V Bookish

So it has been awhile since I posted a review. I have been working my way through the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine. It took me about a month and a half to read all of them. The first half of my reading was a re-read since I had started the series back in middle school before it was finished. Rachel Caine, the author, passed away during the COVID pandemic so I felt like I should finish off a series that I had started and loved when they were first being published. I was in the mood for a comforting re-read while also excited to finish the ones that I had not read yet.

The series is about a group of friends- Claire, Shane, Eve, and Michael- who live in a town that is under the control of vampires. The series chronicles the hijinks that the group goes through to stay alive in Morganville. It is a fun overall story with just enough slow-burn romance to keep you on your toes.

The books are best read in order. There is a collection of stories, Midnight Bites, that I saved for the end of the series but they could also be read chronologically throughout the series since they all correlate to things that have been going on or previously happened in Morganville. These books are very similar to other vampire books that were popular at the time but still different enough to keep the reader engaged.

In my opinion the characters were pretty relatable. This may be because, like Claire, I finished high school early. It was nice having a smart character be the main character and for there to be a lot of value placed into her brain.

The story starts with Claire going to college and follows her and her friend’s time in Morganville from beginning to what we can assume is the end. There were a few different plot lines involving evil vampires and the fearsome draug, so the reading could be broken up based on the story arcs of the series. By the end of the novel many of the questions are answered and it is a satisfying ending, but there seems like the author left it open so that she could revisit the characters and Morganville in the future. Even though she officially ended the series, I think she always wanted to go back and add to it.

I’d recommend this book to anyone wanting a fun deep dive into Morganville. While the whole series does not have to be read to enjoy it, one really can’t get the full experience without going through them all. The series is long enough that it takes a time dedication but it is more than worth the time that it takes to read it. The series as a whole rates as a 4 out of 5 stars because at times the books did get kind of slow, though that may just have been because there were other things I was wanting to read more at the time that I wouldn’t let myself read until I finished this series.