Shattered Mirror (Den of Shadows) [Hardcover]

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (Author)

Book Description

Series: Den of Shadows | Publication Date: September 11, 2001

Sarah Vida is a witch and a vampire hunter — and a loner. Christopher Ravena is a vampire trying to pass as a normal high school student who wants to know Sarah better. Drawn to him despite her better judgment, Sarah’s forced to admit that there’s room for gray in her otherwise black-and-white world of good versus evil — until she meets Nikolas, Christopher’s twin and one of the most hunted vampires in history.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's not easy being a vampire-hunting witch, but Sarah Tigress Vida has learned from the best. The witches of the Vida family line have been successfully stalking and staking the undead for centuries, and Sarah is immensely proud of her ancestry. So, the last thing she would ever do is befriend one of the enemy. She has always faithfully followed the golden Vida rule of vampire hunting: "Knowing your prey can cause hesitation, and when one is a vampire hunter, hesitation ends in death." Then she meets artistic, sweet Christopher. A benign vampire, Christopher lives off of animal blood or the blood of willing human donors, and begins to gently woo Sarah with his poetry and drawings. Completely against her slayer instincts, Sarah reluctantly begins to care for Christopher... until she discovers that his twin is the vampire Nikolas, infamous for his habit of carving his name into the flesh of his victims. Sarah has always sworn to be the Vida to take Nikolas out, but her feelings for Christopher have allowed her to hesitate--a hesitation that may cost her not only her family's sterling reputation, but her mortal soul.

With Shattered Mirror, wildly popular teen author Amelia Atwater-Rhodes continues to effectively tap the vein of universal adolescent fascination with all things brooding and blood-sucking. Ardent fans will be pleased to see the return of characters from the author's previous books, like healer witch Caryn Smoke. This complex dynasty of witches and vampires will no doubt enjoy long, imaginary lives as the young author continues to hone her witch... er, writing craft. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

In this third installment in the series that began with In the Forests of the Night, Atwater-Rhodes focuses on teen witch (and vampire killer) Sarah Vida, who "never asked for anything more complex than the simple good and evil definitions she had been raised on" but gets more than she bargained for when she befriends vampire siblings Nissa and Christopher. This is trouble: it's harder to kill when you know your prey, and her mother the most infamous witch of all will disown her if she finds out about the friendship. Her conflict intensifies when she discovers that Christopher's twin is Nikolas, the same vampire who long ago murdered a Vida witch. Atwater-Rhodes chooses an interesting theme (no one is purely good or evil), and she builds some creative elements around it. SingleEarth, an organization of all creatures, for instance, includes vampires and witches who work together for peace. Her description of Nikolas, whose home and clothing are completely black and white, plays into this well, and provides for some striking visual images. Some of her writing, though, as in Sarah's final faceoff with Nikolas and Christopher, is over the top ("I want it as much as humans want to breathe, but I have control," Christopher says of Sarah's blood). Still, fans of the teen goth writer will likely find plenty to feast on here. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385327935
• ISBN-13: 978-0385327930
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,669,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, when she was 13 years old. Other books in the Den of Shadows series are Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator, all ALA Quick Picks for Young Adults. She has also published the five-volume series The Kiesha'ra: Hawksong, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror List Selection; Snakecharm; Falcondance; Wolfcry; and Wyvernhail. Visit her online at www.ameliaatwaterrhodes.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somebody get me a stake, March 16, 2004

By 

Jeronimo (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shattered Mirror (Den of Shadows) (Mass Market Paperback)

Let's start on a positive note. This is the best of Atwater-Rhodes's first four books. Unfortunately, that really isn't saying too much.

Sarah Tigress Vida (TIGRESS?!) is a vampire hunter and the youngest in a long line of powerful witches. A constant disappointment to her mother and older sister, Sarah wants desperately to please them. However, that would involve having to lock away any and all emotion she possesses, something Sarah can't seem to do. Actually, the only emotion Sarah displays for nearly the entire book is a kind of pouty-punk 'look at how much of a brave and misunderstood tough girl I am' attitude. Oy. Then she meets the new vampires at school. Despite her initial feelings of 'get away from me', Sarah grows to like them. These vampires are gentle, peaceful, so weak most witches wouldn't identify them as vampires. They don't kill to feed. The boy Christopher soon starts sending her roses and poetry.

Note: I still don't buy the whole vampires going to high school thing. Yeah, they say they have to remember humanity, but there are other ways. Trust me, it just takes a calculus class at eight in the morning to reveal the darker side of human nature.

Then Sarah's sister finds out about the vamps, it's suddenly revealed that Christopher's twin brother is Nikolas, the most feared vampire in history (I have no idea how he got that title, since he only shows kindness to his followers), and there's a ridiculous and useless subplot about a kid whose sister is under Nikolas's spell, except she was really hypnotized by another vamp.

The book ends in typical Atwater-Rhodes fashion. I can't tell you exactly what happens, but it seems vampires are the favorite creatures in Atwater- Rhodes's world, and that's what makes this so ludicrous. The author provides us with heavy- handed metaphors about the lack of black or white, good or evil in the world, but from what I've seen she loves her vampires and apparently dislikes her witches. Dominique, Sarah's mother, is a one-note, robot like character who comes in a couple of times to basically tell Sarah she hates her, and all the vampires, except for the 'real' villain (a cackling stereotype) are really sweet. If nothing is black or white, that 'profound' idea should apply to every character in a book, as opposed to a handful of main characters.

My other gripes: all vampires are teenagers. Why? The dialogue ranges from wooden to puzzling to being outright absurd. (I remember some bit when Nikolas offers Christopher blood; he criticizes Christopher's desire for blood and his refusal thus: ' Would a starving man refuse a chicken dinner, simply because he was vegetarian?' We know when dialogue sounds right. This bombs.) The story is neither forward nor enthralling. And everyone looks like a freaking supermodel.

This IS Atwater-Rhodes's best of the first four books, since she creates a fairly credible love story built upon something more than looks and hormones. However, that doesn't keep it from being a ridiculous and tedious book.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another thriller from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes., September 11, 2001

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shattered Mirror (Den of Shadows) (Hardcover)

For seventeen-year-old Sarah, the world has always been a black and white place, where a distinct line exists between good and evil. The humans are good. The vampires are evil. And in between exists the witches, who use their powers to protect humanity by killing vampires. As the youngest daughter of the Vida line, Sarah has been trained nearly all her life as a vampire hunter. On her first day at a new school, Sarah recognizes a brother and sister, Christopher and Nissa, as vampires, but the pair, who no longer kill to feed, are too weak to sense who she is. At first, she views the pair as dangerous, but she comes to realize that they have managed to keep some part of their humanity. But in the process of hunting down Nikolas, an evil vampire the Vidas have sworn to destroy since the day he killed one of their own over a hundred years ago, she discovers just how dark Christopher's past is. Fans of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes previous two books are sure to enjoy this one as well.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Shattered Mirror, May 25, 2005

By 

R, your friendly neighborhood reviewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shattered Mirror (Den of Shadows) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have recently reread all of the Amelia Atwater-Rhodes books in preparation for the third installment in the Keisha'ra series (beginning with Hawksong, then Snakecharm, and then the not-yet-released Falcondance). I was really dreading, to tell you the truth, reading Shattered Mirror all over again, and thought it to be the young authors worst offering yet. I remember being disgusted since it basically had the exact same ending as Demon in My View. But now I understand that their are really only two kinds of endings for the novellas Miss Rhodes writes.

1) Our protagonist-always a mysterious beauty- ends up giving into her feelings for the vampiric love interest, or has to because of impending death, and, so, becomes one of the undead. Or

2) Doesn't become a vamp. Simple as that.

The writting in 'Mirror' is the best out of the authors previous two, although not perfect by far. She writes unrealistic fight-scene dialoge and that can really gets on my nerves. We know she has an advanced vocabulary, so it really makes me wonder why she has to use prose-worthy speeches and dry wit within such chapters that deal with fights. It's so annoying!

Okay, only one more. AAR never fails to get under my skin, when describing her characters. They're always mysterious, dark, and beautiful in a goth, black-out sort of way. Aren't there any fat and ugly or just plain average-looking vampires? Or even humans for that matter?

But all in all, the book was good. The characters were intersting, especially the Ravaena siblings, and I hope AAR writes more about them in the future.

R, your friendly neighborhood reviewer.