Author: Rachel Caine
Pages: 248
Publisher: NAL Jam
Series or Standalone: 3rd in Morganville Vampires series
Genre: Paranormal YA
Reading Level: 13+
Dominant Themes: Vampires
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.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Rachel Caine is one of my favorite authors. The Morganville Vampires series is absolutely on my top 10 series list. Here’s a bulleted list of reasons why I love this authoress and her little army of spectacular novels.
- Well-fleshed and believable characters
- The quick and fast paced, keeps you on the seat-of-your-pants and skin-of-your-teeth plot
- Fantastic writing
- Creativity with vampires
- Witty lines and jokes that literally make me laugh out loud
and last but not least…
- SHANE (Because he’s just that good)
All right, let’s start of with my first bullet: characters. It’s astounding to me how Rachel Caine can give us such vivid characters in such a small and fast moving book. Every single one of them, from Amelie to Oliver, from Claire to Shane, from Michael to Eve, is cleverly and near flawlessly written. They each have their own little quirks, and their own distinct way of speaking and behaving that sets them apart from each other, which is difficult to do when you have a cast of characters like this. Midnight Alley saw the progression of each character, and a deeper understanding of some of them. Claire is still that heroine in distress, who kicks ass and has her ass kicked in almost equal measure. But she toughs it out, and with the help of her friends, overcomes all the psychotic trouble that she somehow always gets into.
This tiny book really packs a punch plot-wise, just like all of Caine’s books do. I’m always in awe at how something can be happening at the moment, but then flip the page over and BAM, a new set of craziness pops, elbows you in the stomach, and then runs away taunting you to come chase it. Midnight Alley was full of things that caused a wide range of reactions from me, from a simple gasp to an all-out “Oh, hell nah, that sh*t did not just happen!” *Snaps fingers in ‘z’ formation*
None of the above would have been possible without Rachel Caine’s formidable writing skills. The writing itself, just the way Caine phrases her sentences and forms the story, is remarkable. Caine knows how to set us up for a good plot twist, or cliffhanger.
Midnight Alley, just like both previous books, is FULL of witty lines and jokes that I couldn’t help but laugh at. People around me would look at me weird, but I didn’t care. Some of the best lines were, of course, said by Shane, but at least everyone cracked a joke or two.
And now…..
Shane. I’ve emphasized my love for him several times, but I feel that I cannot say it enough: I LOVE HIM. He needs to be a real person, and he needs to be my boyfriend. Right. Now.
If you liked the first two books, READ THIS ONE! You won’t regret it.
Do I Recommend This Novel: YES
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 6/5!
Uniqueness\Creativity: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Cover: 3.5/5
Overall:
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