Bel Reviews: Rachel Caine—"Glass Houses"

The hook in lines of; “Peer pressure sucks. So do Vampires.” really sum up the contents of the book. Rachel Caine is an international bestseller with her Morganville Vampires series, and after mauling through book one in under 24 hours, I can totally see how this has come about.

Claire moves to Morganville for University and is having her life made into a living nightmare by Monica and her minions. Between having her laundry thrown down the garbage chute, and being pushed down the stairs, it comes down to either moving away or dying right there in the dormitory.

Glass House becomes her savior. Michael Glass and his other housemates, Shane and Eve, form a quick bond with Claire and they work together to keep each other safe from the bullies and the other dirty little secret of Morganville… Vampires.

I could not believe how quickly this book flew. Everything happened at breakneck speed and though some parts, the violence in particular, had me wincing in sympathy, I found myself at the last page quicker than I wanted to be.
I wonder what situations Caine lived through to make Monica so solidly psychotic? The research for that character alone would have been enough to give me nightmares.

As for the Vampires, they’re mobster-like organization was rather typical of so many vampire books these days. They’re all untrustworthy and, though there were still a few surprises to be found in Morganville, I don’t know how Rachel is going to keep the rest of her books from slipping into the stereotypical corruption that comes with a Vampire community like that.

I am going to be looking for the second book in the Morganville Vampire series The Dead Girl’s Dance, as soon as I can.

I’ve been bitten by the Morganville bug, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Glass Houses—Rachel Caine

Published 04/01/11 by Penguin Books Australia

Paperback, 372 Pages