Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Book Details:
Glass Houses
by Rachel Caine
Published 2006, Penguin Group
Paperback, 239 pages
ISBN: 9780451219947

Synopsis:
"From the author of the popular Weather Warden series. Welcome to Morganville, Texas.
Just don't stay out after dark.

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."

I found this book to be a nice change from the typical high school setting that so many Young Adult books take place in - with good reason, of course. So what if she's still only 16, she's in college! Unfortunately, she still has not outgrown the evil female clique syndrome that plague so many stories. Some elements of the story remind me of my own days in university, but the book takes them all to the extreme. On a side note, it's a good thing she's so dang smart, because from my experience, skipping classes like she does throughout the text should, in reality, result in failing grades. I guess that's the beauty of fantasy literature - you can skip all the drudgery and go straight for the exciting bits of life.
The part I did not really understand - and I am still waiting for an explanation after finishing the book - is how the psychotic Monica seems to get away with more than the resident vampires do. I mean, if the vamps both built and run the town of Morganville, it makes more sense that they would want to appear more nefarious than the lowly humans.
I also found it strangely refreshing that the vampires were wholely and completely the bad guys - no human-vampire romantic happenings, and no, Miranda the vision-plagued goth  and her undead boyfriend Charles do not count. But I did find the head vampire Amelie very intriguing, since she seems less interested in  bloody deaths and widespread property damage and more interested in maintaining power and protecting her assets, a trait that no other vampire in the novel seemed to exhibit.
I can not wait to get my hands on the next novel in the series, The Dead Girls' Dance, since Michael's state of ghost / not-ghost / Glass House incarnate has not been resolved enough for me at all!

The Cover: The photo of a girl dressed in Goth threw me off at first because I originally thought she was supposed to be a representation of the main character, Claire Danvers. The house in the distance was an easy explanation for the title, though, which I appreciate. The sentence on the cover helps to add a bit more explanation to the synopsis, which I also appreciate: "Peer pressure sucks. So do vampires..."

First Line: "On the day Claire became a member of the Glass House, somebody stole her laundry."
The opening line seems vague and slightly confusing, but is actually a very short summary of the events that follow. The sentence by itself intrigues me just enough to want to keep reading to find out who her laundry was stolen and what the Glass House was.

Favorite Quote: "She felt like there was light dripping from her fingertips. Spilling out of her toes. She felt full of light, in fact, warm buttery sunlight."




Read For: Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge, Pages Read Challenge, Take Another Chance Challenge, New Author Challenge, 1st in a Series Challenge, 101 Fantasy Reading Challenge, Twenty-Ten Challenge