Freak369's Full Review: Ellen Schreiber - Vampire Kisses
As of late I have been reading a lot of vampire related material; what can I say, it’s something that interests me. Unfortunately most of the adult related vampire stuff on the market is so long, laborious and drawn out that by time you get half way through the book you are confused by the long names or who is sleeping with who or it is so unbelievably generic that you are nodding off. That’s when I discovered the teen section of the library. Now, stick with me here, I haven’t completely gone off my rocker just yet. You can find some amazing reads in this section if you enter into it with an open mind and can make your way through all the goth girls who are swarming over the Darren Shan section. I’ve become sort of a regular in the teen fiction section; a few of the girls there nod at me when I walk through the stacks and one of them even suggested some books for me. Since Shan won’t be releasing any new books in the Demonata or Cirque Du Freak lines until next year I have to find something else to sink my teeth in to. Enter one very interesting story of a displaced goth princess, a mysterious stranger and a creepy old mansion on Benson Hill.
Raven Madison isn’t your typical sixteen year old girl. Well, in some ways she is. No one understands her, her once cool parents sold out to the corporate world and most of the clothing she owns is black. Even since she was a child, she was never part of the ‘in’ crowd. When her kindergarten asked everyone in the class what they wanted to be, most answered that they aspired to be a doctor, nurse, astronaut or even a football star but when the question came to Raven, she paused then said she wanted to be a vampire. From the very start of the book, author Ellen Schreiber sets the tone. “’I want to be ... a vampire!” I shouted to the shock and amazement of Mrs. Peevish and my classmates. For a moment I thought she started to laugh; maybe she really did. The children sitting next to me inched away. I spent most of my childhood watching others inch away.” I have no idea why that particular line stuck with me through the whole book, but it did.
Her parents, Sarah and Paul Madison, were throw-backs to the free love era and living in a Volkswagen bus. They seemed to have the perfect life until ‘Nerd Boy” [her bother] came into the world. One of the funniest parts of the book comes almost at the beginning when Raven is recounting her first day at school. Vivid phases like “Sears catalog girls in frilly dresses” and “Sears catalog boys in tapered pants” give you a lot to go on when you are reading the book. “Somehow I made it through the day. Cutting and gluing black paper on black paper, finger painting Barbie’s lips black and telling the assistant teacher ghost stories”. That was nothing compared to the shock she received when her mother told her she needed to go to bed because she had school in the morning. “But I thought it was just the one time”. It’s little things like this that made this book a most enjoyable read. Innocence mixed with the stubborn streak of one very precocious child.
Becky Miller is Raven’s only friend. Even though they come from completely different families they find a common bond - the fact that no one else likes them. Well, there is Trevor Mitchell, the boy that Raven tried to bite in kindergarten. He’d grown up to be an obnoxious soccer snob that loved to torment Raven to no end. While everyone else was planning parties for the weekend, Raven and Becky would scour the cable channels trying to catch every vampire and horror flick showing from sundown Friday to the wee hours of Sunday. Of course they would make trips to the old mansion that Baroness Sterling lived, it took a lot of courage to enter that place - everyone was convinced that it was haunted. Things took a very interesting turn when Raven invited herself to a weekend bash at Matt Wells house, Matt being Trevor’s best friend.
Now, for parents that are looking for a good read for a young teen, you do have to know that there are some subtle sexual pieces in this - some kissing and vague references to groping but that’s about it. Most of it takes place when Trevor lures Raven outside Matt’s house to give her a special ‘birthday present’ that she’ll never forget. Raven turns the tables on Trevor and starts a war between them that runs pretty much the entire course of the book. Suffice it to say, Raven was riding high on the fact that she one upped Trevor but it did come at a terrible price. The book shows the strength and weakness of friendship; how a cocky and controlling person like Trevor can hold an entire school his emotional hostage because his father owns most of the property in the town. While all these other plot twists are working on you, you have to deal with the rumors that have been spreading about the family that moved into the mansion ... and that strange figure that looms in the attic window.
That figure is Alexander Sterling. A seventeen year old pale faced boy that never leaves the confines of the house. Homeschooled and intelligent, his presence is all that Raven needs to feel somewhat accepted in a town where she is snickered at and made fun of. Their first meeting is when Raven breaks into the mansion when the butler, Jameson, leaves to do the grocery shopping. She thinks she has her escape route well planned but when Alexander stands in the way of her and the front door, all bets are off. As much as she wants to stand there and look at him, she knows that she’s been busted. After that, he is all that she can think of. Their relationship takes some very interesting turns through the book and like I said, most of the physical stuff that happens between them tame, barely warranting a PG rating if it were a movie.
The last part of the book, the events that take place after the dreaded Snow Ball - they are the things that help to make this a great book. The great struggle between Raven and Becky, Alexander having to come to terms that Raven used him to ‘prove’ that vampires exist and of course Trevor trumping her at her own game of cat and mouse ... or in this case ‘bat and mouse’. To try and get into the details of it will surely add another thousand words to this review and I am way too long winded as it is. I won’t go so far as to say that the second part of the book is better than the first because it’s meaty all the way around. I do have to commend the author for writing one hell of an impressive book but the ending was abrupt and left me skipping back pages to see if I missed something. I can only hope that she will write a second book picking up exactly where the last one left off.
The Bottom Line
Yes, the teen fiction section does have some great books in it but you have to weed your way through the ones that are watered down and really belong in the juvenile section. I’d suggest this for anyone that liked gothic themed books, vampires or wants something they can sink their teeth into for a few hours. I made my way through this in roughly three hours because I had to backtrack a couple of times to reread things. This is an interesting story of a goth girlie that longs for a vampire kiss, something that most adults might not understand but those who have a love of all thing noir will smile when the see the budding relationship between Raven and Alexander, the stabs that the author makes at corporate America [especially the “Corporate Cathy” clothing puns] and that awkward first vampire kiss.
In a hip, sexy romance for young teens, Schreiber tells an intriguing story about an unusual first love when a girl meets a particular toothy new guy ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
General Juvenile / Children's Fiction - Sixteen-year-old Raven, an outcast who always wears black and hopes to become a vampire some day, falls in lov...More at Barnes and Noble
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