Shattered Mirror

Shattered Mirror
© 2001 Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
227 pages

Given the current Twilight mania, I am just a touch self-conscious about reading a vampire novel written for young adults. Back in high school I read Atwater-Rhodes' In the Forests of the Night, and found it entrancing. Her world was different from the fantasy settings I'd read about before, and her rules seemed to make more sense. It was also dark, but not off-puttingly so. A few months back I finally got around to reading another novel of hers, and here I read a third. The book is written in the third-person, but sometimes seemed like first-person, as most of the book is spent in the protagonist's -- Sarah Vida -- head. Interestingly, Sarah is very much like Rhodes' previous protagonists: teenage, female, living on the fringes, "dark", strong, and very stubborn and independent. Despite this, Sarah is fundamentally different from the other protagonists: Risika was a vampire, Jessica Shade a human, and Sarah a witch.

Witches were mentioned in In the Forests of the Night as being vampire-hunters, but in Demon in my View, we learned through the story of Jessica Shade that witches seek to protect humanity from the vampires who prey on them -- although it is clear that some witches enjoy killing vampires for the sake of killing. I found this idea very intriguing, so I was delighted to learn that this book's protagonist was a witch -- and specifically, a hunter. Using an ability to detect vampiric auras, superhuman strength, and magic knives, she and her kin seek out vampires and kill them. As the book begins, Sarah and her family have recently moved to a small Massachusetts town, prompted by Sarah accidentally destroying part of her school in a recent hunt. (This reminds me of Riordian's Percy Jackson series, in which Jackson seems to switch schools every book after destroying part of each school he visits by defending himself against monsters. ) As soon as Sarah enters her first classroom, she immediately catches the attention of two teenage vampires.

Sarah's life and the lives of the two vampires -- Nissa and Christopher -- will be drawn into friendship and conflict as Sarah tries to reconcile the rules of her family, her moral imperative to kill vampires, and the confusion that is wrought when her family's leading target turns out to be connected to the two vampires Sarah meets. Atwater-Rhodes expands her universe in this book, adding in a "SingleEarth" organization -- a union of vampires, witches, and humans who want to live peacefully together. Compared to the two other books I've read by her, this one was "busy". I think this is so because there are more principle characters. In the Forests of the Night had two, Risika and Aubrey: their power conflict constituted the plot of the book. Demon in my View had three: Jessica Shade, Aubrey, and a teenage witch who tries to protect Jessica from her and Aubrey's increasing interest in one another. This book has four principle characters and three more who cannot be ignored. Consequently, there were times I had to pause and re-read parts of the book to keep track of what was happening. Regardless, the book was a quick and enjoyable read.

Demon in my View

Demon in my View
© 2000 Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
176 pages

During my high school years, while roaming through a bookstore, my eyes fell upon a book titled Tiger, Tiger. That sounded similar to William Blakes' "The Tygre", which is one of my favorite poems, so I picked it up. Tiger, Tiger was a vampire novel, the first I had ever read, and I found its story to be incredibly interesting and well-written. Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire let me down compared to it. Although I'm not usually much for horror, Rhodes is so readable that I decided try another book by her -- albiet many years later.

Demon in my View, like Tiger, Tiger, is named after a line in a poem -- although this is not one I recognize. This book is the story of Jessica, the teen author of Tiger, Tiger and another vampire book, both of which she has penned under the name of Ash Night. Although she is becoming a literacy success, she is an outcast at school and most everywhere else. Then one day a new student arrives and seems remarkably familiar to her: it's as if a character from her novel has become alive. She is drawn to him -- both out of personal attraction or attraction to the character he reminds her of.

The explaination for this is interesting, and I'll leave it hidden for those who would be interested in reading the book. Jessica is drawn into the world of her own creation while witches attempt to protect her from the vampires and her own self. I predicted the conclusion, but not with any confidence. What I enjoy most about Atwater-Rhodes' books is that her world is different, and somewhat more believable. Her vampires do not scorn the sun, nor do they sleep in coffins or fear Christian symbols. They can change their form at will, generally live apart from humans in their own towns, and hunt humans as prey. Like predators, they all maintain a territory and conflicts arise between powerful vampires. Their predator/prey mindset dominates them to the point that vampires see one another as either their inferiors or their superiors. Only one vampire has even hinted that he has an equal in the two books I've read. Her witches are likewise different: two of the three witches in this book are "good" people, and all three are concerned with protecting humans from the vampires who hunt them.

Demon in my View was a quick and entrancing read, and I wouldn't mind continuuing with the rest of her stand-alone books. The only issue I would have with this book is its length: 176 pages goes by fairly quickly.