My reading experience: a hate/love relationship

Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This is the 4th book of the ongoing Morganville Vampire series.

It starts exactly where Midnight Alley left. Claire is helping Myrnin with the cure for the vampire disease. And something unexpected: Claire's parents just moved to Morgaville. Obviously, trouble is on its way.

This book had lots of ups and downs. I'm still unhappy with Claire's character. She dissapoints me. A lot. One example that comes to mind is the way blood donation is portrayed (which by the way sucks, because donating blood should be encouraged outside of the fantasy world. It saves lives, see HERE). First, we have been repeatedly told that Claire is this smart girl who is almost a genius, who knows how to perform scientific research, experiments and is getting as much training as possible with Myrnin with his lab. However, when she is donating blood, in a medically run Donation Centre, all her objectivity towards science turns to rubbish.

Are you seriously telling me she is not familiar with this procedure?

Not even reading about it? It is the most basic form of lab examination! You sit/lay down, a nurse finds your vein, pinches it with a needle that draws your blood to a container. Easy. But noooo, Claire is scared, and makes donations sound horrible. I understand the effect this scene was trying to portray, but it makes me sad. I might even venture saying it will discourage readers for donating blood.

This series is one of my YA guilty pleasures. Why? I feel that each book makes me lose some vampire street cred. I'm serious. They are slowly killing my intellect. Basically, these books could be compared to unintentionally reading gossip magazines.

Imagine this: you're in the checkout line paying for your groceries. There is this flashy magazine that *gasp* informs you: Surprise Angelina is expecting a new baby! You open it up complaining all the way about media and exploitation and all the nasty paparazzi yada-yada... But in the end, very, very deeply, you're just dying to see if there is a sexy Brad Pitt picture next to Angie.

You see? This is exactly how The Morganville vampires series make me feel. I am very interested in vampires, I love reading, but deep inside my hardcore Buffy fan heart, I know Caine's books are just not good or worth my reading time. The story is meh, light and in various parts contradictory. But I'm following this series in the hopes I get more about Claire & Shane smooch + kissy time. There, I said it.



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