Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses Individual Cover

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Released: October 3rd, 2006
Published by: NAL Jam
Series: The Morganville Vampires, Book One
Page Amount: 222 pages, U.S. paperback bind-up
Buy It: Borders | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

"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."
Information from Goodreads.com

QUICK OVERVIEW: 

If you love books that have dangerous vampires around every corner, a quick moving and realistic plot, and characters that will have you packing up your home to move in next door to them, then you will love Glass Houses. Heck, even if you don't love all of those things, I'm pretty sure you'll love Glass Houses.

REVIEW: 

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! How did I not pick this series up sooner?

I fell in love with this series after the very first page, and I'm not entirely sure why. Could it be the young adult story, told with a writing style that is similar to those found in adult novels? Could it be the adorable easy-to-love easy-to-hate characters? Could it be the fast paced plot packed with real, dangerous vampires? The answer is yes, it could be all of the above.

Let's begin with the characters. I adore the main character Claire. I found her so easy to relate to and I thought she was pretty much everything a main character should be. Eve, Shane and Michael are three other main characters who I would honestly die for at this point. We all need a best friend like Eve and guys like Shane and Michael in our lives. I don't want to say much more about them, because discovering these four people were one of the things that made this book amazing.

Now, we'll move onto the plot. It's been quite some time since I've read a real vampire book. And I mean real in two different ways. 1. Vampires are not trying to sneak in your room and cuddle you in your sleep, they're trying to suck your blood. And 2. The way the plot moved was very realistic and if I found out vampires existed, this would present a scenario that would make it easily believable. I loved that when you got a sense of a vampire, your first sense was fear in this book. Young adult novels seemed to have forgotten that vampires were once blood-sucking demons, even if they are schmexy. And the plot moved at a realistic pace and there wasn't anything I read and thought, only in a book/movie.

I could rant and rave about how much I loved this book all day, but I will spare you. There is one last thing I wanted to talk about though. If you have ever read an adult book (now, I'm not speaking strictly cheesy erotic romance here) than you know that there is something about them that makes them different from YA. Its not the age or the maturity of the characters/plot, but something in the writing style that makes adult books hard to not like. Well, Rachel Caine brings that magical element, and mixes it with everything we love about YA, plus more. You're crazy if you don't pick this book up.

FIRST LINE: 

"On the day Claire became a member of Glass House, somebody stole her laundry."
-Page One

RATING BREAKDOWN: 

Plot: 20/20
Characters: 20/20
Creativity: 18/20
Writing: 20/20
Cover: 9/10
Ending: 10/10
=97/100, A ()

PARENTS CORNER:

 This book contains the following:
Violence
Mild/Excessive Cursing
Mild/Excessive Sexual Content
Drug/Alcohol Abuse