Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Title: Glass Houses
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Released: October 3rd 2006 (by NAL Jam)
Pages: 348 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon


It’s a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows—one that will spill out into the bright light of day.

Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks on the school’s social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire really doesn’t have the right connections—to the undead who run the town.

When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Hew new roommates don’t show many signs of life. But they’ll have Claire’s back when the town’s deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.


Everyone has been talking about this series for ages, telling me how if I like House of Night, then I will adore this. And they were all absolutely right - I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to it! Like vampire novels? Buy this, now!



First off, it was a really easy read, and it only took me about a day to finish; but it wasn't boring, and I've found that 'easy-reads' commonly translates as pretty dull. But this definitely wasn't - the plot might not have been the deepest, and the writing style was quite nice and simple, but it was obvious from the start that Caine had properly thought out which direction the novel was going to go in, and what would happen, which all came together at the end to make it altogether a pretty amazing read. As a stand-alone book, it wouldn't have been that great, but as the beginner for a series, it was incredibly promising, and had just the right amount of mystery to keep the reader wanting to find out more about the town of Morganville - especially after the dramatic cliff hanger right at the very end.

Along with the plot, I also loved the characters. Again, they were pretty simple and your typical college-campus kids, but I thought the coinsided with the plot perfectly. I adored both Shane and Michael, and found them quite hot, but not in a total smouldering-can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of way, which guys in vampire novels usually are. They were normal (okay, kind of normal) and I thought that fit in well. I also loved Claire and Eve - Eve especially. I liked her Gothic sense of style, and how it's kind of ironic since she's dressed like a vampire, but isn't one. Claire is a bit annoying at times, since she constantly cries, but she is brave, and it is easy to like her. I think that's one of the things that makes this book such an easy read; the characters are loveable and normal, so you can relate to them. It's easy to forget that this isn't reality, because it sounds like it could be happening anywhere; we just don't know about it. And to make a book so good that it can get reader's into that frame of mind...well, that is a pretty awesome skill to have.

Overall, I thought the novel was awesome - not exactly breath-taking, but I really enjoyed it, and I need to get my hands on the sequel as soon as possible. Watch this space!
Rating: 4/5