"enjoyable young adult fantasy"
An hour from her home, Claire Danvers attends Texas
Prairie University in Morganville, Texas. She has learned
a lot in her time away from her parents about life, death,
and the undead. One of her roommates is a rookie vampire;
while another is the son of a vampire killer; the third
one is a more typical American warm blooded teen, a Goth.
Claire works for the school's Founder Amelie the vampiress
and daughter of a royal ancient vampire. Humans and
vampires live in peaceful coexistence in Morganville, but
Claire knows not to venture out in the dark alone. The harmony between the species ends when Amelie's father
Mr. Bishop arrives with his superiority complex that
frightens everyone even his daughter who wonders why he
came. He believes his race is homo superior to the
sapiens worms who are just dessert. At a formal ball in
his exalted honor, he begins his scheme to insure vampire
supremacy with him at the top of the pyramid and humans in
the ooze below the base. Mr. Bishop is prepared for all
contingencies except for the fact that he underestimated
two females, his daughter's belief in equality and that
warm blooded teenage nuisance Claire; to correct his
mistake, he will enjoy dining on raw Claire. Although there is a short recap of the three previous
tales (see GLASS HOUSES, THE DEAD GIRLS' DANCE and
MIDNIGHT ALLEY), it behooves the young adult audience to
read those tales first to get a deeper flavor of the life
and undead in Morganville. The story line is fast-paced
and filled with action from the onset as Mr. Bishop
displays his presence by simply sitting down in a kitchen
chair so majestically Claire thinks of a king on a
throne. The tale never decelerates as Mr. Bishop begins
his opening moves in a chess game while Amelie and Claire
try to counter. Ending with a bit of a cliffhanger, fans
of the series will appreciate FEAST OF FOOLS, but would
have preferred a more substantial climax. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 7, 2008
SummaryThe wait is over. dig into the feast...
In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in
relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been
convinced, though—especially with the arrival of Mr.
Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing
about harmony. What he wants from the town's living and its
dead is unthinkably sinister. It's only at a formal ball,
attended by vampires and their human dates, that Claire
realizes the elaborately evil trap he's set for Morganville.
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