Review - The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine (Morganville Vampires #2)

Publisher - Allison and Busby
Publication Date - 7th April 2008
Paperback - 320 pages
Genre - Young Adult/Urban Fantasy

Source - Purchased

Rating - 4 out of 5: I really liked it.

Book Info - 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.

My Thoughts - ***It is impossible to write this review without giving away some spoilers for events in the previous books in this series. If you have not read the other books please read this review with caution***

This book carries on directly from the amazing cliffhanger at the end of Glass Houses (if you have not read Glass Houses then please do not even try picking up this book as it will be pretty difficult to figure out what is going on!). The action starts right from the beginning of The Dead Girls’ Dance and it doesn’t stop until you turn the last page. Although I have to say that, as much as I enjoy a good action-packed novel, there were definitely times when I was wishing for a few quiet moments in the book just so that I could relax and catch my breath.

In this novel, Shane’s father is back in town and he wants to kill a few vampires whilst he is in Morganville. This obviously leads Shane and his housemates (including Claire) into a lot of trouble with the vampires. Shane finds himself being captured by the vampires and it is up to Claire, Eve and Michael to help rescue him. In her attempts to help him, Claire finds herself in some very dangerous situations and she has to be rescued several times. Although this did at times make me want to tell her to sort herself out and stop being so stupid, at other times Claire comes across as being incredibly brave, strong and determined.

I think Shane was my favourite character in this novel. He is strong and very protective of Claire, but we also see a much more vulnerable side to him as we learn about how his mother and sister died a couple of years ago. And we also see him making a few mistakes (such as the phone call that brings his father back to Morganville) and, for me, this all makes him a much more likeable and relatable character.

Rachel Caine has the ability to write an action-packed story that will keep you hooked from the very first page and will keep you guessing about what happens to the characters. I really like all of the four housemates in this book and I couldn’t help but feel for them as they all try to do what they feel is right – even though at times things still go very wrong for them.

Summary - Although I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as I enjoyed Glass Houses, I still had difficulty in putting it down once I had started it and once again the author has left us with a huge cliffhanger, which means I will be picking up the third book in the series very soon!

Other books in this series:
1. Glass Houses
2. Dead Girl's Dance
3. Midnight Alley
4. Feast of Fools
5. Lord of Misrule
6. Carpe Corpus
7. Fade Out
8. Kiss of Death
9. Ghost Town
10. Bite Club
11. Last Breath

Other reviews of this book:
Electrifying Reviews / Karin's Book Nook /  Love Vampires