The Morganville Vampires Book Review

The Morganville Vampires is a series of novels written by Rachel Caine. Now we all know there are hundreds of different Vampire books out there on the market at this time, so what is so special about this one? Well, the characters. They are so real, they nearly jump off the page and sit in your lap! And each and every character is so different from the usual vampire style. Don't be under any illusion. These are not just a set of books.

 The Morganville Vampires are going to set the TV or Film World alight. In fact they are so popular there are a host of Video's on YouTube where the general public fans have already decided who they want for the characters, so each Video has a different actor for each character already! I will give you some of the names that have been suggested later. but first an explanation of the story.

Claire Danvers is a student at Texas Prairie University, and she shares a house with three other teens. And a town full of Vampires. Which is strange in itself. And it gets much more bizarre.

Being the newbie, Claire is an outsider, which is not a good thing in this town as you might imagine. But the problem is not just bullying. Claire finds herself arch enemies with Monica Morell who’s fan club friends are violent thugs. They beat Claire up so badly she ends up running away and straight to the door of the Glass House, aptly named after the family who have lived there for generations.

Feeling sorry for Claire, the three teens who reside there, take her under their wing and she becomes inseparable from them. Especially Shane Collins who very quickly becomes her boyfriend. Shane has a tragic past. He lost his family in a house fire. The only survivor apart from himself, was his father, who is a violent drunk. Shane has grown up knowing about the Vampires, but that doesn't mean he trusts them, in fact he would rather stake them than pass the time of day with them. But he falls for Claire in a big way, and begins to show a calmer, softer side, unless of course he thinks Claire is in danger, then the anger comes out, and he loses control. Not only fighting the Vampires but also causing mayhem amongst the humans.

The other friends are far from normal too. Michael Glass the owner of the house is a ghost who cannot leave the house. And as the books progress, he gets brought back to life and becomes a Vampire. Michael's girlfriend and fellow housemate is Eve Rosser who is a Gothic with an attitude. She works at the coffee shop with the second in command Vampire, Oliver.

The one big difference about this town, is the fact that Vampires and Humans live together in peace. As long as you give blood once a month to the vamp blood bank, no refusals, and wear a protection bracelet to make sure that other Vampires realise that you belong to a specific vamp. Everyone gets protected, on the condition that they co-operate with the Vampires and never question their motives.

Oh and don’t forget to wear the bracelet otherwise you may well end up as lunch. Not too bad eh? Well, maybe, but then you have to add the fact that there is always loads of violence, people going missing and nasty horrible other vamp like creatures appearing in the town.

The town is under the leadership of the head Vampire Amelie who is the founder of Morganville. What she says goes, and believe me she is one you don’t want to mess with. Oliver is her side kick. He owns the local cafe where he can keep an eye on the locals and generally cause as much trouble as possible.

But my favorite character has to be Myrnin. He is an ancient Vampire who is an alchemist trying desperately to find a cure for a vampire disease. He is also Claire's teacher. The reason for this is because Claire has proved to be one clever cookie, and after a series of incidents where she keeps sticking her nose into things she shouldn't, and getting them nearly all killed in the bargain, Amelie decided that she needed her brains to help with the job of saving the Vampires.

Myrnin lives in the lab and is a fantastic character. He is mad as a hatter, wears bunny slippers with fangs on the toes and keeps a spider called Bob. He loves Claire in his own mad way, and spends most of his time either trying to eat her, literally, or save her life. The banter between him and Claire is very funny, and Rachel Caine the Author somehow manages to make the characters so real, you find yourself laughing along with them. The two of them together have some of the best lines in the book. If they ever make it into a film, they are going to have to find a really hot, insane but totally cool guy to fill the character. That will take some doing I can tell you!

1. 'Follow me,' Myrnin said. ' And do stay together. And by the way, this is the last time I go anywhere with you people, you are all insane!'
2. On being told to swear on his life Myrnin replies. 'I Will' then proceeds with the words,'frothy fool born apple john! Cheater of vandals and defiler of dead dogs!' Then he did a twirl and a bow. Then learing at the man he said, with a red grin, 'Is that what you meant my Lord?'
3. Myrnin popped in through the portal, wearing a big floppy black hat, a crazy stylish pimp coat and black leather goves, along with a black and silver walking stick. And on his lapel were the words, 'If you can read this, thank a teacher!
4. Typical Myrnin, he just showed up at my door one night about a week ago, and said, 'Hi, nice to meet you. Can I borrow your Crock-Pot?'
5. Claire to Myrnin. 'Oh shut up you medieval drama queen'
6. Claire to Eve. I'm worried he's going to do something really crazy."
   "He lives in a hole in the ground, dresses funny, and occasionally eats his assistants," Eve said. "Define crazy.
7. Conversation about Claire. 'Take her home. And Say nothing, yes, yes, I heard you the first seven hundred times," Myrnin said, much too sharply. "I'm ancient. I'm not deaf.”
8. Now, could you please ask these idiots to stop pointing their bullets at me? It's terribly wasteful!
9. Breathe," said Myrnin. "I'm not much for it myself, but I hear it's quite good for humans."
10. And before you ask, no you're not driving, Myrnin. I remember what happened the last time."
    "That accident was not my fault."
    "You were the only one on the road, and the mailbox actually didn't leap out in front of you. No arguments. You sit in the back, too.”
    
    

All Quotes Copyright of Rachel Caine

Now I am sure you will agree, the quality of the writing is exceptional. The characters are so real, it makes you feel as though you know them. And that's not a easy feat to do. Not that I would want to meet Myrnin on a dark night, unless he was wearing his vamp bunny slippers and had eaten at least three people first!

Along with Frank Collins, Shane's father who is intent on killing all the Vamps, we have Sam Glass, Michael's grandfather another Vampire who is a real sweety, and Ada who was Myrnin’s girlfriend but after her death, got turned into a super computer. Myrnin uses her brain to keep the town safe, provide portals between the houses, streets and Vampire strongholds, and makes the Glass house and other houses have a more or less live consciousness to protect the people inside!

Keeping up? Good! We also have Portals that skip people across town without even leaving their house, old grandma’s with their shooters ready to take someone down if the get too close, especially if they are Vampires and last but not least each and every book has a fantastic storyline that will keep you riveted to the page.

And there are a lot of pages. I am on the eleventh book as we speak!

And I think that proves how fantastic this series is. Says it all really.

The Morganville Vampire series was supposed to stop after book 12. But there has been so much demand for the story and characters that Rachel Caine has had to bow to public demand. At the time of writing this review there has been word of at least another two books. Thank goodness for that!

The books are displayed as Young Adult books, but after looking at the fan base, the age of the reader is much higher too. And I can quite understand why. The characters in the books are a variety of ages, mostly teens, but most of the Vamps are older, such as Oliver who is probably around forty years old. So not just angry teen Vampires with a grudge. And I think that's what makes the books so special.

So if you want a good book to read, and characters you can get your teeth into, sorry about the pun, then this is the book for you. Or should I say books. And a lot of them. Thank goodness.

Morganville Vampires is currently under discussion for a TV Series.

Possible Casting for Morganville include, Chase Crawford as Shane, and in my opinion he is perfect, exactly as I imagined he would look like. Myrnin - David Tennant! Never! Not hot enough! Claire is a bit of a cunundrum, nobody seems to have got a real idea about who will play her yet. And of course the very hot, very blond michael. We shall have to see. Along with Oliver and of course the Founder Amelie. It will be interesting to see who they choose. But whoever is playing the main characters, I am looking forward to watching a fantastic series of books transferred to the screen.

Copyright Nell Rose

Rachel Caine is the internationally bestselling author of more than 30 novels, The Weather Warden Series, The Outcast Season series and of course the immensely popular Morganville Vampires. She lives in Fort Worth Texas.