‘Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires #1)’ – Rachel Caine

Originally published in 2006, this was a book I picked up as part of an online reading challenge. It’s part of a fifteen book series (which, in itself, suggests it won’t maintain my interest for more than a few books) focusing on Claire Danvers, a young student who moves to Morganville for college and discovers that the town has some mysterious links to vampires.

There’s an awful lot to gripe about here.

Claire, our young academically gifted student, is beyond stupid at so many points in the book. When the book opens she is being mercilessly bullied by her peers. We’re not talking the kind of attacks you might brush off – acid being thrown at her, pushing her down stairs etc – and she insists on staying! Her parents leave her at college after several attacks; we have a town run by vampires that humans let get away with killing off people and doing nothing about it; there’s no attempt to explain some of the characters’ situations; they’re hunting for a book that vampires have spent years looking for, and just happen to stumble across it…and I could go on.

The fact is, Morganville is not a particularly well-constructed place. The story twists abruptly if it fits what’s needed, which can cause some confusion. The main character is pretty infuriating.

And yet I found myself carried along by this.

Superficially entertaining, and I did enjoy this (as long as I don’t think too closely about it). I’ll try one or two more because, as is often the case, you become slightly invested in what happens to these characters.