Demon in My View (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "THE BLACK OBLIVION OF SLEEP was shattered by the caterwauling of some singer on Jessica's clock radio..." (more)
Key Phrases: vampire hunters, New Mayhem, Ash Night, Las Noches (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The teen queen of horror fiction Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is on the prowl again! Continuing in much the same vampire vein that established her reputation, the young writer's sophomore novel also includes a touch of autobiography. Jessica Allodola is a high school senior who pens vampire tales under the pseudonym Ash Night. (Hmmm, sound familiar?) Because of her funereal clothing and cynical demeanor, Jessica is shunned by her sunnier classmates. No matter, she prefers the company of the undead she creates on her laptop, anyway. But Jessica is shaken when a creature from her novel, the suave vampire Aubrey (who fans will remember from In the Forests of the Night) shows up as a new student at her school. Not knowing whether he plans to seduce or harm her, Jessica plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Aubrey as she tries to discover the secret of his existence. As she delves deeper into the midnight world of her own novels, she encounters other supernatural beings, like Fala, an evil Egyptian vampire, and Caryn Smoke, a teenaged good witch. When she finally unearths the shocking truth that explains the tangibility of her imaginary world, Jessica must decide if she loves that dark world enough to leave the light forever.

Atwater-Rhode's writing, while still showing strong traces of Anne Rice and Stephen King, is maturing nicely as she cleverly constructs this story within a story. Her vampires, while thousands of years old, have adolescent mood swings and tempers, which will sit well with the under-16 crowd. Demon in My View will undoubtedly find its way into many backpacks and Trapper Keepers. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Teenage author Atwater-Rhodes returns to the vampires and witches of In the Forests of the Night for this fast-moving sequel. This time, she focuses on Jessica, the high school student who put in a cameo in the previous installment and, under the pen name Ash Night, has since published her first book, a vampire story called Tiger, Tiger. What Jessica doesn't know is that the characters in her book actually exist, and they aren't too happy that she's spilled their secrets and unwittingly alerted vampire-hunting witches to the location of their undead village, New Mayhem. Out for revenge, the vampire Aubrey shows up at Jessica's high school in the guise of a new student. But Jessica's dark aura unexpectedly attracts him. He pursues her, unsure if he wants to kill her, protect her or change her into one of his own kind. Jessica feels equally drawn to him, and drawn to the idea of becoming stronger than human. The writing is often pat ("It had not hurt to die . Why did it hurt so much to live again?"), but the fantastic fights will keep readers turning pages quickly. Atwater-Rhodes exercises impressive control over the complex lineages she has imagined, and she comes up with creative solutions to advance her story. Readers will drain this book in one big gulp. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; First Edition, First Printing Used edition (May 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038532720X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385327206
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (281 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #584,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellant horror story., May 9, 2000

By	Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I really enjoyed this book, even more than the author's first, which was itself excellant. Jessica, the main character, seems a pretty average, unpopular teen at first glance. But she's actually published a vampire novel under a pen name. When a new boy enrolls at her school, he reminds her a great deal of Aubrey, the vampire villian from her novel. It turns out that he really is Aubrey, come to kill her. However, things become complicated when the two fall in love. Both of these characters appeared in In the Forests of the Night, and I was glad Miss Atwater-Rhodes chose to write more about them. Jessica was only briefly mentioned in the first book, but I thought right away that she would be a neat character. And I never liked Aubrey much in the first book (although he was definitley a cool villian!), but meeting Jessica certainly improved his personality. I highly reccomend this wonderful novel to fans of horror and vampire novels. The author is extremely talented, and I think it is wonderful that she has become a published author while she is still a teenager. I hope she continues to write more wonderful books like this one.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Over publicized with below average writing skill...., November 27, 2002

By	"hyper0003" (otherworld) - See all my reviews

After hearing all the great reviews upon this novel I decided to give it a try. I admit I was disappointed from the moment I picked the novel up, it seemed to be kind of thin, meaning: TOO SHORT. But looking over that I decided the book must be really that good looking past the length.

Well, it took me less then two hours to read and by the end I was wondering if I picked the wrong book up. This couldn't be the book written by the praised teen. Overall, it was below average, mainly: D.

It had no depth at all. Who is Jessica and Aubrey, you know very little about them, even after reading In the Forest of the Night this morning I still had no idea who Aubrey was. Though I admired the creative and poetic style the book seemed like she rushed and didn't edit that often. There were tons of plot holes and there wasn't a conclusion except for Jessica's transformation into a night creature.

Why don't they just kill Fala? If I were Aubrey I would had snapped her neck at instant.

Amelia has a lot of work to do, being three stars is average I ive her two. One for effort and two for style, other then that it lacked everythin a novel is made of.

Would I recommend it? If you're an inspirational writer, yes, so you can analyze the mistakes a teen writer would make with much inexperience. It helps not to make the same mistake twice.

It's like addictive pop music, anyone who likes quick action with sarcasm that matches an annoying teen drama will devour this novel. I hate pop music and I hate sarcasm to the point it irritates you, so I wouldn't read this novel again. But the writer truly has potential.

The skill of writing can be learned, therefore she needs to practice more before she tries any other stuff. I am sad that she allows herself to be publicized like that, as the next Anne Rice. If I were her I wouldn't had given out my age, instead wait and see if I could succeed under alias.

Anyway 2 stars, maybe more if her writing does improve.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Dry, May 27, 2005

By	Sapphire - See all my reviews

This review is from: Demon in My View (Den of Shadows) (Mass Market Paperback)

The reason i picked up this book is because I saw my friend reading it and she said that it was one of the best vampire books she has ever read. Being as how i am, liking to read horror/romance stories and all, i gave the book a try. However, to my great disappointment, the book wasn't what i thought it was.
The cover and title seems intriguing enough, but the content was dull, and very dry. But I didn't expect much from a 15 year old at this time.
Amelia, in my view, is probably one of the most overrated vampire author i have heard about. Everyone loves her in my school, but i find her repeating patterns and trends to be annoying.
First of all, she always put a /beautiful/ and /strong/ main character in every book, for this one it's Jessica A. a goth who met this supposedly powerful vampire Aubrey and fell in love with him. This theme is so obvious, that it's not even fun to read anymore, a goth (person who adores black and wears obsessive amount of dark makeup) falling for a vampire(a dark creature of the night) this pairing was suspected from the beginning, so that gives the reader the whole plot.
In addition, Amelia's wording vexes me, she uses the word /sadist/ a lot of times, in this book and other books by her, like its her favorite word. And the way she potrays the fighting scenes, its increduously unrealistic. She does put a valiant effort into trying to make the story seems /dark/ and romantic to her reader. This fails miserably in my opinion, the theme makes it seems like one of those old vampire wannabe books.
The depth of the characters in this story wasn't provided clearly enough either (the only character that has much depth was probably the witch Caryn) if you're looking for a deep vampire book with its characters realistic, and not just beautiful and flawless, then pick up an Anne Rice novel. Amelia is only for if you're looking to read short stories.
The ending was the most dissapointing, it was, as i stated before, expected, so the thrill of finishing a book and finding out the /big/ twist dies the moment you read the last chapter in this book. However, i must say, this book strangely draws you into it and makes you keep wanting to read it. Although it isn't good, it wasn't one of the worst i've read.