Publisher: Hodder’s Children’s Books
First Published in US & UK 1994
Alisa Perne is the last vampire. Beautiful and brilliant, for five thousand years she has hunted alone, living among humans, living off humans. But somebody knows her secret - and they want her dead...
Alisa is the last vampire and has a voice like honey. Even reading her story I felt myself sucked in and reluctant to put the book down at all. Almost effortlessly Christopher Pike has created an anti-hero that you root for. From the opening pages we follow Alisa as she kills a detective brutally for simply knowing too much about her finances and realises someone is tracking her. She never apologies for the violence she does – simply accepts it as part of her nature. Yet she does have feelings and passions – the way she quickly takes to Seymor and Ray demonstrates that she isn’t above friendship and love. At the same time she views humanity from a distance – five thousand years is a long time to distant yourself from your beginnings.
Less than two hundred pages but you get your money’s worth with romance, action, history and different take on the vampire legend – here coming from India. I gobbled it up and will be starting on the second book Black Blood as soon as possible. It was a melodic read with the words flowing off the page to create a unique twist on vampires. Even more impressive it was written long before the current Twilight fascination.
Recommended for fans of Vampire Academy and Isobelle Carmody. 9 out of 10.
The Book Vixen's YA of the 80s and 90s Reading Challenge Book 6/12
That looks good, but if I was reading this and my mother saw the cover, she'd have a fit! Oh that cover is too good. :)
ReplyDelete@Melissa (Books and Things): haha lol my mother also. She be like "WHAT is that??"!
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