The Night inside [Hardcover]

Baker/Nancy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1993

Graduate student Ardeth Alexander is kidnapped, held hostage, and forced to nourish the vampire who shares her captivity, but she soon realizes that the vampire is her only hope for salvation. 35,000 first printing.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While taking an early-morning walk through the streets of contemporary Toronto, graduate student Ardeth Alexander is abducted by two men and taken to an isolated building, where she discovers to her horror that she has been brought to supply blood to an imprisoned vampire named Dimitri Rozokov. Baker's engrossing debut alternates the present-day story with the 1898 diary of obsessed businessman Ambrose Dale, who drove Rozokov into hiding and a 100-year sleep from which he awoke only to be captured by a sadist who keeps him in line with an ultrasound machine and makes pornographic snuff films of the hapless vampire feeding on prostitutes. Learning his story, Ardeth gradually loses her horror of Rozokov and begins to see their human jailers as the real monsters. Their only hope of salvation is to trace the links to Rozokov's Victorian nemesis and discover the person behind his 20th-century captivity. Modern subjects like AIDS and incest mingle with age-old vampire lore as the narrative moves toward a gruesome climax. In prose studded with passages of dark luster, Baker offers a truly original scenario.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Hired to research the history of a warehouse in Toronto, grad student Ardeth Alexander unknowingly becomes party to the capture of Rozokov, a vampire who had preyed on the city 100 years earlier. Ardeth is kidnapped to provide nourishment for Rozokov, who, aside from his taste for blood, is a charming, likable man--her captors, who are using him in snuff movies, are the true monsters here. Ardeth, knowing she will die in any case, has only one means of revenge: to become a vampire herself, release Rozokov, and kill their tormentors. It's hard to make vampires likable, especially when they kill innocent people (albeit apologetically), but first novelist Baker tries valiantly. Buy this for your horror fans.
- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Viking/Allen Lane (August 26, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067085025X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670850259
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,786,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Vampire Story, April 1, 2004

By 

Elizabeth "lking173" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Inside (Creed) (Paperback)

I am a collector of vampire novels, and after reading a few recommendations, I picked up Nancy Baker's "The Night Inside" (which by the way is also "Kiss of the Vampire)." Do not make the mistake of picking up both books like I did. It is the exact same story.

Ardeth is a graduate student living at college. She just finished a project with two of her friends (also graduate students). She is saddened when one of her friends and ex-lover dies, but that sadness also becomes wariness when the second person she was working on the project with also dies. Also, she felt at one point that she was being followed.

Her fears become reality, when while jogging on campus one morning, she is literally snatched by two men, thrown in a van, and knocked out. When Ardeth recovers she finds herself locked in a cell, with a vampire in another cell next door named Dimitri Rozokov. She finds out that she has been kidnapped to be his food source. She is terrified of the vampire, but as time passes, she realizes she is even more horrified by her sadistic kidnappers (who are making x-rated, snuff films for profit using the vampire).

As the days pass, Ardeth begins to see the vampire Dimitri as a person, and as they get closer, she realizes her and Dimitri will have to come up with a plan to outsmart the kidnappers. But just how far is she willing to go to live?

I don't want to give too much away, but this is an excellent, excellent story. I really enjoyed all of the characters. I would highly recommend.

(Also as this is an out of print book, you can find used copies on amazon.com and other used book sites. Definitely worth buying

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good, dark, romantic Vamping, September 22, 1999

By 

AnthroMom "Karol" (Nacogdoches, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Inside (Hardcover)

This is just an early version of Nancy Baker's Kiss of the Vampire. If you can't get this one, you should try the later version. Baker does a great job of showing the slow transition from meek, well-mannered human to vampirism. She really lets you get inside Ardith's head as she makes the transition.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an enjoyable vampire novel, December 22, 2000

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Covenant (Hardcover)

This was an enjoyable vampire novel. Baker does a good job of building up an empathy with Ardith, the novel's central character. Via a set of nasty circumstances she goes from being a conventional-contientious student to a wild-child vampire and sets out for revenge on the people who did this to her. This is the last thing she had ever expected to happen to her - and would never have happened when she was "good". This is a novel I'm glad I've read and I'm looking forward to the sequel "blood and chrysanthemums".