The Dead Girls' Dance, by Rachel Caine

Title: The Dead Girls' Dance (The Morganville Vampires, #2)
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: NAL Jam
Release: April 3, 2007
Source: (RJ Julia | NAL)

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

I’m even surprised that I didn’t start The Dead Girls’ Dance immediately after reading Glass Houses, the first book in the Morganville Vampires series. The ending of that one was a total shock, but I was somehow able to hold off reading The Dead Girls’ Dance for a few months after reading the first book. Now I’m wondering why the heck I waited so long!

Transitioning back into the world of Morganville was surprisingly easy. The stakes are much higher in The Dead Girls’ Dance than they were the first time around, and I was absolutely thrilled at how exciting this book was. There are vampire hunters, hostages, giant fires, and vampires! What more could you want?

Of course, Rachel Caine’s great writing doesn’t hurt either. She doesn’t leave any unnecessary fluff, and every word helps to move the story along. Her style is different than most young adult authors’, and I do seem to like it. There were times when I felt it was a little choppy, but not very often.

Claire is a lot stronger in The Dead Girls’ Dance than she was in Glass Houses, and I really like where her character is going. She’s not little good girl anymore, and living in Morganville you can’t afford to be like that. The other characters don’t take as much of a spotlight as Claire, but they were all great too. There were many new characters introduced, and I’m having fun speculating what lies ahead for those characters.

I loved going back to Morganville with The Dead Girls’ Dance, and definitely won’t be waiting long to read Midnight Alley, and the rest of the Morganville Vampires books. Do yourself a favor and pick these books up!