Feast of Fools-Rachel Caine

Feast of Fools
Rachel Caine
NAL, Jun 2008, $5.99
ISBN: 9780451224637

An hour from her home, Claire Danvers attends Texas Prairie University in Morganville, Texas. She has learned a lot in her time away from her parents about life, death, and the undead. One of her roommates is a rookie vampire; while another is the son of a vampire killer; the third one is a more typical American warm blooded teen, a Goth. Claire works for the school’s Founder Amelie the vampiress and daughter of a royal ancient vampire. Humans and vampires live in peaceful coexistence in Morganville, but Claire knows not to venture out in the dark alone.

The harmony between the species ends when Amelie’s father Mr. Bishop arrives with his superiority complex that frightens everyone even his daughter who wonders why he came. He believes his race is homo superior to the sapiens worms who are just dessert. At a formal ball in his exalted honor, he begins his scheme to insure vampire supremacy with him at the top of the pyramid and humans in the ooze below the base. Mr. Bishop is prepared for all contingencies except for the fact that he underestimated two females, his daughter’s belief in equality and that warm blooded teenage nuisance Claire; to correct his mistake, he will enjoy dining on raw Claire.

Although there is a short recap of the three previous tales (see GLASS HOUSES, THE DEAD GIRLS’ DANCE and MIDNIGHT ALLEY), it behooves the young adult audience to read those tales first to get a deeper flavor of the life and undead in Morganville. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action from the onset as Mr. Bishop displays his presence by simply sitting down in a kitchen chair so majestically Claire thinks of a king on a throne. The tale never decelerates as Mr. Bishop begins his opening moves in a chess game while Amelie and Claire try to counter. Ending with a bit of a cliffhanger, fans of the series will appreciate FEAST OF FOOLS, but would have preferred a more substantial climax.

Harriet Klausner