Klause returns to the steamy sensuality of her first book, The Silver Kiss (1990), for this tale of a hot-blooded teenage werewolf who falls for a human "meat-boy.'' Grieving for her father and unimpressed by the age-mates in her pack, Vivian defies her mother and fellow lycanthropes by setting her sights on suburban poet-schoolmate Aiden Teague. It's an experiment that's doomed from the start. Vivian may look human (when she chooses), but her attitudes, instincts, and expectations are decidedly wolflike; short-tempered, direct in action and emotion, rough in love and play, shapeshifters make dangerous companions, their veneer of rationality as thin as their senses are sharp. Poor Aiden—as a prospective lover he's not so different from prey; to Vivian his smile flashes like heat lightning, and at times he looks so delicious she wants to "bite the buttons off his shirt.'' When, after a series of sultry but frustrating dates, Vivian reveals herself to him, he responds, not with the pleasure and lust she expects, but stark terror. Extrapolating brilliantly from wolf and werewolf lore, Klause creates a complex plot, fueled by politics, insanity, intrigue, sex, blood lust, and adolescent longings, and driven by a set of vividly scary creatures to a blood-curdling climax. The werewolves' taste for risky pranks and the author's knack for double—and even triple—entendres add sly undercurrents to this fierce, suspenseful chiller. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-385-32305-0
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Murder, magic, salacious secrets, and sparkling wit immediately pull the reader into this engrossing medieval whodunit from Vande Velde (Ghost of a Hanged Man, 1998, etc.). Selwyn, 17, is condemned to death after his rival, Farold, is murdered in his sleep. Overwhelming circumstantial evidence convinces villagers of Selwyn’s guilt, so he is thrown into the burial cave to rot with the corpse. Although his fate seems grim, Selwyn is soon rescued by a hard-bargaining witch, Elswyth. She resurrects Farold’s spirit, frees them both from the cave, disguises them, and allows them one week to find the real murderer in exchange for years and years of Selwyn’s servitude. Hilarious mishaps ensue, as the bickering amateurs search out answers, exposing the villagers’ true colors along the way. The sympathetic hero, original humor, sharp dialogue, and surprising plot twists make this read universally appealing and difficult to put down. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201899-9
Page Count: 193
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
Butler creates a likable heroine and fine, atmospheric prose to draw readers along, but it’s not enough to sustain the faulty plotting of this mystery. While on her paper route, Petra, 15, delivers a package to eccentric Edmund Century, who is about to turn 102. He forms a strange bond with Petra, and endows her with three odd gifts—the significance of which the reader never finds out—before he shortly thereafter dies. The secret of his attachment to her slowly and mysteriously unravels through a silhouette on her bedroom wall that Petra had nicknamed “the Darkling” when she was a child. This formerly harmless shadow takes on the spirit of Edmund Century and seeks out his long, lost love whose spirit resides in Petra. Add a spiritually possessed father, a sick brother, a disappearing housekeeper, and the father’s child-molesting boss, and the plot thickens—to an outright muddle. The mystery never comes together: Resolutions remain elusive, except for those explanations with a basis in some confusing real-estate dealings; the storyline of the dead characters is a wedged-in afterthought. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81796-7
Page Count: 164
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
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