Helpful Score: 2
Very good story. It is listed as a "young adult" book, but I am an adult and really enjoyed it. It was a quick, light read. I have read her other vampire/shapeshifter books and enjoyed them as well.
This book interperates vampirism and explains the "special powers" thoroughly enough to make you drop your jaw in awe.
I liked this book better than the first book, "In the Forests of the Night".
More in depth and developed than her first novel and overall, a good quick YA read. However,adults may find it a little young and predictable.
Ugh. I don't like to be overly negative about things, but this book was not one of my favorites.............
It was so predictable, and so fast paced none of the characters were very deep... it just wasn't convincing. I would read a chapter, and not remember what I read... there was nothing but boredom that kept me reading, which wouldn't have lasted if it wasn't so short.
It was so predictable, and so fast paced none of the characters were very deep... it just wasn't convincing. I would read a chapter, and not remember what I read... there was nothing but boredom that kept me reading, which wouldn't have lasted if it wasn't so short.
I started this book with high hopes.
They crashed.
Clunky writing as the book progresses... which I might have been able to excuse in a teen author who did NOT get published. But this author did get published, and her editor saw no reason to expend any effort on making the book shine. Thus failing author, book, and readers.
The sad thing is that the book begins promisingly.
(Minor quibble: And anyone who thinks a teenager in school could write 29 books [yes, TWENTY-NINE] in five years is insane. How would she have the time??? Granted, Alan Dean Foster publishes up to 8 books a year, but he's not a high school student; he's an adult *full-time* author. Not everyone can write whole novels in a month or two!)
However, the real problem is the "leper" Jessica. A classic bait and switch; by the time you find out why, you don't care, and it doesn't seem plausible either. It should be a revelation, this whole problem with Jessica and other people, and instead it comes across as something that got hastily shoehorned into the story.
DiMV had a cool premise which it did not live up to. I have a strong feeling that it was actually a short story that got stretched out too far.
I read just about everything, and this ranks with Vivian Vande Velde for disappointing fiction. It makes me grit my teeth for the sheer waste, because DiMV should have been able to live up to its promise.
They crashed.
Clunky writing as the book progresses... which I might have been able to excuse in a teen author who did NOT get published. But this author did get published, and her editor saw no reason to expend any effort on making the book shine. Thus failing author, book, and readers.
The sad thing is that the book begins promisingly.
(Minor quibble: And anyone who thinks a teenager in school could write 29 books [yes, TWENTY-NINE] in five years is insane. How would she have the time??? Granted, Alan Dean Foster publishes up to 8 books a year, but he's not a high school student; he's an adult *full-time* author. Not everyone can write whole novels in a month or two!)
However, the real problem is the "leper" Jessica. A classic bait and switch; by the time you find out why, you don't care, and it doesn't seem plausible either. It should be a revelation, this whole problem with Jessica and other people, and instead it comes across as something that got hastily shoehorned into the story.
DiMV had a cool premise which it did not live up to. I have a strong feeling that it was actually a short story that got stretched out too far.
I read just about everything, and this ranks with Vivian Vande Velde for disappointing fiction. It makes me grit my teeth for the sheer waste, because DiMV should have been able to live up to its promise.
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
Jessica Allodola, a senior at Ramsa High School, is not your average teenager. Under the pen name Ash Night, Jessica has already published a vampire novel entitled TIGER, TIGER. She also has a pretty mean spirit, goes mostly ignored by her fellow students, and acts mostly indignantly towards her adopted mother.
The problem is that with the arrival of two new students in school, Caryn and Alex, her book seems to be coming to life. Caryn claims to be a witch, descended from the Smoke line that Jessica wrote about in her book. Alex, a spitting image for her anti-hero, Aubrey, might very well be a vampire. And suddenly life starts to get a whole lot more confusing.
DEMON IN MY VIEW is an entertaining vampire story, but it never gains the potential it might have if the story was fleshed out a bit more. Although Jessica's fiction begins to merge with real life, the chapters of the book are short, and the characters, though interesting, aren't as well-rounded as they could have been. What really irritated me about the book was the ending.
--SPOILER--SPOILER--SPOILER--
Aubrey turns Jessica into a vampire to save her life, but there's no resolution after that. Wham..she's a vampire..the end. I would have liked to have seen how the story progressed.
Overall, DEMON IN MY VIEW is a quick, fun read, but it's definitely not the best young adult vampire story out there.
Jessica Allodola, a senior at Ramsa High School, is not your average teenager. Under the pen name Ash Night, Jessica has already published a vampire novel entitled TIGER, TIGER. She also has a pretty mean spirit, goes mostly ignored by her fellow students, and acts mostly indignantly towards her adopted mother.
The problem is that with the arrival of two new students in school, Caryn and Alex, her book seems to be coming to life. Caryn claims to be a witch, descended from the Smoke line that Jessica wrote about in her book. Alex, a spitting image for her anti-hero, Aubrey, might very well be a vampire. And suddenly life starts to get a whole lot more confusing.
DEMON IN MY VIEW is an entertaining vampire story, but it never gains the potential it might have if the story was fleshed out a bit more. Although Jessica's fiction begins to merge with real life, the chapters of the book are short, and the characters, though interesting, aren't as well-rounded as they could have been. What really irritated me about the book was the ending.
--SPOILER--SPOILER--SPOILER--
Aubrey turns Jessica into a vampire to save her life, but there's no resolution after that. Wham..she's a vampire..the end. I would have liked to have seen how the story progressed.
Overall, DEMON IN MY VIEW is a quick, fun read, but it's definitely not the best young adult vampire story out there.
This book is personally signed by the author. An easy-to-read page-turner that makes the dark and shadowy world of her 300-year-old vampires as realistic and current as a lonely walk down a city street at midnight.
