Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Title: Glass Houses
Author: Rachel Caine
Series: Morganville Vampires #1
Pages: 248
Genre: Paranormal YA
Publisher: Signet
Source: Library
Goodreads Description:
College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

My Review:
This is actually a reread for me. I have read the series up to (I think) the most recent book, but I did so before I started blogging, so I haven't had a chance to review them. I have checked out the first 4 in the series in audio book form from my library and am going to get caught up on the reviews! That being said, I'm going to try to incorporate my thoughts after reading/listening a second time in addition to thoughts and stuff that I remember from my first time around. I remember initially being kind of blase about the series. I began reading them when I was kind of in a rut when it came to the paranormal. I think I approached anything about vampires with kind of a bored attitude. This time around, Morganville and all it's vampires, alchemists, and mysteries really kept me entertained. Morganville is a small town in Texas that is just like every small town in the country...only it is run by bloodsucking fiends. Once you live in Morganville? Just try leaving...and you better be up on your taxes...your blood donation taxes.  

The story is told entirely through the perspective of Claire Danvers. She is kind of a different sort of protagonist. She's only 16 years old,  but is attending college away from home. This makes her have kind of the naive goody girl aspect, but obviously she's smart enough to be an advanced placement college student. In addition, she ends up moving in with three 18 year olds. So there's all this kind of slightly new twisting of what we normally get in YA literature...instead of a boarding school, Claire lives in a dorm and a house, instead of all girl roomies, Claire actually lives with two boys...There is a whole lot of YA literary gold just under the surface and I totally loved all of the originality that this story inspired. Claire herself was a really interesting character. She was a little on the weaker side in the beginning, but the longer she spent in Morganville, the stronger and more awesome she got. She is crafty, creative, and very smart and I just loved that about her. She also isn't mean. A lot of MC's in YA lit have been pretty snarky, on the verge of being kind of cruel...Claire is a straight-up nice girl who has landed in a crazy situation. I really liked her.  

 I also adore the dynamics between Claire and all three of her roommates. At first, I was a little worried about that whole love triangle thing creeping up and rearing it's ugly head, but that's the benefit of adding another girl to the mix. Eve, Michael, and Shane are all individual characters with great personalities, quirks, ambitions, etc. They are so different, but at the same time they flow together extremely well and just create the air of home. I felt it, and obviously so did Claire, as she moved in with them. They make me want to go out and randomly find a house with two hot boys and one odd goth girl to move into...though with my luck, the boys would be ex-con's or something like that. Anyways, it all works out for Claire and the gang and it is very different to see teens acting grown up for once. Most of the time, the teens are reckless, irresponsible, etc...and there are times when you can see that in Michael, Shane, etc...but for the most part they are really individual and creative people that you just wanna go hang out with.

The super great thing about this series is it's originality in...I guess... just the understanding of the vampires, and the setting where the story takes place. What I mean is that in most paranormal books dealing with vampires, either the entire world knows about their existence, or only the people who deal directly with them do. In one case vampires are celebrities, and in the other the vamps are terrifying monsters that are to be feared and revered. In Morganville, both of these concepts are turned on their heads and blended to make something I've never seen before. The hidden fearsome vamps are there, because only Morganville knows about the vampire's existence, but still...a whole entire town complete with extensive college campus knows about the vampires...so there's a lot of people in on the secret, ya know? This makes a really cool dynamic of Morganville vs. the rest of the world. Though there still is an air of vampire superiority, for the most part humans and vampires are working together...which complicates things for the "innocents" of Morganville. Enemies aren't black and white...you really have to be on your toes in this town, or else you might find yourself disappearing without a trace. 

 

I think I will give Glass Houses 4 out of 5 Keys! There was so much going on with the plot, with the characters, with everything that I found myself swept away for a while and really enjoyed my visit to Morganville. There was a super horrible cliffhanger, so I would advise having the next book in the series on hand if you want to sleep easy after you finish it. The only problems I found with the books was that it was too short. I would say the first 6 books or so are only about 200 pages, and they all end really abruptly. If I were you , I would invest in the omnibus that came out recently...because then you get like...4 books in one so you don't have quite so many OH MY GOD moments at the end of the books...Happy Reading!