In Immortal: Love Stories With Bite, edited by New York Times bestselling author of the House of Night series P.C. Cast, seven of today's most popular YA vampire and contemporary fantasy authors offer new short stories that prove that when you're immortal, true love really is forever. Rachel Caine (the Morganville Vampires series) revisits the setting of her popular series, where the vampires are in charge and love is risky. Cynthia Leitich Smith (Tantalize) gives us a love triangle between a vampire, a ghost and a human girl, in which none of them are who or what they seem. Claudia Gray (Evernight) takes us into the world of her Evernight series, in which a pre-Civil War courtesan-to-be is courted by a pale, fair-haired man whose attentions are too dangerous to spurn. Richelle Mead (the Vampire Academy series) brings us the tale of a young vampire on the run from the rest of her kind, and the human boy who provides the getaway car. Nancy Holder (the Wicked series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) immerses us in a post-apocalyptic New York where two best friends are forced to make a choice that may kill them both. Kristin Cast (the House of Night series) introduces us to a new kind of vampire: one with roots in Greek mythology, and the power to alter space and time. And Tanith Lee (Black Unicorn) shows us what happens when a bright young woman with some supernatural savvy encounters a misguided (but gorgeous) young vampire.*Note* This is the new edition that includes the Soul Screamers story "Binge" by Rachel Vincent.
Review: “Changed" by Nancy Holder (who I loved from her work on Buffy) pens a pulls no punches diatribe this time out. On just about every single page of this story (sometimes several times per page) the author reminds us that Eli, the unrequited love interest of the main character Jilly, is gay. Eli’s stereotyped Jewish parents throw very un-politically correct insults at him, whereas Jilly’s parents let him and his boyfriend Sean be together at her house. Jilly, a reformed ‘slut and drug addict’ is the character we’re supposed to identify with and root for, yet she has so little self worth that she doesn’t care that her former boyfriend Eli, who left her for the jerk Sean, consistently takes her love for granted and even taunts her, I think, by kissing and showering with her and then dragging her into almost certain death to get to Sean. There is a vampire takeover going on in the background, but its far from the focus of the story. I don’t know, maybe if the author had taken a less heavy handed approach with her message (a la Buffy) I wouldn’t have felt like I was being lectured for 30 pages on homosexuality and the bigotry of Jewish people.
Sexual Content: two 16 year olds take a shower together.
*Changed is part of the Immortal: Love Stories with Bite anthology
Disclosure: I received this book for review courtesy of BenBella Books
Product Details
Reading level: Young Adult - Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: BenBella Books (October 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1933771925
- ISBN-13: 978-1933771922
I am excited about this new anthology and cannot wait to read this particular viewpoint on young love and obsession by one person for someone who obviously is not exactly "inspired" to feel the same way... Curious to see how it is handled delicately for the age bracket intended for as I am much older than most of the age bracket of characters and the reading public it is being written about and for....
ReplyDeleteJackie B Central Texas
Thanks for the review. Im guessing this is one of the ones you have to read to really know how you feel about it.
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