blood (The Morganville Vampires #13)
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby, 2012

I’m always a little wary of picking up a book so far into a series. From what I gathered once I was done with Bitter Blood was that I’d missed quite a bit of action, since I’d only read up to book number two before this.

To say that author Rachel Caine is prolific would be a wee bit of an understatement, but she handles herself well in this instalment of the saga of the Morganville vampires, giving readers just enough back story to fill in the blanks without going overboard on the exposition.

We once again join our group of friends, who seem to have a habit of making themselves central to all of the small town of Morganville’s troubles. Michael and Eve are married – a big source of contention for the locals, who frown on this union between vampire and human; and Claire and Shane are in a steady relationship. Miranda is the added extra – now a ghost trapped within Glass House’s protection.

One would think that after having faced the terrible conflict in previous instalments of this series, that the vampires and humans would have figured out how to live together. Not so. The vampires are laying down draconian pass-laws that aren’t in the humans’ favour, and the humans are retaliating by taking up arms. The inhabitants of Glass House are, predictably, caught in the crossfire, with Michael and Eve’s unnatural vampire/human marriage drawing unwanted and rather unpleasant attention. Not only that, but a ghost-hunting TV show has come to town, and their meddling at a time like this is exactly what Morganville doesn’t need.

Caine does a good job of keeping all the story arcs chugging along nicely. Old favourites we love to hate – like Oliver – get plenty of opportunities to strut their stuff, counterpointed by delightfully wacky Myrnin. Morganville, as a setting populated by a large, varied cast, has had the opportunities to grow, and it’s easy to see where the attraction lies. Claire might still thoughtlessly plunge into danger, but she’s a lot more capable now than the timid, mousy girl we met in book number 1. If you’re looking for an action-packed vampire-stomping romp, then this one will keep you out of mischief.

The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine #review

Title: The Dead Girls' Dance (The Morganville Vampires Book #2)
Author: Rachel Caine
Link

It’s not often that I encounter a second book in a series that’s actually a mild improvement on its predecessor, but this is one of them. Book #1
introduces us to “too stupid to live” (TSTL) heroine Claire Danvers – who, at the age of 16, is intellectually gifted enough to study at a college away from home – and her motley crew of housemates, Shane, Michael (a ghost) and Eve (the token goth).

But the town of Morganville, Texas, is apparently the last place on earth any parent would want to send their child to, as it’s run by a community of vampires who consider their human townsfolk as nothing more than prey. Of course, Claire, with her knack for drawing trouble (which also keeps her firmly in TSTL category throughout the saga) finds herself smack bang in the middle of trouble. With a capital “T”.

Mercifully, the pace is fast and events quickly spiral out of control for the characters when Shane’s vengeful father and his gang of biker thugs aim to rid Morganville of its vampires. Added to this, Claire’s favourite bullying fiends – the stereotypical popular girls – have further nastiness planned for her.

My main issue with this story isn’t so much the writing, which is adequate, and a plot that is mildly entertaining, but rather that I wish Caine would find better ways to convince me of her character’s motivations. Because, once the cards are on the table, what sensible young person would want to stay in a town that features vampires (some of whom don’t have her best intentions at heart), and bullies who are not too concerned with exactly how deadly their lessons are?

All for the sake of proving that you’re big enough to get an education and be independent? I’m sorry. I’m not buying it, even for the sake of Claire not leaving behind friends. I simply didn’t gain the impression that the main character had lived in Morganville long enough to set down the kind of roots that would justify her obstinacy in risking life and limb – repeatedly, and with a blasé attitude to boot.

That being said, if you’re a fan of the Twilight and Fallen books, you’re probably not going to be bothered by Claire’s actions, and you’re most likely going to gobble down the entire series like chocolate-covered doughnuts.

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine #review

Title: Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires #1)
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Signet, 2006
Link 

This is another one of those novels I decided to read to see what all the fuss was about, and I finished Glass Houses with mixed feelings. If I have to compare it to its more famous cousin, the Twilight saga, I feel that Rachel Caine is the better author. But…

I just couldn’t find it within myself to get worked up into a frothy to read the rest of this series. I didn’t engage with the characters and the author’s writing, though the premise was certainly worth a second look.

Glass Houses is the story of child prodigy Claire Danvers, whose overprotective parents won’t allow her to study at one of the top universities she’s been accepted at, thereby forcing her to go to the one closest to home, at Morganville, ostensibly so they can keep an eye on her.

And here’s why I don’t think I liked Claire: her character feels too contrived—the nerdy girl who LOVES physics, is super intelligent but totally dorky. It’s *almost* screaming Mary Sue. I didn’t quite buy the fact that she’d had made no friends. Hell, I was the total epitome of dorkness at school, but I still managed to make *some* connections with others. I find it hard to believe that Claire seemed to exist in a bubble of isolation. Characters only seem to wash in and out of Claire’s almost solipsistic point of reference when it’s convenient for the author.

Her behaviour also annoyed me no end, and the whole time I felt she suffered from the “too stupid to live” syndrome. What sane person, when faced with extreme bullying, would muddle along and keep on going into dangerous situations without asking for help? A sheltered sixteen-year-old, away from home… Who *doesn’t* call her parents at the first whiff of trouble? I’m sorry, I’m not buying it. I needed more motivation from her to try on her own and I didn’t see it. All the time Claire bangs on about not being a kid, yet her behaviour in many of the situations didn’t strike me as anything but the behaviour of a juvenile.

All this being said, the interaction between the support cast was a patch of brightness. Shane, Michael and Eve offer a small diversion from Claire’s insistence on going out and doing stupid things. In the end, I don’t feel they’re enough to save the floundering plot, because when the action really starts heating up there are a lot of characters running around and not getting much achieved. So many times I kept asking myself, “Why is so-and-so doing this?” or “What did that achieve?” or “What just happened?” At crucial times I almost felt as if the writing was too fast, and some of the leaps of logic a bit too stretched (like the part which led Claire to finding a major McGuffin in the story).

I suppose if teen dramas are your thing, and you liked Twilight, you’ll probably like this. Unfortunately I kept wanting the story to deliver more complexity than it did in the end, and what I perceived as issues with characterisation and story arcs kept jerking me out of the narrative. I’m going to give the rest of this series a miss, and admit freely that the fault lies largely with me and my personal tastes.