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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Review: Last Breath (Morganville Vampires, Book 11) by Rachel Caine

Publisher: New American Library
Goodreads Synopsis:

With her boss preoccupied researching the Founder Houses in Morganville, student Claire Danvers is left to her own devices when she learns that three vampires have vanished without a trace. She soon discovers that the last person seen with one of the missing vampires is someone new to town—a mysterious individual named Magnus. After an uneasy encounter with Morganville’s latest resident, Claire is certain Magnus isn’t merely human. But is he a vampire—or something else entirely?

Review:

I've been debating on how to review this series for a while now. (Or, you know, for as long as I've had this blog, which isn't all that long.) I've thought about doing it from the beginning, book by book. Or two or three books at a time. Or maybe just doing the last couple of books. I even started a review. Obviously, though, I decided to just start with the most recent book, since it just came out.
I started this series a couple years ago, when only a couple of the books were out. I almost immediately loved it. And my feelings for the series, and the characters, have only grown the more I've read.
The main story with the series, is that Claire starts college in Morganville at sixteen and gets bullied and moves into the Glass House with Eve, Shane, and Micheal. She finds out about the vampires that run the town, and finds her way quite close to the higher ranks. A lot of stuff happens within the other ten books, but I'm not going to talk about all of that, since there's a lot.
I like how mature this series seems. Claire is in college, so she's more mature, or just smarter, than most, plus she lives in a house with three people already out of high school. There aren't any parents around, and they all have jobs and all that. Mostly the fact that they're all out of high school and on their own, or only have each other, makes it seem more mature to me. Either way, though, I like this aspect to it.
I love Claire. She is my favorite character. I love how smart she is, and that she's in college at such a young age. And she's smart, while also being insecure. And I love Shane. He's so sweet to her, but he's still an actual boy. He has characteristics of an actual boy; he's emotional and violent and intense and sweet and confused by certain things. Their relationship has lots of swoon.
All of the characters are good, really, and different from each other, unique. Eve is emotional and dramatic but tough. Micheal is kind of complicated, and kind of the head of the house. Amelie is powerful and the Founder of Morganville, and untouchable. And Myrnin... Myrnin is Myrnin. He's crazy, not completely sane, dangerous, and quite random with all of the modern things he finds. I love his and Claire's relationship, with how they are mostly equals in how they feel for each other. And they love each other, but in a complicated way.
There are others, but I'm not going to list any more.
In this book, there's something wrong with the vampires. They keep disappearing, and Amelie decides to have them all pack up and move to some other place, because whatever is coming after them is serious. His name is Magnus, and he's not a vampire, he's a draug, which is a water thing. I understand how they works, but I don't really understand why they would be a big enemy to vampires. They're dangerous to them, yea, but the elemental thing didn't really make sense to me.
I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. Several books ago, when the Bishop story line ended, there have been more one-book story lines. Which is okay, only it doesn't add as much suspense. And it makes it seem like there are just books coming out for the sake of making more books because the series is popular enough. Not that I'm saying that's what's happening, because that's not how I look at it. And I love the series, so I'm perfectly happy that the series is continuing. And there have been serious plot points happening in each book, even if some of it is more character development things; that is perfectly okay.
Aside from the draug thing, there's a big thing that happens with Claire. Which I totally didn't see that coming. I was surprised and horrified. I don't know if I like it or not, but I am wondering if something big is going to come from that. I don't want to say to much and give it away, but I'm wondering if what happened is going to affect her later, and the house.
And something big also happens with Amelie at the end. Well, something happened with Amelie and Oliver, which everyone knew was a long time coming, but not that. I was kind of wondering if it was going to be her, but I was still surprised. I'm glad that she didn't go out being a coward, because she was fighting instead of running away. But I'm wondering if that's really going to be it for her, or if there's going to be some twist in the next book. I'm a bit upset at what happened, but it would be a little too cliché for something to save her in the next book.
In the last book, Caine added Shane's point of view, and she also added Micheal, Eve, and Amelie's point of view. I didn't mind theirs, but I like Claire and Shane's most. They were all done very well, and I'm glad that everyone has their own voices, but I personally enjoy Shane and Claire more. I find it odd, though, that Claire's chapters are done in third person, while everyone else's are in first. I'm assuming that it's because she started it in third, and when she wrote the other characters later put them in first. But I wonder if that's tricky, or if it just seems natural.
I am excitedly anticipating the next book. I always am, though, since I love the story and characters so much.

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