The Dead Girls' Dance (The Morganville Vampires #2)

The Dead Girls’ Dance picks up exactly where Glass Houses ended, which is great since that was some cliffhanger! We immediately learn more about the hilariously, sweet, Shane, who isn’t so hilarious or sweet with his crazy, vampire-hunting, biker, father around. In fact, his father causes a whole lot of trouble in his arrival and it’s up to Claire to fix it.

“You know, I thought you were a mousy little thing when I first saw you, Claire, but you’re not, are you?” “Even a mouse bites.”

I think those above quotes perfectly describe Claire in this book. She’s in even more trouble than she was in the previous book, and so are her roommates. She’s scared, but she’s determined to not let the vampires control her life. She still goes to her classes despite the threats she’s sure to encounter the moment she steps out the front door. When her roommates aren’t able to go out and face the night to try to save themselves, Claire takes it upon herself. Thankfully, she uses her brains and has a cop escort her, but sometimes curiosity gets the best of her and she makes some incredibly rash and stupid decisions.

We get to see a lot more of the vampire world that has taken over Morganville, and it’s even more corrupt than at first site. It also becomes less clear who the bad guys are: humans or the vampires? There appears to be monsters on both sides and Claire must face them both. She must also decide who to trust and who can really protect her and her friends.

This was a fast paced addition to the series, and thankfully it didn’t end on too big of a cliffhanger. I’m still eager to know what comes next for Claire, Shane, Eve, and Michael though!

Reader reviewed by Lexie

The second book literally picks up right where the first book ended. So I'll say it now--spoilers for the first book.

The
difficulties that Claire and co face in this book are definitely more
personal then the first book. Not just that its Shane's dad making
trouble, but also Eve's younger brother comes back (causing her
emotional problems aplenty), Shane's dad in general (causing emotional
AND physical problems), Michael has to make a choice he knows will
alienate his friends and Claire has to save her arch-enemy's life
(after that same arch-enemy AGAIN tries to kill her). I won't even
mention the Dance the title refers too because that's just better left
read then said.

Whereas the first one took time to set the scene
and lay out the players, the second book tosses you in head first. You
can't read this as a standalone or out of order. Events from the first
book are glossed over because its generally acknowledged by the
characters that they were there so why repeat it? Relationship
connections are acknowledged, but the pre-development isn't mentioned.
Claire is with Shane, Michael is with Eve, Monica killed Shane's sister
out of spite and wants Claire dead, Brandon screwed up Eve's life (in
so many ways) and Michael is half-ghost because Oliver tried to turn
him.

Because of a few factors time is a little bit wonky to
think about in terms of the book. It obviously passes, but because so
much happens in five or six days that pass in the book I finished
feeling like I had just watched a season of 24 (you know where in the
span of 24 hours the white house is bombed, a nuclear explosion happens
in America, terrorists are captured, new terrorists appear, a president
is assassinated, his vice-president is put into a coma and CTU is taken
over at least once?). If I think about it I think less then three
months have passed total for the series.

If you take out the life or death factor I could only hope so much happens to me in a three month span as it does for Claire.

I'm
still something of a Claire/Michael person honestly. She tells him
things she doesn't tell Eve or Shane (or she tells him first), he
trusts her in a way that he doesn't trust Eve or Shane and the two of
them just seem to click. I feel bad though because Eve deserves
happiness and obviously Michael gives her that. Shane/Claire I'm sold
on only in that he's pretty much the first guy that she's been
romantically interested or involved with so emotions run high. I don't
doubt that she cares about him and wants to be with him, I just doubt
that its a long term thing.

((reprinted here with the author's permission))