Read in October 2008
Warning: Spoilers
What a wonderful book to wrap up the Halloween season!
Ana is a 17th century vampire from Transylvania, transplanted to eastern Iowa by the strangest and saddest of circumstances. She is hunted by a zealous priest who paralyzes her with his crucifix and drives a wooden stake through her heart. Fast forward 300+ years to an automobile accident involving an armored car that was transporting her remains to a museum exhibit. The accident dislodges the stake and Ana find herself restored to a fiery confusion, which she escapes in her bat form.
Joshua is a volunteer firefighter in Merriweather, Iowa who finds Ana residing in an abandoned derelict farm-house a mile or so outside town. He is concerned with her pallid and thin appearance and offers her shelter at his home which he shares with his mother and sister. She declines his offer but does agree to do some sewing and mending for a small bit of income.
Over the next week, Joshua and Ana grow closer. But strange events are occurring in the area and the media is overplaying the vampire element from the armored car accident (the exhibit was of Eastern European artifacts and remains of the supposed Undead). It doesn’t help things that stray animals are being found dead, completely bloodless and sporting bite marks on their necks.
Itchy is the local bad boy small-time drug dealer who runs afoul of Ana the night of her first foray into town. Since she got the better of him, he’s bound and determined to do her in and everyone else in town who laughs at him or thinks him stupid. Itchy is dangerous and smarter than he lets on, although not by much.
I really enjoyed this short novel. It was a quick read and I really connected with the two main characters – Ana and Joshua. For all the strange stories I could have read this Halloween season, this one warmed my heart and restored my faith in great story telling.
GR Status Updates:
| 10/29/2008 | page 1 | 0.68% | “I won’t actually start reading this until tomorrow.” | |
| 10/30/2008 | page 13 | 8.78% | “Second page of Chapter 2. Quite a switch from Chapter 1.” | |
| 10/30/2008 | page 26 | 17.57% | “Starting chapter 4. Intriguing story so far.” | |
| 10/30/2008 | page 57 | 38.51% | “Starting chapter 8. Oh, poor Ana. Chapter 7 was the first hint and flashback to her past since our initial introduction to her character.” | |
| 10/30/2008 | page 84 | 56.76% | “Starting chapter 12. Joshua just asked Ana out on a date to ladies night at the roller rink.” | |
| 10/31/2008 | page 105 | 70.95% | “Starting chapter 15. Third animal victim presented as surprise evidence at Itchy’s preliminary hearing.” | |
| 10/31/2008 | page 124 | 83.78% | “Almost finished with Chapter 17 and only about 25 pages left to finish the book. Very good so far.” | |
| 10/31/2008 | page 148 | 100.0% | “Finished! And what a wonderful tale it was!” |
