Ruined by Paula Morris

Half of this book is largely entertaining, though the elements are better than the actual book. Then it hits the halfway mark, and it’s all downhill.

Rebecca lives in New York with her father but is sent to live in New Orleans with an aunt a few times removed when her father has to go to China on an extended business trip. There, she learns her new school has its own class system based on ancient Rome (no, I don’t really understand how that came about myself). She develops a habit of eavesdropping on the most elite clique in the graveyard, and finds a new BFF in the form of Lissette, a young black woman who died in 1853. It’s not precisely good and never manages the spooky atmosphere it’s going for, but it’s entertaining, and parts of it read like someone was very fond of The Secret Circle at some point..

Then the second half came along and we learned about the curse surrounding Lissette’s death, and the focus shifted drastically away from Lissette and Rebecca’s friendship with Lissette to Rebecca moping again and worrying about the token love interest, and then it turned epically faily.

( spoilers )

Also, there’s this really weird scene early on where Rebecca pretends her grandmother was Hispanic so that some students she suspects are racist won’t want to talk to her. Barring the total ignorance regarding how racism works (especially among teens), this seems to be Morris’s “racism is bad!” moment, and the main plot does attempt to address racism to a degree (not very well, but I do believe there was an attempt). But seriously, what? Like, I can see what Morris was going for, but I can’t begin to see how she came up with that.

I think I’ll just read an L.J. Smith series now.

(no subject)

No one told me that L. J. Smith's The Forbidden Game series is an Abducted Bride plot.  You're all fired.  Except for those who don't read L. J. Smith.  You are not fired.

That said, is it too much to hope that Jenny's boyfriend dies?  Every time he's even mentioned, I keep wondering if this is what Elena and Matt in Vampire Diaries (TV series-don't know if there even is a Matt in the books) were like when they were dating?  And then I'm 10 times happier she dumped him pre-series.  (TFG actually uses almost some of the exact same lines for Jenny/Tom as TVD does for Elena/Matt, so I may have unjustly hated Tom before he even showed up, though his douchery in his first scene made me feel better about it.)

Also, I just learned that Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire series has been reprinted.  That is the only vampire fiction I think I ever liked before Buffy, and it's probably a large part of why I haven't liked much of it since.

ETA: Pike also wrote Remember Me!  That's one of those books I loved as a teen but couldn't remember who the author was.  I'm pretty sure I also liked the sequels at the time, but from what I remember, that may be different now.  Someone may want to find me a new obsession besides revisiting 90s gothic YA fiction.  Last year, it was Kaori Yuki and Clamp.

ETA 2: TVD TV spoilers in comments of LJ version of post.