Friday, January 3, 2014

Review: Fade Out, Kiss of Death and Ghost Town (Morganville Vampires #7-9)

In Morganville, Texas, someone is always watching.

Fade Out is the seventh novel in the Morganville Vampire series. From the back cover:
Without the evil vampire Bishop ruling over the town of Morganville, the resident vampires have made major concessions to the human population. With their newfound freedoms, Claire Danvers and her friends are almost starting to feel comfortable again…Now Claire can actually concentrate on her studies, and her friend Eve joins the local theatre company. But when one of Eve’s castmates goes missing after starting work on a short documentary, Eve suspects the worst. Claire and Eve soon realize that this film project, whose subject is the vampires themselves, is a whole lot bigger—and way more dangerous—than anyone suspected.

Leaving Morganville, Texas, has never been easy. Living outside of it may be impossible.

Kiss of Death is the eighth novel in the Morganville Vampire series. From the back cover:
Vampire musician Michael Glass just received the call he's been waiting for all his life. His music has attracted the attention of a heavily connected music producer who wants him to cut a demo and play some dates -- which means Michael will have to enter the human world.

But he won't be alone. He's been assigned an undead escort, which includes immortal enforcer Oliver, as well as Michael's human friends: rebellious Eve, oft-misunderstood Claire, and courageous Shane. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell. But what waits for them proves more perilous than they thought. Caught between humans who hate them and a savage party of traveling vampires out to create a blood-soaked feast for themselves, MIchael and his friends may not make it to the show on time...or ever.
Deep in the heart of Texas, Morganville is a small college town full of laid-back students and eccentric townies, not to mention the sort of creatures you wouldn't want to run into after dark. Despite their obvious differences, the human and vampire residents of Morganville have learned to coexist, but that doesn't stop genius student Claire Danvers from keeping up her guard. Because in Morganville, nothing is as it seems...

Ghost Town is the ninth novel in the Morganville Vampires series. From the back cover:

While developing a new system to maintain the town’s defenses, genius student Claire Danvers discovers a way to use the vampires’ powers to keep outsiders from spreading news of Morganville’s “unique” situation once they've crossed the city limits.

But the new system has an unexpected and possibly deadly consequence: People inside the town start forgetting who they are -- even the vampires. And when Claire's boyfriend, Shane, and her best friend, Eve, start treating her like a perfect stranger, Claire realizes that she has to pull the plug on her experiment -- before she forgets how to save herself…and Morganville.
The Morganville Vampires series continue to impresses me. Although I graduated from high school a decade ago, I enjoy reading about the bravery and tenacity of the main cast. Even vampires can have a sense of humor. As the cases become more complex and life-threatening, Claire manages to save the town of Morganville from internal and external foes. My favorite novel was Kiss of Death because it took place outside of Morganville where the plot and action reminded me of the film, From Dusk to Dawn. It's nice that the author deviated from Morganville to see how these teens react in the real world. While there are bound to be sad endings (particularly in Ghost Town, Caine knows how to set up a climactic ending that keeps you wanting to read more about what happens next for these courageous teens. Living in Morganville, as Clare found, does force you to grow up fast when danger lurks in the night.

Stay tuned for the tenth novel in the Morganville Vampires series, Bite Club.

No comments: