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Getting Sucked Into The Morganville Vampires (series)
- Aug 6, 2021
- 10 min read
*In honour of the late Rachel Caine*
It’s Fiction Friday! Let’s talk...Rachel Caine’s The Morganville Vampires series. The New York Times and international bestselling series is an epic 15-book series full of adventure, horror, romance, and fantastic characters.
Welcome to Morganville. You’ll never want to leave.
Synopsis
Welcome to Morganville. Just don’t stay out after dark.
Morganville is a small college town filled with unusual characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad come out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows – one that will spill out into the bright light of day.
For Claire Danvers, high school was hell, but college may be murder. It was bad enough that she got on the wrong side of Monica, the meanest of the school’s mean girls, but now she’s got three new roommates, who all have secrets of their own. Thinking her side trip to Morganville’s local college will be a pit stop for a couple years before going off to MIT, her dream school, Claire soon learns Morganville isn’t a normal, isolated West Texas town. It’s got secrets.
The biggest one? It’s owned by vampires. It’s their sanctuary – and their last stand.
And now that Claire knows…she can’t leave.
“Run first,” Shane said. “Mourn later.” It was the perfect motto for Morganville. Shane, Glass Houses, Rachel Caine
Reviews
“We suggest dumping Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books and replacing them with the Morganvilles.” – SFX Magazine
Amazon Bestseller Rank:
196 in Vampire Fiction for Young Adults
315 in Dark Fantasy for Young Adults
3,161 in Fantasy Fiction about Wizards & Witches for Young Adults
3.9 stars on Goodreads with 100,108 ratings and 4,934 reviews
“Crosses?” “Definitely.” “Why?” “Because they’re evil bloodsucking fiends?” “So was my sixth-grade gym teacher, but he wasn’t afraid of a cross.” Glass Houses, Rachel Caine
My Review
I picked up The Morganville Vampire series at a car boot sale years ago. The lady selling them was offering about the then 10 books for £5. Unsure whether I would enjoy the series because of the current trend of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, I decided to purchase just the first two books, in the hopes to return the following week if I enjoyed them. The lady insisted that I would love these books as she had. It took younger me to read the first book, Glass Houses, 3 days (my family is one that is very distracting when you are in the middle of an intense chapter *exasperated eye roll*) and needless to say I was purchasing the rest of the books as I started book 2, The Dead Girls Dance. I regret not purchasing the whole set from the car boot lady, who did not return. I wanted to tell her she was right; I did fall in love with the series. Although it is a YA, it is well written and not childlike, making it suitable for older teens and up to any age! I bought this when I was thirteen and am still re-reading the series in my earlier twenties. Now, that I am older it has a different effect on me: the adult jokes do not go over my head anymore, I no longer blush or shy away from the more intimate and slightly gory scenes. As someone who was always more mature for my age, I grew up with the characters and can relate to them even more so now that I am older. This is definitely one of those YA series that are more for everyone, especially the older end of YA, verging on New Adult.
Claire Danvers is your average nerdy girl, that loves books and science. Her character development is realistic and relatable as she learns to thrive in a world full of vampire politics, bullying and dangers that lurk around every corner. When someone says ‘it has vampires’, the books are almost instantly dismissed for their cliched trope. However, this is not the case with Rachel Caine’s series. The vampires are presented in a way that makes them that little bit more real, right down to the science of their blood, as well as their histories (not all of them are Centuries old). I’m not a science-y person. I know the basics from school, am learning about astronomy in my spare time, but that’s about it. These books will make you want to learn about science. It will show you how to use it to kick immortal ass! It’s done in a simplistic way that fits in with the plot and you will not feel disconnected from the story because of it.
The series is witty and clever, funny and heart-breaking, exciting and full of twists. It tackles clichés from mean girls, nerdy girls, meat-head boys, vampires, and friendships. The Morganville Vampires is refreshing, relatable and a wonderful adventure. You truly would never want to leave! I even went on to write fanfictions on Wattpad.com based off the series because I couldn’t get enough. With the diverse range of characters, there’s something for everyone. Each book has its own plot, but it connects to the previous one, and the series has an overarching plotline, therefore you will root for the characters, love and hate them, and never be bored.
Join Claire as she finds her own footing in the real, deadly world as she grows into a young woman who fights for her life and the lives of others. Keep turning the pages with every challenge of college, self-confidence, friendships, relationships and…vampires.
“Silver nitrate and water in a super soaker, he told her. My own invention. Ought to be good at twenty feet, kind of like wasp spray.” Oh. “You get me the nicest things.” “Anybody can get jewellery. Posers.” Shane, Fade Out, Rachel Caine
Author
Rachel Caine was the author of more than fifty novels, including the bestselling Morganville Vampires series. She was born at White Sands Missile Range, which people who knew her said explained a lot. She was an accountant, an insurance investigator and a professional musician, and played with such musical legends as Henry Mancini, Peter Nero and John Williams. She and her husband, fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, lived in Texas until she passed away in 2020.
Visit her website here.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” “Off on a beach somewhere with your sanity?” Midnight Alley, Rachel Caine
Publication Information:
Publication Date: 26th May 2008
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Author: Rachel Caine
Format: Paperback
Pagination: 361 pages
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy Fiction, Sci-Fi, Paranormal,
Other Themes: Romance, Vampires, Dark Fantasy
Read the series
Glass Houses
Book 1
College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation, where the popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school’s social scene: somewhere less than zero.
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.
The Dead Girls Dance
Book 2
Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favours beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls’ Dance, hell is really going to break loose.
Midnight Alley
Book 3
Claire Danvers’s college town may be run by vampires but a truce between the living and the dead made things relatively safe. For a while. Now people are turning up dead, a psycho is stalking her, and an ancient bloodsucker has proposed private mentoring. To what end, Claire will find out. And it’s giving night school a whole new meaning.
Feast of Fools
Book 4
Founder Amelie’s rule is challenged by a powerful enemy. As Morganville spirals into chaos, everyone must choose sides.
Lord of Misrule
Book 5
In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, the master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil dead, and let chaos rule. But Bishop isn’t the only threat.
Violent black cyclone clouds hover, promising a storm of devastating proportions as student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against elements both natural and unnatural.
Carpe Corpus
Book 6
In the small college town of Morganville, vampires and humans lived in (relative) peace-until all the rules got rewritten when the evil vampire Bishop arrived, looking for the lost book of vampire secrets. He’s kept a death grip on the town ever since. Now an underground resistance is brewing, and in order to contain it, Bishop must go to even greater lengths. He vows to obliterate the town and all its inhabitants-the living and the undead. Claire Danvers and her friends are the only ones who stand in his way. But even if they defeat Bishop, will the vampires ever be content to go back to the old rules, after having such a taste of power?
Fade Out
Book 7
Without the evil vampire Bishop ruling over the town of Morganville, the resident vampires have made major concessions to the human population. With their newfound freedoms, Claire Danvers and her friends are almost starting to feel comfortable again…
Now Claire can actually concentrate on her studies, and her friend Eve joins the local theatre company. But when one of Eve’s castmates goes missing after starting work on a short documentary, Eve suspects the worst. Claire and Eve soon realize that this film project, whose subject is the vampires themselves, is a whole lot bigger—and way more dangerous—than anyone suspected.
Kiss of Death
Book 8
Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big- time producer who wants to cut a demo and play some gigs-which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he’s been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael’s all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell…
Ghost Town
Book 9
While developing a new system to maintain the town’s defences, genius student Claire Danvers discovers a way to use the vampires’ powers to keep outsiders from spreading news of Morganville’s “unique” situation.
But when people in town start forgetting who they are-including the vampires-Claire has to figure out how to pull the plug on her experiment before she forgets how to save herself…and Morganville.
Bite Club
Book 10
After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble.
There’s a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare—knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other—or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire—accompanied by her friends and frenemies—to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville…
Last Breath
Book 11
With her boss preoccupied researching the Founder Houses in Morganville, student Claire Danvers is left to her own devices when she learns that three vampires have vanished without a trace. She soon discovers that the last person seen with one of the missing vampires is someone new to town-a mysterious individual named Magnus. After an uneasy encounter with Morganville’s latest resident, Claire is certain Magnus isn’t merely human. But is he a vampire-or something else entirely?
Black Dawn
Book 12
With its eclectic mix of vampire and human citizens, Morganville, Texas, has always been a risky place to call home. But with the invasion of the vampire’s deadliest enemy, Morganville isn’t just in danger—it’s dying…
Ever since the draug—mysterious creatures that prey on vampires—took over Morganville, the lives of student Claire Danvers and her friends have been thrown into turmoil. Most of the town’s residents have evacuated, but Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael have chosen to stay and fight. Using the city’s water system to spread, the draug have rapidly multiplied. Things in Morganville look grim, especially since vampire Amelie—the town founder—has been infected by the master draug’s bite.
Now, if Claire and her friends don’t figure out how to cure Amelie and defeat the draug, it looks like Morganville will become little more than a ghost town…
Bitter Blood
Book 13
For years, the human and vampire residents of Morganville, Texas, have managed to co-exist in peace. But now that the threat to the vampires has been defeated, the human residents are learning that the gravest danger they face is the enemy within…
Thanks to the eradication of the parasitic creatures known as the draug, the vampires of Morganville have been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim, the town’s human population is determined to hold on to their lives by taking up arms. But college student Claire Danvers isn’t about to take sides, considering she has ties to both the humans and the vampires.
To make matters worse, a television show comes to Morganville looking for ghosts, just as vampire and human politics collide. Now, Claire and her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news…or worse.
Fall of Night
Book 14
Thanks to its unique combination of human and vampire residents, Morganville, Texas, is a small college town with big-time problems. When student Claire Danvers gets the chance to experience life on the outside, she takes it. But Morganville isn’t the only town with vampire trouble…
Claire never thought she’d leave Morganville, but when she gets accepted into the graduate program at MIT, she can’t pass up the opportunity. Saying good-bye to her friends is bittersweet, especially since things are still raw and unsettled between Claire and her boyfriend, Shane.
Her new life at MIT is scary and exciting, but Morganville is never really far from Claire’s mind. Enrolled in a special advanced study program with Professor Irene Anderson, a former Morganville native, Claire is able to work on her machine, which is designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires.
But when she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire starts to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she’ll ever make…
Daylighters
Book 15
While Morganville, Texas, is often a troubled town, Claire Danvers and her friends are looking forward to coming home. But the Morganville they return to isn’t the one they know; it’s become a different place—a deadly one…
Something drastic has happened in Morganville while Claire and her friends were away. The town looks cleaner and happier than they’ve ever seen it before, but when their incoming group is arrested and separated—vampires from humans—they realize that the changes definitely aren’t for the better.
It seems that an organization called the Daylight Foundation has offered the population of Morganville something they’ve never had: hope of a vampire-free future. And while it sounds like salvation—even for the vampires themselves—the truth is far more sinister and deadly.
Now, Claire, Shane and Eve need to find a way to break their friends out of Daylighter custody, before the vampires of Morganville meet their untimely end…
Midnight Bites
Short Story Collection
By day, Morganville, Texas, is just a typical college town. By night, the vampires emerge and take control….
In a town where it’s not safe to be out after dark, student Claire Danvers and her friends have had their fair share of thrills. But Morganville still has a few secrets left to tell.
Now, in this collection, you can venture down the town’s strange streets, revisit all the tales you’ve come to love, and experience six new stories featuring your favourite Morganville residents—both human and vampire…
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