Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Author: Rachel Caine Website|Twitter
Published: 26 May 2008 (Allison & Busby)
Format: E-book
Pages: 223
Buy the paperback: Amazon|Waterstone's|Book Depository
Buy the e-book: Kindle|Kobo

Source: Borrowed from e-library

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Peer pressure sucks.
So do vampires - Morganville is a small town filled with unusual characters - when the sun goes down, the bad come out. 
In Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows - one that will spill out into the bright light of day.
For Claire Danvers, high school was hell, but college may be murder. 
It was bad enough that she got on the wrong side of Monica, the meanest of the school's mean girls, but now she's got three new roommates, who all have secrets of their own.
 
My Review:
This is one of those series I've been meaning to read for absolutely ages. It seems like I'm probably one of the last people on the planet to start the Morganville Vampires series! Glass Houses is the first book and introduces us to Claire, who's studying in the town of Morganville. When she decides to move out her school's dorm she meets some new people who enlighten her to the secret history of the town; that it's run by vampires.

It was really easy to get into this book because straight away we see what a crappy time of it Claire is having. I completely sympathised with her. She's being bullied pretty bad at school and is desperate to escape. I liked how different Glass Houses felt to other supernatural series I've read. Most of the action takes place outside of school which was interesting. And because Claire has such a rough time of it there, the only characters we really see her interact and bond with are the new people she meets when she moves out. 

The story really gets interesting when Claire moves into the Glass House where she meets Eve, Shane and Michael. And oh my god, I loved all of them! Eve was really nice and caring and I loved how she took Claire in and looked out for her. I thought Shane was really funny and Michael was completely intriguing. The relationship with the group and Claire was really sweet. They totally look out for her whilst at the same time she becomes somebody they can confide in. It felt like Claire was meant to be there the whole time.

The romance in Glass Houses took a bit of a backseat which was another thing I really liked. It wasn't shoved in your face but you could tell there was chemistry between certain characters. I also thought it was interesting that although it's a vampire novel, the focus was on the non-vampire characters. The vampires still played an important role but it gave you a chance to get to know Claire and her friends first.

I adored the world building in Glass Houses. Morganville is a town run by vampires, which is not something everyone knows, including Claire. Her ignorance to what was really happening made it work really well when she starts discovering what's going on as Eve, Michael and Shane explain it to her, because you learn everything as she does.

The book had a pretty gentle pace and as I got to the halfway point I was starting to wonder when something was going to happen. The second half of the book definitely picked up and all the build up was worth it. There was plenty of mystery and I liked waiting for certain things to be revealed. There was a real cliffhanger at the end too which left me dying to read the next book.

Glass Houses was a pleasantly surprising read that hooked me in and made me fall in love with the characters. The writing was punchy and funny and I really liked the unique feel to it. I may be a latecomer to the series but the exciting thing is that I know have a whole load more books to read after this one! And I can't wait to immerse myself into more of this world.

Rating: 4*
What to read next: The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine, book 2 in the Morganville Vampires series

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