More Teen Vampires

One thing about reading all these vampire teen books I learned...teens sure love star crossed romances. Drama, drama. All that: we love each other so much...but it's impossible for us to be together! Woe, woe, angst angst (but they are written for teen girls...so...it makes sense). They are all the same in that aspect. So I look for different things to distinguish each from the other.

The latest in my Vampire reading:


Evernight(Evernight Academy #1)
By: Claudia Gray

Write up:

At the eerily Gothic Evernight Academy, the other students are sleek, smart, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.
When she meets handsome, brooding Lucas, he warns her to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him. But the connection between them can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed. 

What this book had going for it, and made it stand out in the multitude of teen vampire romance novels, are the various twists and turns it takes the reader though, that they would not see coming until it was right in front of them.

When we meet Bianca she is just starting Evernight Academy and hates the entire idea. She is from a small town and has lived a sheltered life until that moment, so she has trouble meeting new people and fitting in. She is convinced that she will never fit in at Evernight with its cliques and rich, perfect kids, and gothic environment. So the first day of school she decides she is going to run off in protest…so that her parents realize that she is serious about not wanting to be there. That day, rather than running away...which was a failure because she has no plans outside of getting to the nearby town...she meets Lucas. There is an instant connection (as with all these types of teen romance novels), and she is happy that there is someone at the school that she can talk too besides herself. But Lucas is standoffish towards her after that day, and downright hostile to everyone else. And Bianca is stuck trying to fit into a school where everyone is perfectly pretty and very cliquish. Bianca considers herself normal and gravitates towards the other kids that don't fit in, even though she is accepted on some level more than the other “misfits.” For that first half of the book the reader sees Bianca as just a normal girl trying to fit in without losing herself, and  dealing with normal issues like acceptance and peer pressure, and why a boy doesn't like her. But in the moment when she and Lucas finally admit their feelings and come together...the reader is let in on a secret that flips the entire book on its head, and makes them question all of the assumptions they had made about Bianca and her place in Evernight, as well as the world as a whole. As the reader and Lucas deal with the newfound revelations about Bianca's birth...more mysteries are solved and more questions are raised about Lucas as well. Both teens are carrying secrets that not only make it near impossible for them to be together, but also secrets that surprise even this reader. I like when books surprise me and aren't too predictable. The book seems to be about making assumptions about people, and looking below the surface of what people look like and what they see...to really see what they are about.  
 
So while this book was similar to many of the vampire romance books I have read as far as the predictable drama filled romance and teen angst. The interesting plot and character twists added an extra layer of depth to it that made it stand out a bit more than some of the others. I liked the guessing game the reader is put through as they figure out what is going on at Evernight, and who is who and what is what. It added a nice bit of mystery and intrigue. The ending also built up enough drama and anticipation to make you interested in reading the next installment: how will Bianca and Lucas be together now that they know what the other is? Why is the headmistress of Evernight bringing in new student that they have never accepted in the past? Because of Bianca's birth...how is she different than others, who were not born? All interesting questions that make reading the next book worthwhile.

Overall: B