Customer Reviews

Vampire Kisses

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I am a vampire novel nut, and thus have read pretty much EVERY YA vampire book on the market. So I can say with real experience, this is one of the worst vampire books I have ever read, second only to RL Stein's travesty, "Dangerous Girls".

The main character, a "Goth" girl imaginatively named "Raven", is a walking Mary-Sue cliché for gothic characters. She loves wearing black clothes and spider rings, hanging out in graveyards, dreaming of hot vampire boys, dressing up as a preppy tennis player for Halloween (no, it's true) and making fun of the "popular" kids, and can always come out on top in a clash of wits with the shamefully stupid and typical popular kids (who all wear Tommy Hilfiger, by the way). And for some reason, despite the fact that she claims everyone in her town "hates" her, she is never persecuted, and is in fact even the secret desire of *gasp* the most popular boy in school, with whom Raven willingly makes out, even though she claims to hate him!

As if the faux-angst teen melodrama wasn't enough, Schreiber throws in a half-baked, again clichéd-out vampire plot worthy of the late, great "Goosebumps" series. A hot Goth boy moves into town who is: apparently foreign (with a slight accent, even!), lives in a huge old manor nobody has lived in for years, isn't seen during the daytime, only pops out at night (conveniently in the graveyard where Raven spends her time), and drops terrible hints all over the place about his true nature (think Dracula's "I never drink...wine."). Things just spiral down from here, and inevitably end up at the evil of all high school evils, the PROM!

The characters are shallow, the plot is even less deep, and the extent of Raven and her vampire love-boys connection is this: "I'm a hot goth boy." "I'm a hot goth girl who loves hot goth boys." "I call this town Dullsville." "Oh, my God, I call this town Dullsville, too!" (no, I promise, that last exchange ACTUALLY happens in the book) "We're meant for each other!"

Ellen Schriber clearly has no idea how contemporary high schools work. If she did, she would know that Goths are no longer the minority, even in small towns (I once lived in a community of 4,000 people in the deserts of Arizona, and a good 20 of the kids at the high school were Goth). This wouldn't even work as a parody of the YA vampire genre, because even if Schreiber didn't quite make it there, you could tell that she was at least trying for a credible gothic love story, and NOT a parody. This is to vampire novels what Star Wars 3 is to the rest of the Star Wars series: a poorly-written drama that would have been better off as a comedy.

This book is obviously aimed at the pre-teen set, and will most likely be worshipped by young girls who have yet to enter high school. This brings NOTHING new to the vampire genre. If you want a genuinely GOOD YA book with a realistic and amusing look at the teen Goth and vampire culture, try SWEETBLOOD by Pete Hautman. But DON'T buy Vampire Kisses.

Raven, her name and character are both equal in their lack of originality. The fact that she angsts and revels over the fact that she is oh-so-goth-and-angst annoyed me to the extreme. She was a very shallow character, who's only depth was given by the fact that she like "goth" things, her goth boots, her goth clothes, hot goth boys... Truly, this book had the emotional depth of sponge-bob square-pants. I read this book several months ago, so I can't go much further into detail, but the only good thing about this book that I can say is that I didn't buy it.

Sixteen-year old Raven Madison started her obsession with the dark side in kindergarten. While the teacher was asking her young students what they wanted to be when they grew up and getting the typical responses of nurse, fire fighter, and football player, young Raven answered the question the only way she knew how--she wanted to grow up to be a vampire.

Raven's parents, Sarah and Paul, were typical hippies who spent their early years together waxing poetic about love and the music of the Grateful Dead. When Raven came along, they became slightly less hippie, in that they moved into an apartment instead of living in their Volkswagon van. Raven's first years were spent surrounded by lava lamps and glow-in-the-dark posters, with her parents playing games with her, eating junk food, and watching old horror films on the small black and white television. All of that changed, though, when two things happened--her mother dared to give birth to a brother, endearingly termed Nerd Boy, and they forced her to go to school, every day.

Now sixteen, Raven is still the outcast that she found herself to be when she proclaimed her life's ambition was to be a vampire. Now the only goth girl in a town dubbed Dullsville, Raven is still a social outcast who enjoys horror movies, black lipstick, and pushing her parents to the edge. Raven has no real friends except for Becky, a timid farm girl who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. None, that is, until the Sterling family moves into the dark, abandoned mansion sitting on top of Benson Hill.

Suddenly the whole town is talking about the mysterious Sterlings, especially the teenage son, Alexander. It's said he hangs out in the cemetery at night, that he's brought bats to town, that he's pale and is never seen outside during the daytime. Could Alexander be a real, live vampire? If so, he could be Raven's ticket out of this loser town. But does she really want to leave her family and real life behind to spend her days sleeping in a coffin? Or is all the hype just that--the ramblings and crazy speculation of a town who can't stand for anyone to be different?

As Raven gets closer to Alexander, she realizes that being a vampire might not matter so much as being loved for who she is. As she deals with the small-minded people in her town, she just might find out that she's not so different from the residents of Dullsville as she thought she was.

VAMPIRE KISSES is a good start to this entertaining vampire series by Ellen Schreiber. Although there are parts that appear too shallow for Raven's character, and way too many exclamation points for my taste, I still recommend the story, and look forward to reading the next book in the series, Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins (Vampire Kisses).

I read this book about a month ago and I'm still in shock at how terrible it was. I normally don't critique people's writing styles but come on, this was so horribly written that I could barely finish it. I can't believe it was actually published...and even more that some people like it. Also, I think the author is a little out of touch with the younger generation-what kind of high school party plays Celine Dion music? Really. I actually don't ever write reviews on books either but this was so terrible I felt compelled to save someone from wasting their money.

I loved this book. I am 15 and I think it captured my level perfectly. It is one of those books that you can either look forward to reading each night or finish it in a day (in my case it was 3 hours). Though the book is about vampires, it manages not to be disgustingly goury, though it does make you enthralled with vampires. Just like the summary on the cover flap promises, there is a surprising twist in the end. VAMPIRE KISSES is basically about a sixteen year old girl named Raven who is very pretty, but has always been into vampires and dressing in black. Everybody thinks she is pretty weird and she only has one friend. When a new family moves into a spooky mansion that nobody but her has dared to go in, she is convinced that they are vampires and her curiousity is peaked by a seventeen year old boy named Alexander who never seems to come out. While trying to solve that mystery, she also has to face dealing with a violent bully named Trevor and the dissaproval of her peers and family. I don't want to give anything away, but all in all this is a very good book. It's a combination of romance, suspense, mystery and of course vampires. Trust me, you will really be surprised by the ending, I know I was and I thought I had the whole book figured out. I would say this book is good for reading levels for ages 12-20. At some parts of the book its great for kids and you think the author is moving towards a younger audience, but then it gets into things like sex and stuff and you change your mind. Don't worry, nothing is too bad or I would not recommend it for 12 year olds. I hope this review helped. Enjoy!

Now, I could just be biased-I'd just finished "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer the day before-but I honestly can't say I was very fond of this book. There wasn't really any character depth and I have serious doubts Raven (the main herione) would act the way she did half the time; it just didn't fit the persona at all. Like I said, I might just be biased, but the authoress didn't even put her own spin on the whole Vampire legend, or make the existing belief interesting. But, I will say it was an interesting enough read to finish. That much I can give it.

It was extremely hard to find anything to like about this book. The characters were totally one-dimensional. Raven seems more like she is eleven than sixteen. She really acts extremely juvenile. The scene where she goes trick or treating and gets into a fight with Trevor illustrated this extreme immaturity. This scene was almost unnecessary except to illustrate how immature she and Trevor are, and to give her a chance to leave her tennis racket at the Mansion so that of course she would have to see the creepy butler again. Very staged and very cliche. Raven cannot compare to a more interesting and rounded character like Bella of "Twilight." Trevor is the obvious "villain" who has nothing going for him except his good looks. He is completely stereotypical. The dumb good-looking jock who all the girls fall for. He uses them and drops them. His wealth, good-looks, and power make him untouchable and unattainable. There never seems to be any reason for his constant taunting of Raven. He is a bully, but the level their warring should stem from something other than a vague hinting at their mutual dislike. The reader is left with questions: "Why does Trevor bully Raven so much? Why does he single her out? What has she really done to him to warrant that kind of abuse?" There is a story there and it is not explained. As I never finished the book, perhaps it comes out at some point that Trevor is in love with Raven and that's why he can't seem to leave her alone. At the same time, this explanation makes no sense either, because only extremely immature teenagers resort to that kind of taunting and bullying of someone they like. This highlights Trevor's obvious villain status and makes him even more unlikeable, thus giving the reader no reason to like or sympathize with him at all. A good villain always has some good quality to make his descent into evil tragic enough for the reader to care. I barely got to Alexander. I couldn't make it that far in the book. I'm almost sure he is a stereotypical vampire character and completely predictable. Again, from the little I did read, he is no comparison to Edward of "Twilight" who manages to be mysterious, yet endearing.

There isn't much I can say for the plot either. Basically we are dealing with a sixteen-year-old girl obsessed with vampires. She has totally romanticized them. While we all love vampire stories, it's morbid to want to be one to the point of praying for it every night. Morbid and unrealistic and it just magnifies her obvious immaturity. She obviously doesn't understand what real vampirism is. Other than Raven's obsession with her new neighbors to the point of breaking into their house and nearly stealing Alexander's paintings just for the sake of having something of his, there is no plot. How can a girl this immature, fanatical, and obsessive be mature enough to fall in love? More likely her crazed feelings for Alexander are infatuation for what he is, not who he is. She could just as easily be in love with Trevor if she had a thing for soccer stars. Not a good basis for three more books centralized on this love affair. Pathetic.

While the characters are completely unlikeable and one-dimensional, the writing is worse. The style is completely immature. There is no character development, no plot development, and every other statement is marked with an exclamation point like everything is such a big deal and the author is trying to convince the reader of this. Unfortunately nothing is a big deal and the reader loses interest. The "big deal" boils down to Raven being obsessed with vampires and finally finding one she can call her very own! How exciting! The writing is not strong enough to draw in this reader (obviously, since I couldn't even finish it) and it doesn't unfold enough suspense to hold the interest. This would at least make up for the really bad characterization. Raven's actions have no real motivation. It seems like much of the story is left out because the author just wants to focus on the central love story and expects that to be enough.

This book won some kind of award for reluctant readers. I think it would make a reluctant reader even more reluctant. The writing is easy enough to read because it is so brainless, but the story could definitely be made more interesting to at least draw in someone who is not that interested in reading.

My suggestion would be for the author to give up writing and maybe go back to acting. She might be better at that.

As someone who actually has an understanding of the ORIGINAL gothic subculture (1979, Britain, Bat Cave, Bauhaus...), this has to be the worst drivel one has ever read.

The main character's name is Raven (very original name - taste the sarcasm?). Of course she's an outcast. Of course she doesn't get along with her family. Of course she thinks nobody understands you, and the popular kids pick on her. Of COURSE she's obsessed with vampires! Raven's so goth, Ellen Schreiber goes out of her way in every detail to show just how GOTHIC Raven is. Distracting phrases include "my lacy black rayon shirt against his naked torso" and the like... I'm sorry, I was too busy imagining what kind of attire Raven was wearing to remember what was going on in this scene.

The characters are flat, stereotypical and obviously have no imagination put into them. And of course, considering how the apparent cornerstone of the story is just how GOTH the main character is, it's pretty sad that the author apparently did no research whatsoever into what the gothic subculture really is, considering all she had to do at the very least was look on Wikipedia's (actually decent) article about it.

Please don't bother trying to strain your way from this lifeless, boring excuse for a book. If you want a GOOD vampire story, revert to the classics... Bram Stoker's Dracula.

To tell the truth I hated this book so much, but I for some reason could not put it down! and for that I had to give it 5 stars because it is very rare for me to find a book I can read from start to finish in a couple of hours!
I hated the book because it was such a stereotype. Raven was such a Gothic Stereotype, I have been part of the Gothic culture for 7 years now and I have yet to meet a Gothic person like her, she says the word "Gothic guy" "Goth this" "Goth that" like a million times as if she likes hearing herself say the word, and she just seems to think Gothic people are above everyone else and she is just kinda snobby! With Goth you have to take the Bull crap people give you, but she was such a snob to everyone but her friend.
But other then that I thought she was kinda a cute girl! I loved what she did to that guy in the forest (I wont spoil it for others who have not read the book) and I just pictured myself doing that to all my highschool bullies who would pour pigs blood down the back of my shirt and I had to smile so much at how the popular guy was beat down by the misfit!
And I loved the ending, it was rally the only thing I loved about the book, it was very cleaver and smart, and makes you think.
So I am glad other people have enjoyed it and for some reason I wanna read it again and again, despite the fact I really hate it!
Blessed Be!

These are some of the worst written books I have ever read! It amazes me that this woman ever got published. The story lines are stupid, the adjectives are repetitive and ridiculous and the characters are annoying. These books are so bad, it's laughable. If they're so awful, you're probably wondering why I wasted my time reading all four. Well, I was bored, I needed something to read to pass the time while waiting for Breaking Dawn to come out, and I felt like having a good laugh. Oh and someone needs to tell Ms.Schreiber that if she is going to mention horror movies in her books, she needs to get her killers straight. It's amazing that someone didn't tell her that Micheal Meyers of Halloween doesn't wear a hockey mask!