Review: Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine

Book Details:
Lord of Misrule (Morganville Vampires, Book 5)
By Rachel Caine
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published 2009, Penguin Group
Paperback, 231 pages
ISBN: 9780451225726


Synopsis:

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.

This book centered around a singular event, and the outcome of that event has the potential to change everything that the town of Morganville is about and how it is run. I found the plot of this book to be very unpredictable - which is a good thing - except for the fact that every book always centers around Claire and the choices she makes. The one-liners are as fantastic as always, and I love the introduction of a few new characters, such as Theo and his family, and the ex-Marine Hannah. I also found the introduction of a natural disaster as a major plot point to be refreshing - even though terrifying for the characters - since few books I read seem to work uncontrollable bad weather into the plot. For less than 300 pages, this book packs alot of sub-plots in, with the retribution against Monica, who I'm not convinced has learned from her mistakes yet, managing Mynin's bipolar behavior, and keeping track of what is happening with each of the four main characters/ Glass House residents. All of the possibilities in a town gone anarchic are explored to some degree, although I found that the lines that were used to control the college students to be less-than-believable. I am curious to see what happens to the human factions that were trying to exploit the mini-war by rebeling against the Powers That Be in the next book, Carpe Corpus (Morganville Vampires, Book 6), as well as how Mynin's disease plays out as it affects others en masse. The fact that Claire basically hardly ever goes to class and still manages to makes A's still bugs me, but I'm getting used to it. She has more exciting things to attend to!

The Cover: My guess is that the cover shows Claire with Shane, but I am really confused as to what the sky full of birds means. All I can think is that it is some kind of reference to the effect that a tornado would have on the local wildlife, which is pretty vague. An actual tornado in the background would have been way cooler, in my opinion.

First Line: "It was all going wrong, and Morganville was burning - parts of it, anyway."
Now that is a good first line. The plunged right into the excitement with the absolute need to keep reading to find out what happens!

Favorite Quote: Hannah leaned against the wall. "Mind if I call shotgun?"
"Since you're carrying one? Feel free."

Read For: Pages Read Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge, 101 Fantasy Challenge