Review: Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine

Title: Midnight Alley

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: Morganville Vampires #3

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Allison & Busby

Summary (from Goodreads)

Claire Danvers’s college town may be run by vampires but a truce between the living and the dead made things relatively safe. For a while. Now people are turning up dead, a psycho is stalking her, and an ancient bloodsucker has proposed private mentoring. To what end, Claire will find out. And it’s giving night school a whole new meaning.

What’s Good About It

Much of the same as the last two really.  There’s a step up to the mythology, and a bit of explanation about why Morganville, which makes the whole series start to make a bit more sense.

The politics deepen and the ‘who’s on which side’ intrigue continues to develop nicely. It’s a shame the series feels a bit like the ideas are coming as the books are written, rather than planned out before hand. The addition of Captain Obvious in particular was a bit clumsy. He could have (read should have) been introduced before. It would have made the world of Morganville a lot richer.

But, these are just quick reads, and as a quick read it was fine – entertaining, fast paced, with some good suspenseful moments and enough intrigue and plot to justify the continuing series without becoming samey. Just not enough to make it something stand out.

What’s Not So Good

Do any of these characters grow? I liked them in the first book, but I’m rather bored of Shane doing the dumb hero thing, Claire risking her life for knowledge and everybody making out with each other. There was a good bit at the end where Claire showed a darker side to her personality, but it was brushed over in a way that suggests to me that it won’t be developed or explored. Which is a shame, because it would have made her a hell of a lot more interesting.

The whole Michael/Shane fall out got a bit boring after about page five too. It just seemed shallow and pointless. I don’t mind main characters butting heads, but while I get why Shane was mad at Michael, I wanted to see more conflict. He would have been torn up about hating his best friend and still having to live with him and face it every day. There should have been more guilt tormenting Shane. I just don’t buy that he could hate Michael so totally.

Rating: 3.5/5

Teaser Tuesday: Midnight Alley

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

Morganville Vampires #3 up this week. I’ve swapped it on to my reading list for the September Reading Challenge, as I’m never going to get through the long, chunky books I chose with the pressures of work at the moment.

My teaser:

His eyes opened, and they were all pupil. Scary owl eyes. ~ pg 150, Midnight Alley, Rachel Caine.

Review: The Dead Girls’ Dance by Rachel Caine

Title: The Dead Girls’ Dance

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: Morganville Vampires #2

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Allison & Busby

Summary (from Amazon)

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favours beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls’ Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

What’s Good About It

Well, it’s a step up from the last. Pacier with a more concrete sense of threat. The lengths to which Shane’s Dad is prepared to go to bring down the Vampires, and his complete lack of regard for himself and seemingly his son make him a real wildcard throughout the novel. You really aren’t sure what he’s going to do next, which makes the plot move much faster and with real tension.

There are some good ideas too – like the neutral cops, exploring a little deeper into the politics of the Vampire world, and how they have survived for so long. But it felt a little like some of these characters, particularly the neutral cops, came out of nowhere to serve a plot purpose. Can’t have another argument about whether or not Claire can leave the house? Well, that’s okay – bring in two guys who for no apparent reason will drive her to school and back every day.

There are some hints as to where this is going next, which is always good for a bit of intrigue. I like the idea that there are worse things out there, because while Morganville is a dangerous place, it does have its rules, and if you play by them you can form some sort of life. That Claire and gang continue to break the rules is their choice and you can only be symapthetic towards trouble they’ve got themselves into so many times.

Character development was better, with Eve, Michael and Shane give a bit more depth, and Claire finally grew a spine, which is also good. It was a constant source of irritation in the last book how she was so drippy, super smart and yet stupid enough to try and take on things she didn’t understand. While intelligence and common sense are not necessarily linked, she lacked the backbone to really make me believe she had it in her to do the daring thing in the last book. Now she seems to be growing a little as a character and it’s much easier to swallow.

Above all, though, it was a fast read, and that is its saving grace really. I couldn’t cope with it if it was much longer than it is. But you don’t mind spending an afternoon reading a book that isn’t the greatest, but has its mildly entertaining moments.

What’s Not So Good

Like many YA Paranormal series, this one picks up directly where the last book left off. While that can be a good thing, and can work very well, sometimes the time between reading one book and picking up the next can leave your brain with the impression that the characters have known each other for longer than they have, because you’ve known them for a longer time.

It was easy to forget that Claire had only known the housemates for a few weeks at most, if that. I accept that intense situations make for intense friendships and loves, but sometimes it seemed a little too much, how much danger she was prepared to put herself in, especially as she doesn’t fully understand Morganville yet.

The titular Dead Girls’ Dance was a bit throwaway too. And the college kids are getting more and more irritating. Yes I know some people are jerks, and you do occasionally get high concentrations of them, but there seem to be an inordinate amount at the university. While I can see why Monica is the way she is, the kids from out of town wouldn’t all be the same way. It seems to me like a lot of the same plot tropes are being used again and again. Claire does something dumb and gets into trouble. Some college kids are mean. Shane makes chilli. Michael is incapable of doing anything because he’s trapped in the house. Claire and Eve are told to stay behind but don’t. Across two books, it’s just about okay, but if there isn’t something new in the next installment, I won’t be bothering tracking down the rest.

Rating: 3.5/5

Teaser Tuesday: The Dead Girls’ Dance

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

So this week I’m reading The Dead Girls’ Dance by Rachel Caine, the second in the Morganville Vampire series. Didn’t particularly rate the first but I’ve heard enough good about the series to give the second a chance.

My teaser:

You walk up to the first cop you see and you tell him you need to see the mayor about Frank Collins. And you tell him Frank Collins has his daughter, and she’s going to pay for the life she already took, not to mention the one they’re about to. ~ pg 245, The Dead Girls’ Dance, Rachel Caine

Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Title: Glass Houses

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: Morganville Vampires #1

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Allison & Busby

Summary (from Goodreads)

College freshman Claire Danvers 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.

What Was Good About It

It’s nice to read a book where vampires are scary again. There is such a glut of ‘my sexy vampire boyfriend’ books out there finding one that sends them back to their terrifying, violent personas is a breath of fresh air.

The mythology was interesting and some of the characters were great. I loved Monica and the Monickettes – totally convincingly horrible college girls who think they rule the roost because they have powerful Vampire Protection. This politicky side of things worked well too. I loved the idea of Monica and her ilk running around like they were in charge but really they were just puppets to the Vampires.

The housemates in the Glass House were interesting as well, if a bit two dimensional at times. Some of the characters were a bit throwaway or flat, but as this is the first in a series they have plenty of room to grow, and the potential is there.

Which was my general feeling overall really – the potential is here, hopefully next book the writing will be better, the story better, the characters better etc. Because I think Rachel Caine is onto something good here- and obviously enough people agreed to keep the series going as long as I know it has been going.

What’s Not So Good

As I’ve already mentioned, the characters were a little flat. They all seemed a bit… token. Eve the token damaged goth girl, Miranda the token weird psychicky one, Shane the token jock etc. The main characters weren’t bad, but some of the less involved ones were totally two dimensional and placed in the story very conveniently at times.

The quest for the book seemed a bit throwaway as well. A bit like ‘oh, my characters are in this predicament, how can I get them out of it? I know, magic book that all the Vampires want!’ It was handled well enough, and I didn’t put down the book feeling like it was all too convenient. Again, the politics and the mythology backed the story up well enough to overlook any minor annoyances.

But overall, my biggest problem with the story was Claire herself. Now, this may just be a personal taste thing, but I really didn’t get on with her as a character. She was having her life threatened and she still decides to go to school? Um… I don’t care how much you love school, you love being alive more. I just got the feeling she would have run fairly soon after the second or third incident. But then that would have been after about 4 chapters, which wouldn’t have left much of a story.

Rating: 3.5/5

Teaser Tuesday: Glass Houses

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Making good on my aim to get on with my Summer Break Reading Challenge list, I’m currently reading Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. Enjoying it so far, even though I have only read a few pages!

My Teaser:

She couldn’t hear anything or anybody when she left the first floor. It was as silent as – she hated to think it – the grave. ~ pg 232, Glass Houses, Rachel Caine