Anyway, the book I'm reviewing today is Rachel Caine's Bite Club, the tenth book in her Morganville Vampire series. Here is the synopsis* from Goodreads:
After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble.
There's a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare- knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other-or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire- accompanied by her friends and frenemies-to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville.
A vamp vs human fight-club sounds totally intense, right? Rachel Caine delivers an action-packed story once again that left me wanting more. I'm always wanting more after one her books. I can't help but long for the Shane/Clare Michael/Eve happiness that will it never come! And yes, I know that happiness equals boring, but a girl can dream, right? Rachel, if you're by some miracle reading this, I beg you to consider writing just a short story of pure joy for the four of them. Maybe even a novella. No? Okay, fine. [insert pouty face here]
Some would think, after a certain amount of books in a series, that plot-lines would run thin. I've read a few series that kept pushing their expiration date -- you know the ones. Where the story just keeps getting crazier and crazier? When you find yourself wishing, even though you love the characters too much to really part with them, that the storyline stopped about two or three books back? Yeah, those ones -- but this series, is definitely not amongst those. I think Rachel could write fifty** books and I still wouldn't tire of the world, or any of the characters in it.
I don't suggest anyone actually read Bite Club without reading it's predecessors first, because, even though the world is throughly explained as it is in each novel, the conflict won't really affect anyone not already attached to the characters. I was hurting the entire time for Shane and Clare, but someone who hasn't gotten to know them throughout the last nine books, definitely would not. So please, if you haven't already started the series, get on that!
I personally am not a huge fan of vampire books/series, but this and Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries are two that I fully enjoy. I actually planned on simultaneously reviewing the latest novel in that series, Dead Reckoning, which also came out today. After much deliberation I decided not to review any book on here that did not fall in the young adult category -- and any of Charlaine's books, my friends, definitely do not fall in the YA category. Trust me on this. If you're not ready to watch the popular HBO series based off her books, then you are not ready for the actual written series. I think, in many ways, that books can actually be far more graphic than any visual representation could show. Does anyone else feel that way?
Sorry, back to the review at hand!***
The conflict in this book pretty much hits us right away. Sometimes we get an entire chapter of joking and happiness between the foursome. In this book, we get less than five pages. So, so sad. But riveting none-the-less.
A flyer comes to the Glass House promoting a new self-defense (against vampires) gym, and Shane, of course, is all over it. Clare is alerted that something is rotten in the state of Morganville once again, when Michael, Eve and herself find her lab partner murdered in his dorm room. But really, when could a town infested with people looking at you like you were a walking blood-bag not have something rotten going on? Yes, I called the vampires people. I couldn't not call them that when I thought of Michael. Of course they're people! Just, less emotionless people. I think. Maybe.
There's a newcomer to the town as well, and she is B.A.D. news for Clare/Shane and everyone else involved. She is way, way worse than Ysandre ever was. Her name is Gloriana, Glory for short, and she's one of the only vampires alive that can compel others the way she does. When she's really turns on the juice, there's no way to stand a chance against her. Not even Shane can resist her charming ways. Of course it is she that's behind the new underground fight club that forms.
Oh, and did I mention that Bishop is back and ready for some serious revenge? And that MIT keeps calling Clare wanting a decision made about leaving Morganville and attending class there the upcoming January? And that Clare still hasn't told Shane about his father being the brains of the town and all that? Yeah, that all happens too. Also, a completely unexpected character I never thought I'd see again returns to thicken the plot as well. And Gina is crazier than ever.
I quite liked the ending. Everything wrapped up nicely, yet still left some questions unanswered, just the way I like it. ;) Who wouldn't enjoy watching Clare & Myrnin kick some major vamp ass? I obviously have to comment on the fact that there were quite a few shifts to Shane's POV in this book, first person, and I believe (if I haven't lost my mind) that this is the first time it's happened in the entire series. I loved getting inside his head, even if it was just to read his sad/damaged/snarled thoughts.
Overall I loved it and recommend the entire series to anyone who has not already started on it. I will admit that I had some issues with the first book or so because of the weakness of the main character, but Clare is a completely different person now. Sometimes I even forget the person she was when everything began, she's come such a long way. So, if she is one of the things that is putting you off from reading more, suck it up and push through because I promise it doesn't last long!
Bite Club. Rachel Caine. Out May 3rd. Go buy it, people.
Happy reading!
* Am I the only one that can never spell synopsis correctly on her own?
** Fifty might be an exaggeration. Or not.
*** See, I only went off on a tangent for just a few mere sentences. I am getting better at this reviewing thing!
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