Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel [Paperback]

Rhiannon Frater (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2008

Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry... ... in a new, horrific, unimaginable way... Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what's worse is that he's a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding. Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind. But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation... or her death?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Pretty When She Dies is a bloody good time filled with violence, vampires, passion, Texans AND zombies...Rhiannon Frater has crafted an engaging and addicting novel that I HIGHLY recommend!" 
--Fatally Yours

 "Frater does a splendid job of tying together the plot threads, and her intriguing vampire world should appeal to fans of the genre." --Bitten by Books

"I have to say this is the most amazing Vampire book I have read in a long long time.  Rhiannon Frater you have blown my mind thank you!  This book had me hooked from start to finish." - KZ Book Blog 

"I seriously hope there will be a sequel, because I love these characters.   And if you're looking for a really good adult vampire story, you should definitely read Pretty When She Dies."--Love of Books Blog

About the Author

Rhiannon Frater lives in Austin, Texas with her husband. Her zombie series, As The World Dies, is being published in 2011 by Tor. She loves zombies, vampires, and Texas and enjoyed writing about them in her horror novels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (November 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440429634
• ISBN-13: 978-1440429637
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #512,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author of the AS THE WORLD DIES ZOMBIE TRILOGY. The first novel in the series, THE FIRST DAYS, won the 2008 Dead Letter Award for Best Book (Fiction). The second book, FIGHTING TO SURVIVE won the 2009 Dead Letter Award in the same category.

Originally self-published, the As The World Dies books were purchased by Tor. The first book will be released July 5, 2011.

Also, the series is optioned to become a possible TV show in the future. You can also check out my vampire novel Pretty When She Dies, which has been optioned for a possible film. My book for the younger zombie fans, The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters, has been optioned for film and the director hopes to start filming soon.

I previously wrote for The Edge Magazine and Rank & Revue (renamed Reloaded Monthly) in the mid-00s, before dedicating myself to my fiction writing.

I am represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry Literary + Media agency.


Contact me at rhiannonfrater at gmail.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read, fun in old school goth way, July 30, 2009

By 

V. Dalpe "Ursala V" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel (Paperback)

I will say, while this book had it's issues for me, it kept my attention.

The story was unique and in a genre like this, that alone says something. The Texan landscape and colorful scruffy cast helps this book stand out from the herd. I enjoyed the character's and their relationships overall.

My main problem with the book was, as another reviewer commented, it could have used a good editor to clean it up. Aspects felt, for lack of a better word, amateur. Word repetition (battered for example) cropped multiple times in a single page, and there were enough grammatical errors and typos to distract. The font size changed periodically as well which was odd.

Little things like that can make it hard for me to maintain my focus within a story, but I found Frater's story and characters engaging enough to forgive some of the clumsiness. I think she has a lot of potential, and as another reviewer pointed out: it's nice to see vampires being bad, they have been thoroughly de-fanged recently. Also the book was nice looking for a self published, and I like the cover art quite a bit.

I found the bloodletting sex scenes surprisingly well done as well, and the sexual tension between the two leads is fun and believable.

All in all, if you love vamp fiction and want to go a little toward the fringes than this could be a good fit.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Right up there with Lestat! No spoilers..............., October 21, 2009

By 

Scuba Paris (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel (Paperback)

Have not picked up a vampire novel since Ann Rice ended her Vampire Chronicles. Did not want to re-visit my teen years reading the Twilight stories. After reading Rhiannon's A Zombie Trilogy I decided to give her Vampire novel a try. I am sooo glad that I did. This is a great ADULT vampire story all the way around. Will not get into the story because the book description says it all. Read this book and like me look forward to her new vampire book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love this kind of Vampire!!!!, August 22, 2010

By 

Sunny - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel (Paperback)

The story starts off with our heroine Amaliya when she wakes up in a fresh grave. Scared, confused, and very hungry she fights her way out of the grave. Once she digs her way out she realizes that she doesn't really even remember her own name. She see things that look familiar to her and she goes to that place. She finds her dorm room on her college campus, so she showers and goes to look for food. What kind she is not certain of at the moment. Along goes our story and she figures out that she wants blood and she is a vampire.

Well - Crap. Amaliya has to high tail it out of there because she killed about 13 people at a sex orgy on the campus. She finds out/remembers at the orgy that her favorite professor asked her out and decided to turn her into a vamp for a bit of a "social experiment". He tells her "you are a vampire and I am not going to help in the least - so good luck." Well - Super Crap!! So she jumps in her Daddy's pickup to go home to see if her family will help her out. This is how our story begins....

What I really liked about the book was that Amaliya embraced her vampire side down the road. She was like - this is what I am and I want to live, so there is no reason to feel guilty. (I like it - it is very unique in a book these days).

You have adventure, excitement, and even romance! I was not expecting a romance in there (I don't know why). Well, the romance was my favorite part. It wasn't like sissy - it was "we are vamps and let's have some yummy dangerous vamp sex". I don't know if that made sense - let's just say they have sex like I would expect vampires to have sex which is "Mega Yummy"!!!

I read the whole book in one day and I really enjoyed myself. I can't wait to read the author's other vamp book. It got better ratings than this one did!