Books Reviwed: Vampire Kisses (Books 1 & 2) by Ellen Schreiber

All over the world, since the darkest ages of mankind, there have been legends of beautiful life-sucking creatures, known to us as vampires. The first notable book about vampires is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As most of us know, Dracula is the story of an evil, blood thirsty vampire with no redeemable traits. Vampire stories continued in this fasion until Anne Rice showed up on the scene. Starting with Interview with the Vampire, she portrayed vampires as beautiful and humanlike. For the first time in literary history, vampires had a conscious; they loved, they despaired, they felt. Mrs. Rice opened the floodgates to the new era of vampires. Then came Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series. With Twilight, vampires became teenaged heartthrobs, and authors everywhere took notice.
In the books reviewed, the vampire in question is not Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, or even Twilight; the series in question is Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber. In this tale, a goth girl named Raven meets the goth vampire boy of her dreams and they have many adventures and misadventures together. I picked up this series because it was recommended to me by several people. Now, I don’t mean to be harsh, but Vampire Kisses seems to be an adolescent fantasy thought up by someone who knew next to nothing about vampires and even less about Goths.
Raven, the heroine, is almost unbearably perky, ending the majority of her sentences with exclamation marks. She is a ‘goth’ in all of her memories, even back to elementary school. In this series, ‘goth’ means “too much makeup wearing, death obsessed, clothing fixated teen.” It’s a travesty and every fan-fiction reader’s worst nightmare. The characters are flat, immature and fit together illogically.
There are some redeeming literary traits. The sensory language is very good and the humor is clever and fresh. Right now, there are probably several fans of this series out for my blood (haha). I’ll admit I’m very critical. If you Vampire Kisses fans enjoy the series, by all means read on! Maybe theseries impoves as it evolves. I’ve only read books 1-3, and I plan on finishing the series. I have every hope that the story will improve with time.

Book Reviewed: Skin Deep by Lois Ruby

Most teenagers know a little bit about the ‘darker’ social groups of the past and present; the kids who were ‘up to no good’ – hippies, punks, gangsters, goths, emos. One such group that has been all but erased from the minds of our society, are the skin heads.

Until recently, all I knew about skin heads would take only a sentence to say: “They shaved their heads and hated Jews.” Maybe society has consciously tried to erase these people from our history, but they did exist, and they were a tidal wave of power and hate.
Skin Deep, by Lois Ruby is a tale about a teenage boy caught up in that wave of hate. Ruby’s novel tells of the beliefs, dress code and lives of the boys and girls in the skin head movement. Her work is a testament to teenagers about the power of hate. The story is told from two points of view; one is of Dan, who becomes a skin, and the other is of Laurel, Dan’s girlfriend. Dan shows how hate and destruction can become the ‘only way out’, and Laurel’s viewpoint shows the other side of the coin; how watching a loved one fall can hurt. Skin Deep is a valuable and interesting novel with a message for everyone.