Annette Curtis Klause

It would appear that I disappeared for two weeks after reading this, ostensibly because it was so bad. No. I was so busy and flustered IRL that--I didn't have it in me to sit down and properly review this. Now, I can. I absolutely loved this book when I read it in fifth grade, twenty-five years ago as of this writing. I read it a few times in middle school after. Fast forward to now. I actually tried reading this a couple of times and got annoyed. Now, I wanted to just sit down and finish it so I could review it and note to myself, "I already read this and here's what I thought."

After DNF'ing several books with bland, simplistic, or bare-bones descriptions, the purple prose in this was refreshing. Whole way through, even, for the most part. As long as nature or day or night was being described. If it was a person or a feeling, I quickly grew annoyed. That's part of purple prose, though. I remembered most of this as an adult, but had totally managed to forget Christopher. Good on me. What an insufferable asshat. His brother is a dick, condescending and controlling to Zoe; but he's arrogant in a different way that Christopher is. Christopher is a pompous brat and ugh, every time he was on the page I yearned to return to "Interview with a Vampire," which handled child vampires in an altogether different way through Claudia. And I hated Claudia back when I read Anne Rice as a teen. But I liked how her character moved through the world and had realistic emotions about forever being trapped in a child's body.

Simon's...increasingly, when he was on the page, I shook my head and thought, "And you will grow up, sink deep into literature, and star in a book called 'Seven Types of Ambiguity,'" because wow, this book's Simon and that book's Simon had definite similarities beyond their names and ability to charm others. The author wanted him to be a wounded bird of sorts, and for the audience to feel bad. Instead, I found his circumstances and the way he handled them, annoying. Simon, as a vampire, shares story beats and some characterization with Spike from BTVS: Spike rides around in a car with a dirty windshield and wraps himself in a dirty blanket to cover what his leather trench coat does not. Simon sleeps in a boarded up building, and wedges himself into a tiny space rather than, you know, steal blankets out of something and spread out reasonably. Both become obsessed with a teen girl far younger than them and engage in victim blaming and attempts at grooming. They're manipulative.

And both get monologues as the sun rises. Instead of staked. How cheap. Where's my big fight scene? I never felt like either character earned "monologue as the sun rises". No, I wanted their objects of obsession to fight them.

I congratulate Annette Curtis Klause on her success, and I'm a little sad that my nostalgia is streaked through with bitterness of adulthood who frowns upon weird power dynamics in books like this. I contemplate reading some Mary Downing Hahn to make myself feel better. I'd still recommend this to people, though. Even though my opinion has changed, I'm still glad I got to read this again.… (meer)