27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellant horror story., May 9, 2000
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.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Read the beginning if you like mindless dribble, June 20, 2003
Written By: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Cover Art By: N/A
Published: 2000
Published By: Dell Laurel-Leaf
Pages: 176
Extras: Expert from "Shattered Mirror."
Summary:
N/A
Cover Art Review:
I can tell it's Aubrey on the cover because of the tattoos. He's holding a black rose. It's alright cool but not as cool as the cover for In the Forests of the Night.
Overall: 3 (1-10) It has a _very_ loose tie to the story, but it is some what insterting to look at.
Book Review:
I think it's all agreed that Atwater-Rhodes has good spring-board ideas. However, her chacters, plot line, and how she ties up the plot all fail. Aubrey, a good chacter when he was in the author's first book, has apparently gone through the "plot device" machine. Instead of using his extremely supernatural powers to kill Jessica and cover it up, he spies on her as a high school student. Why? This is not explained.
Jessica is best described as a Mary Sue. For anyone who doesn't know, a Mary Sue is the author inserting herself into her story and making herself perfect. Even a Mary Sue's "flaws" are calculated. Jessica has a body "to die for." (The author wastes a paragraph where Jessica stands in front of a mirror basically worshipping herself.) She's a good writer (so good that only after a week of being out, people are reading her book and she believes that "Alex" is an crazy fan) and a good artist to boot. Yet everyone at her school "flees" from Jessica and some are even violent towards her. (Yet all we (the reader) see are a few looks and a group of girls leaving after Jessica snaps at them.) When the new girl Caryn approaches her, Jessica doesn't even try to make a friend. She claims to not want friends, but Jessica harps to much on the fact that everyone "runs" from her for that to be true.
It should be noted that a high school friend of the author was the one who suggested the plot of the book.
The plot, while predictable, was defiantly inserting. Unless you're five, it will come to no surprise that Jessica becomes a vampire and Ann dies. It is after the latter event that the book goes from a mindless read to a bad book. Jessica hates Dominique on sight because she's killed vampires she has "known." Dominique only kills vampires who kill people. She rightly states that vampires don't need to kill to survive. Jessica her that at least vampires don't "preach the morality of their killing." Uh, hello? A vampire just killed your mother, the woman who adopted you. The only person who "truly cared about you." The vampire didn't need to eat, he just killed her in cold blood. The author makes no attempt to show both sides. In her mind, vampires are good, witches are bad.
As I said in the review for In the Forest of the Night, Atwater-Rhodes' vampires are too powerful. The reader needs to be given some hope that, if they came across one of her vampires, they can escape. There is now tension in who is going to win, human or vampire. In fact, the weakest vampire is Fala, who happens to be the villain as well. As it was pointed out before, this is not a good idea. There is no tension because the villain is too afraid to go against the hero.
I will end this long review on one note. I would like Amelia Atwater-Rhodes to write a witch version of In the Forest of the Night. Yes, I know about Shattered Mirror, but that, in the end, turned out to be a vampire good, witches evil story.
Overall: 2 (1-10) 1 for the plot about Jazzlyn, the second for Caryn. I would like the author to write a witches good, vampires bad story. Read the beginning if you like mindless dribble, but by no means think is a good book.
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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
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.
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