Vampire Kisses Review

Vampire Kisses By Ellen Schreiber (Book 1 In The Vampire Kisses Series)

16 years old Raven, a goth girl, who live in Dullsville has always wanted to be and liked vampires. When she was little and before she started kindergarden she used to see lots of monster movies with her parents and their home was a lot different. But then they got her little brother Billy and everything changed and Raven was send to kindergarden when she was 5, but she never fitted in. She even ones got a boy named Trevor Mitchell, to get mad at her so he could bit her, because she thought she would become a vamp. And when she was 11 and her family went to New Orleans she gor to meet Anne Rice. Dullsville is a really boring city with 8000 people in it, and the only real exiting place is and abandon masion on Benson Hill. Raven has looked and gone by the mansion hundreds of times, but she has only been inside it ones when she was 12. She tried to find a way into the house when a senoir on the school in town named Jack, should get in there and get something as a souvenir as a dare. Jack noticed Raven hidding, so he got his friends too leave him and talked to Raven and she told him that she had just found a place too come inside the house and they then went in together. He was terrified so she went around in the mansion and made sure that She sent a sign he was in there too his friends who was outside. After thet crawl out of the house again and Jack doesn´t have a souvenir, so Raven gives him her black necklace and he gives her a kiss on the cheek as thanks. The news spread that Jack had been in the house and the police begun to watch the mansion so Raven never returned.

Raven´s only real friend is Becky Miller, who she meet in third class, who is more unpopular than Raven. Today it is Raven´t sweet sixteen and she was hoping that when she got the present, in the kitchen it would be car keys, but no it was a pearl necklace. Then Becky comes and she tells Raven she someone with a teenage boy move into the abandon masion last night and Raven gets a present from her, one she actually like. At gym class that day Trevor - Raven´s all time "enemy" and Matt Wells (some of the hottest boys at school and most popular) is picking a fight with Raven and picking on Becky, so Raven tells Matt that they will be at his party to night. Later that night when they arrive at the party Becky quickly disappears and Raven bumbs into Trevor who instantly starts making out with her, so he is obviously drunk. Raven knows that Trevor is not intersted in her and that she is not with him, but why not have some fun? The go outside and make out by a tree, then she gets him to go out in the woods with him beside the house and she urges him on until they are at a private place. And he thinks they are going to have sex, but they are not. She gets him to take his clothe of so he is naked and she then runs back to the house with his clothe and gets Becky and when they get out of there she tells her what she did. When they are near the mansion suddenly a boy with jeand appear in the middel of the road and Becky hits him. But when Raven gets out there is no body, but blood on the hood. Raven looks around and find a bucket with paint and they cunclued that that must have been the red, but they can´t understand what he was during on the road painting.

The kids at the school quickly hears about Trevor and how he was found naked and he tells them he was with a cheerleader, but no one knows yet that Raven was involve but she is going to change that. So every day she hings a piece of his clothe, sometimes with a note on her locker and people quickly catches on and Raven gets kind of popular for the prank. And at the grand finale it is time for his underwear that is white so she writes a note too: WHITE IS FOR VIRGINS, RIGHT TREVOR?, because that was something he said too her and everyone at school sees and have been waiting to see it. And of course she gets called into Principal Smith office and get dete´ntion and the next day Trevor has painted in black on her locker: RAVEN IS A HORROR!, which for Raven is a compliment.
At halloween Raven decide to go another way and dress up in a costume, with colors like pink and white and regular make up. And her parents are going wild about it taking pictures and her brother says she looks good. At school that day Trevor has dressed up like a vampire to make a joke with Raven, but then he sees her costume and doesn´t do anything. Later when Becky and her is out trick or treating they finally come too the mansion and everyone else has got a look at the creepy butler so Raven wants too. But when they doesn´t open Becky goes home but Raven stays until the butler opens and when he says they are out of candy she gives him a piece of her candy: a spiderweb candy. She walks toward the street and then Trevor and Matt comes by. Trevor ets out of the car and kisses her, because he has never kissed a tennisgirl before. Then he takes some of her candy and throws almost all there is left on the street. He then takes spray paint out from his clothe and storms toward the mansion. Raven tells him no, but he doesn´t care and he says he is going to blame Raven for it. Then Raven takes her Racket and hits the spray can and hit Trevor too. Then suddenly the boy from the other night is there and Raven run towards Matt´s car and tells him to drive or she will call the police.

The next day Raven is walking at hall in school and Trever is a little in front of her, so she walks up too him and starts to make jokes, until she suddenly spot the butler from the mansion. She hauls Trevor and her out of the way and listen, when the butler tells a secretary that he has found the tennis racket and the secretary tells him that he can give it too her and she will make find the owner, but the butler tells her that when she has found the owner she can send the girl to the house and then he walks away with the racket. Raven and Trevor hears and she tells him that if she is turned to the police she will bring him down with him, before he walks away. At dinner Raven tells her dad that she don´t have his racket and he becomes mad because he has a tennis match the day after and he tells her that she need to get a job. Her father then gets her and interview with Armstrong Travel and Raven gets the job, but she cant wear black, it has to be mostly red or pink and other colors she can wear. The next day after school Raven locks herself on the bathroom and takes on her red outfit and lipstick. She then makes sure that nobody sees her and gets out of school, but outside is Trevor and he follow her a teases her until he guess that she has gotton a job, then Matt comes and they drive away. Raven has never been intersted in gossip, but now with the new family in the town she is estatic and then it is good that there are some people at work that knows something and every person in town seems to think they are vamps (eventhough they doesn´t believe in them, but Raven do). But while they are gossiping the butler from the mansion comes into the shop, and Raven hurries out the back but can still hear him. The Butler orders 2 thickets to Bucharest, Romania for mr and mrs Sterling to go for 3 months from november 1. The other employe also ask him about his family, but very discret and he tells them that he and the 17 year old boy, who has been home school´ed all his life, and who spends the mst of his time in his room, will be staying at home.

After work Raven calls Becky and tells her she has to help her get into the mansion. Through the gossip Raven now knows that on saturday nights the butler goes out for and hour and that the goth boy stays inside her room, so it shouldn´t be too hard to get in and find the truth. When Raven finally has earned enough money she quits the job and the day after he is really happy and even smills at Trevor and tells him she is finally free, but all of that changes when she gets to her locker and her dad tennis racket hangs on the locker and a note saying: GAME OVER! I WIN!, hangs there too. She screams and the teachers come runing and she tells them that Trevor is going to end up at the hospital soon. She then goes and finds Trevor at the football field with his jock friends and she tells him she knows why he did it all, because he is in love with her. Eventhough she knows he is not in love with her, she keeps using the argument so he can be humiliated in front of his friends. At last he lashes out at her, and she has the racket to protect herself and then the football practice start and Raven walks away. There is a lot of gossip about the family going on and Raven and Becky even sees the goth boy when they one night are in 7 eleven. Finaly the right saturday has arrive and Raven is planning to find out the answers on this family tonight. Mr and Mrs Sterling is now in Europe so it is perfect timing. She comes inside the mansion and look around, but she doesn´t get to get out before the butler comes, but when he disappears she hurries to the front door, but before she get out she feel a present of somebody and turn around and goth boy is there hand extended with her spidy ring she gave to the butler at halloween. She runs all she can to the gate and home only looking back ones to see him standing at the door looking at her.

Next day she meets with becky at the park and explains that a lot of signs of them being a vampire is there and that she only has to get the boy to bite her and then she will know. When she is almost home she sees the Sterlings mercedes turn away from her street and she runs home and a her annoying brother tells her that the butler came by with a letter, but the only way he will give the letter to her is if she stops calling him Nerd Boy. She promise him, but calls him it anyway when he gives her the letter because it is a habit, but says sorry. After in her room she open the letter and finds an invitation saying: "Mr. Alexander Sterling requests the company of Ms. Raven Madison at his home December 1 at 8:00 P.M. for dinner." she is definently going but doesn´t tell her parents who wouldn´t approve. But the 1 december her dad tells her that he is taking her mom to Vegas that night for their anniversary and that she will be baby-sitting Billy to the night after. That night and half and hour before she is suppose to be at the masion she tells Billy she is going out, but that Becky will come. He is about to call their parents to tell but when she begs him he doesn´t. Becky shows up and Raven borrows her car. She gets to the mansion and is greeted by the butler who leads her into a room. A little while after Alexander shows up with 5 wildflowers to her, for each time he has seen her, he says. they go into the diningroom where they talk and eat. She ask him what he want to be when he grows up, but he doesn´t really have and answer. But when he ask her she says a vampire. He also ask what she was doig in the house, but Raven is saved from answering the question as the butler come with desert. He also tells her that he uses his day sleeping and that he is from Romania. Later they go outside and holds hand while laying in the grass. She ask as a statement that he must have meet a lot of cool girl and he says that it is hard to find a girl who accepts you and that he now want something lasting, "a relationship he can finally sink his teeth into". Suddenly the clock is almost 12 and Raven has too go. Alexander ask her if she wants to come by again and she says yes and he kiss her on the cheek.

The next day Becky and Raven is out for ice cream and Trevor and Matt comes and Trevor instantly begins buggin Raven. He takes her ice cream from her a beggins eating it. Matt walks back to his car and Trevor ask her to the Snow Ball, eventhough she knows it is a joke and she is not intersted in him, but she is in Alexander. She tells him that she already has a date, so now it is just game on, so Raven has to go to the dance now with someone and she wants it to be Alexander. She wait 2 whole days for him to call and she is going crazy, because she is crazy about him. When he calls he ask her to his house after sundown the day after and she says yes. The next day she meets Alexander at his house gate and he takes her too the cemetery, where they go to Baroness Sterling's monument and introduces it as his grandma. They start to take out the food, but suddenly they hear a howl so they hide behind the monument. It is the caretaker of the cemetery and they run. She ask if she can see his room at his house but he says no so he walks her home. When they get too her house Alexander ask her too come to his house the day after and see a movie. He then leans in to kiss her, but her mother opens the door and he steps into the shadows and her mother tells her to get inside. the next night she goes too the mansion and when they sit and wacth the movie he suddenky kisses her and she kisses him, but suddenly she breaks a glass an he accidentally bited her neck and she faints. Later when he walks her home she ask him to the school ball and he says yes. The next day her and becky goes to the park and take some anti-vamp things with the, but suprise suprise she is not a vamp. But the next couple of days she realise she is in love and that she doesn´t need to be a vampire, she just want to be with Alexander. The day before the dance raven finds out she has to get tickets for it and she runs into Trevor in the hallway who starts buggin her about dating Alexander. Becky then tells her that she would rather want her and Alexander made a dance in his backyard, because Trevor can do thing but Raven tells her not to worry.

The day of the dance is finally here and when Raven goes down in the kitchen to wait for Alexander that night, she tells her mom and dad she is going to the dance with the love of her life. Her parents is not so happy when they hear it is Alexander Sterling, but they let her go and they meet Alexander when he arrives to pick her up. At the dance a lot of people are looking at them but they dont care and they dance. Everything is going great until Trevor comes up and starts buggin Raven and Alexander. He shows her his date who is Becky and as it turn out Becky has told Trevor everything, about her believing he is a vampire, about her breaking in etc. or else Trevor would du something to her dad. Trevor tells raven to tell Alexander about the thruth and why she threw herself at him etc. Trevor tells Alexander he started a rumor about his family being vampires and that Raven believes it more than anyone. Alexander pulls Raven outside where she tells him she snuck into his house to disprove the rumors. Alexander tells her that he thought she was different and that he thought he wasn´t part of a game and run away. She goes into the dance and trashes Trevor before running away. She runs to the masion but he wont open up. the next day she stays home from school and calls Alexander every hour and each time it is the butler, Jameson who answers. The next day she stays home too and at night she goes to the cemetery to talk to Alexander grandma. She also stay home on day 3 and 4. Then saturday morning her dad comes and tells her to take some of her moms tennis clothe on because they are going to play tennis. At the tennis club she meets Matt who tells her that it is cool that she stick up for all of them at school against Trevor eventhough she doesn´t like them. He tells her that after the way Trevor has used people he thinks some of them has changes his mind about him after the ball and that the ball was the wake-up call. Then he disappears and her dad introduces her to a young guy who Raven instantly remembers as Jack Patterson and Jack remembers her and Jack tells her dad they know each other from school. Jack has just moved back to the city to own his fathers store and Jack is Matt´s cousin.

At night Becky comes and tells her she has got to hurry because something is going on at the masion, they quickly drives down there and there are a lot of people from town in black clothe and when Raven gets closer she see a: welcome to the neighborhood sign. Ruby and Janice from the shop she worked in is there and she finds out that it was Matt and Jack Patterson´s idea to hold the party and the black clothe and Matt tells her that Alexander has been asking about her all night and that they got Becky to pick her up so she would show. She also sees her parents who are there too and then she goes inside to find Alexander. She looks everywere, but not in his room because she doesn´t wanna snoop. She goes downstairs again and Alexander is there suddenly, and he takes her too his room to show her something. It turn out Alexander is a painter and he has also painted a picture of her. They then goes out to the party again and suddenly Trevor shows up with his crazy talk and Matt and Raven´s dad sets him on place and Trevor disappears by telling that his father owns half the town so they better watch out. Later the party ends and Becky comes and says sorry to Raven again for the blckmailing Trevor did on her, eventhough Raven has already forgiven her. She say goodbye to Becky who gets a ride home from Matt and then so is Raven. Then she says goodbye to Alexander, but when she looks in the open door reflection on her way out he isn´t there, but he is right behind her. And vapire can´t be seen in mirrors. So she lies awake the whole night thinking. The next night she goes to the mansion, but looks more lonely that ever. She goes around to the window that is alway open and see a cart with her named written on it explaining: Because i love you. She can´t believe it, he left. She cries and suddenly a bat flyes to her, it looks at her and when she says Alexander´s name it flies away.

This book must be one of the worst vampire books I have ever read. "Vampire Kisses" is one of those series that leaves you wondering if the author wrote the thing as an elaborate parody. The plot and the characters were thin and it seems ridicules all the goth thing and The title and the whole Raven obsessing with vampire and all people in town thinking they are vampires and Alexander revealing he sleeps at day and his whole look kind of ruins the story because you already know he is going to turn out to be a vampire. So it was jst really bad
I didn´t have any idea what days it was and that was really bad. You know you didn´t know when you were finished how many days/month the story took and that rally annoyed me, because you for example didn´t know if when she quit her job if it was after a day/week/month and that is a really bad idea in a book not discriping the time. And i really hate the names: Gothic Guy, Gothic Mate, Gothic Prince and that is the only things she calls him in her mind and i want to puke hearing about it. And the whole thing with them sleeping in coffins, garlic, coukd change to bats was just traditional and illogical and totally to need to make the book more gothic and likable and that didn´t happen it just made the book more ridicules. And the only reason she falls for Alex is because she thinks he is a vampire, and then he will change her and they will live together forever. The only thing i really like about Raven is that she stands up for herself and get even. I wanted to give the series a change, and i never abandon a book, but i don´t think it is going to be any better. Definently the worst vamp story EVER!!


Grade: 4