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juushikaTitle: The Silver Kiss
Author: Annette Curtis Klause
Published: New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990
Page Count: 198
Total Page Count: 41,508
Text Number: 120
Read For: my own enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Zoe is a seventeen year old whose mother is dying of cancer. Simon is a three hundred year old vampire whose mother was murdered. When Simon sees Zoe he feels drawn to her and breaks his own rule about making personal contact with mortals. United by undeniable attraction and their experiences with death, they grow closer, and Zoe pledges to help Simon revenge his mother's murder, all the while coming to terms with her mother's impending death. The book has a very definite message (coping with trauma/death) expressed in a very unusual way (vampires, obviously), and the unique setting does make the message more effective. However, the writing is clunky, with too much character internalization, and it slows the plot down; Simon's revenge is well-timed and dramatic, but Zoe's maturations are unrealistically swift and complete. On the whole, this is a book has good intentions, but which isn't particularly successful at fulfilling them. Although this book may better please a young adult reader, I was disappointed by it and I don't recommend it.
I should say outright that I really didn't enjoy Blood and Chocolate, also by Klause, when I reread it just recently. I picked up Silver Kiss because it remains an urban fantasy classic and I hadn't read it, and I was hoping that perhaps my problems with Klause's writing were restricted to just one book. I don't know if it's Klause's writing or my personal taste, but this book was unfortunately not much better, and I was equally disappointed by it. Although the characters are improved, the writing style is immature and greatly slows down the story considerably. Klause explains, sometimes in excruciating detail, what the characters perceive, feel, and intend. These internalizations sometimes overlap when the narrative passes between the chapters dedicated alternately to Zoe and Simon, they slow down the dialog and the plot, and they show rather than tell, which likewise weakens the book. The writing style is the book's biggest weakness. It is unpolished, faulted, and could use editing.
The characters, on the other hand, are realistically conceived and the reader can easily identify with them. Zoe is an intelligent and sensitive teenager, but she is still immature, often feels isolated, and jumps to conclusions. Simon is somewhat more cliche, both in his inhuman power and cocky attitude, as well as his lifelong angst, but these aspects are easily to forgive as he is, after all, a vampire. The characters and their interactions with each other, and Zoe's interactions with her parents and friends, are realistically adolescent and both written for and appropriate to a young adult audience. The disappointment comes in the character's journeys and growth. However commendable their journeys (on the part of the characters for undergoing them, and the on the part of Klause for conceiving them), and they are commendable, their results are too swift and too complete. This is done to make the book shorter and to make it feel more finished, but as a result, the character growth is exaggerated and unrealistic, and undermines both the journeys and the message that Klause attempts to convey. This is a pity: the messages would be strong if the proof of them were more convincing.
This is a book with a promising premise and themes, and it holds a lot of potential, but the writing destroys both. Klause was apparently not able to make this the book that it could have been—despite her characters and her message, her writing skills simply don't hold up. The writing is laughably bad at times, and disappointing throughout, making this a hard book to enjoy and truly appreciate. I do recommend it tentatively to a young adult reader, because the horror/urban fantasy elements make it accessible and the messages are worthwhile, but to an adult reader and indeed to a discerning reader of any age, this book is a disappointment. Klause means so well, but the book fails to live up to its potential.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Annette Curtis Klause
Published: New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990
Page Count: 198
Total Page Count: 41,508
Text Number: 120
Read For: my own enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Zoe is a seventeen year old whose mother is dying of cancer. Simon is a three hundred year old vampire whose mother was murdered. When Simon sees Zoe he feels drawn to her and breaks his own rule about making personal contact with mortals. United by undeniable attraction and their experiences with death, they grow closer, and Zoe pledges to help Simon revenge his mother's murder, all the while coming to terms with her mother's impending death. The book has a very definite message (coping with trauma/death) expressed in a very unusual way (vampires, obviously), and the unique setting does make the message more effective. However, the writing is clunky, with too much character internalization, and it slows the plot down; Simon's revenge is well-timed and dramatic, but Zoe's maturations are unrealistically swift and complete. On the whole, this is a book has good intentions, but which isn't particularly successful at fulfilling them. Although this book may better please a young adult reader, I was disappointed by it and I don't recommend it.
I should say outright that I really didn't enjoy Blood and Chocolate, also by Klause, when I reread it just recently. I picked up Silver Kiss because it remains an urban fantasy classic and I hadn't read it, and I was hoping that perhaps my problems with Klause's writing were restricted to just one book. I don't know if it's Klause's writing or my personal taste, but this book was unfortunately not much better, and I was equally disappointed by it. Although the characters are improved, the writing style is immature and greatly slows down the story considerably. Klause explains, sometimes in excruciating detail, what the characters perceive, feel, and intend. These internalizations sometimes overlap when the narrative passes between the chapters dedicated alternately to Zoe and Simon, they slow down the dialog and the plot, and they show rather than tell, which likewise weakens the book. The writing style is the book's biggest weakness. It is unpolished, faulted, and could use editing.
The characters, on the other hand, are realistically conceived and the reader can easily identify with them. Zoe is an intelligent and sensitive teenager, but she is still immature, often feels isolated, and jumps to conclusions. Simon is somewhat more cliche, both in his inhuman power and cocky attitude, as well as his lifelong angst, but these aspects are easily to forgive as he is, after all, a vampire. The characters and their interactions with each other, and Zoe's interactions with her parents and friends, are realistically adolescent and both written for and appropriate to a young adult audience. The disappointment comes in the character's journeys and growth. However commendable their journeys (on the part of the characters for undergoing them, and the on the part of Klause for conceiving them), and they are commendable, their results are too swift and too complete. This is done to make the book shorter and to make it feel more finished, but as a result, the character growth is exaggerated and unrealistic, and undermines both the journeys and the message that Klause attempts to convey. This is a pity: the messages would be strong if the proof of them were more convincing.
This is a book with a promising premise and themes, and it holds a lot of potential, but the writing destroys both. Klause was apparently not able to make this the book that it could have been—despite her characters and her message, her writing skills simply don't hold up. The writing is laughably bad at times, and disappointing throughout, making this a hard book to enjoy and truly appreciate. I do recommend it tentatively to a young adult reader, because the horror/urban fantasy elements make it accessible and the messages are worthwhile, but to an adult reader and indeed to a discerning reader of any age, this book is a disappointment. Klause means so well, but the book fails to live up to its potential.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
