BOOK REVIEW - The Dead Girl's Dance

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

This review is part of the Morganville Vampires Reading Challenge of 2012 which you can learn all about here.

The Dead Girls’ Dance is the second book of the Morganville Vampires series and is written by Rachel Caine. The book is published by Allison & Busby and was released on the 7^th of April 2008.

PLOT

Claire, Michael, Shane and Eve just want a bit of peace and quiet around Glass House. They thought that when Amelie gave them protection, everything would be ok, but that was until Shane's Dad, Frank, turned up. Amelie's deal was that no more trouble would be caused but Frank is trouble with a capital T. He doesn't mess around with stating his intentions, he wants revenge on the vampires or anyone who looks remotely like one for the deaths of his daughter and wife. Unfortunately for Michael, being a ghost doesn't do him any favours. 

With Frank threatening Amelie's protection, Claire and her friends must figure out a way to stop Frank and his thug sidekicks before he ruins everything that they have worked for. They manage to stay out of trouble for a couple of days but then Brandon, a well known vampire is found dead and all fingers point to Shane and his Dad (who is no where to be seen) so Shane ends up taking the rap for the whole thing, being sentenced to death by fire. 

Claire, Michael and Eve need to think of a way to save Shane and fast. In two days he's going up in flames. Will they be able to do it?

WHAT I THOUGHT

It is hard to keep up the awesomeness that was Glass Houses I don’t know if I thought that the first time I read through because I just loved the world of Morganville and I knew I had the next three just waiting for me to my hands on them. One thing I really like about this series is that it is just one big book, a connected stream of narrative chronicling the adventures of Claire and the gang. The action is intense and we learn more about Morganville and how things work especially about the differences between Morganville residents and the TPU campus and students.

We knew from Glass Houses that Morganville is a dangerous place but I think The Dead Girls’ Dance takes that information and smacks us over the head with it. All through it you get the idea that one little mistake in that place is roughly equal to one little mistake while juggling chainsaws. This book has a lot more than you would think at first glance the political power struggle, the struggle to find a sense of belonging and a great buddy story theme running all the way through. You can see how the central cast relate to each other and you can see it is real friendship the stuff that rides the good and the bad and endures.

One more thing I would like to talk about is a little theory I came up with when I considered The Dead Girls’ Dance again and that is the idea of Good VS. Evil. I don’t consider the vampires to be the real Evil in the Morganville Vampires universe sure they do bad things but that is in their nature most of the time. They do things because otherwise they would starve, they do things because they have to keep the humans scared otherwise they would rebel and kill every last one of them.

Then we come to Monica Morrell, to me she is the real evil in these first few books, it takes a special kind of person to throw another down the stairs and then to order a rape on the same girl suggests that she might be a sociopath. It is one of the few books I have read recently that gave me the chills when I stop and think about it.

Still this book and this series combine a few horror moments with a lot of action and adventure and some of the snarkiest dialogue this side of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I recommend The Dead Girls’ Dance and Morganville Vampires.