Thirst No. 4 The Shadow of Death Review

Thirst No. 4 The Shadow of Death
by Christopher Pike
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Format: Owned Paperback
Midnight Minute: Sita/Alisa is back, with a new body and old enemies that she's determined to destroy.
From Goodreads:

 Alisa is a five-thousand-year-old vampire, stronger and more cunning than her adversaries. But now she's trapped in the body of a newborn vampire and at the mercy of a terrible thirst. Worst of all, she's facing enemies whose fierce desire for domination grows ever stronger.

The immortal race the Telar is threatening to release a virus to decimate humanity. But Alisa and her friends can't take down the Telar on their own, and they must turn to the mysterious organization the IIC for help. But the IIC has secrets of its own and may have ulterior motives.

With two rivals and no one to trust, Alisa must rely on her dark side to defeat them. But it could cost her life, or her soul...

Midnight Thoughts:

~ Sita has more lives that a damn cat- she will always come back.  If Pike ever truly decides to kill Sita off it's going to be like Elvis- lots of people will still believe she's out there somewhere.  And I'm sure lots of fanfiction would pop up with clever ways for Pike to bring her back, again.
~ Sita and her Scooby gang are up against a clock- they need to stop the Telar from releasing a devastating virus on the human race, but...
~ They also have to contend with the IIC and their deadly Array. Rock, meet hard place. 
~ Our last vampire, Sita, tries hard not to kill innocent people, but in a new body her thirst is overwhelming, and so she does some bad, bad things.  
~ Despite the fact that everyone that ever gets close to Sita dies, she's mellowed some and has an actual circle of friends.  Her friends are a source of both strength and weakness for Sita, because she will always be more vulnerable because of how strongly she cares for others.
~ I get that Matt is all upset over Teri, but I'll admit, I was hoping that he and Sita would hook up.  I'm shallow that way.
~ I admire how Christopher Pike never dumbs down his YA novels.  Mysticism, ESP, complicated weapons, ancient gods?  Pike brings it all, and introduces quite a few topics you just don't see in YA these days. 
~ The gang soon learns the Array isn't the weapon they must fear- it's The Cradle! Dun dun duuuun!
~ Uses for Vampire Blood #909: Decoding secret passages in journals.  Human blood does not work, I know this because like Sita, I added a few drops of my blood to a spray bottle and sprayed it on the pages of my Harry Potter books, in the hopes that J.K. Rowling had some secret message only for me.  But she doesn't. :(
~ In order to defeat the Telar, Sita wants to join up with the IIC, which quite frankly I thought she should have done in the last book (because then maybe she wouldn't have gone all cannibal like she did in Thirst No. 3). 
~ So, at some point Sita is dealing with the evil Telar, the corrupt IIC, and then she gets this freaky, creepy familiar.  Can this vamp ever catch a break?  She doesn't even take a day off to watch movies or veg around the house.  This makes me sad, what's the point of immortality if every day is full of People/Ancient Races/Aliens/Creepy Children you must kill in order to have a day off? Sita needs to start a vampire union...
~ At times, reading this book is like the scene out of Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman's character overdoses and gets a shot of pure adrenaline to the heart- the action is intense.  Pike balances this with down time, but Sita goes through A LOT in this fourth book.
~ Sita is an interesting character, for all of her strengths she has a lot of weaknesses, she can be stubborn, she can be impulsive.  It would have been easy to make her a Mary Sue because of all her abilities, but Sita is still very much human at heart. 
~ There is a decision that Sita makes in the end that left me cold, and I kept hoping it would turn out not to have happened, but I understand her reasoning even if I can't support it. 
~ I feel that there were some loose ends involving the police detective and his doctor wife that Sita tangles with early in the book, but again, there's a lot going on in this book- I'm glad I took notes! 
~ I am not in love with the cover model for Sita, she looks nothing like her. Not that I'm knocking the model's looks, since the only chance I have of making a book cover is if they ever use my picture for one of those People of Walmart books... The male model is tasty though.

Timeless Characters:

SO MANY CHARACTERS- I wish I'd had this list, because it's been awhile since I read book 3!
Sita- the last vampire, has a target on her back.
Seymour- Sita's very human, very brilliant writer friend.  I wish he'd get his own book!
Teri- Sita's great-great-a thousand times great-granddaughter and Olympian, her role is pretty small in this book.
Matt- Teri's boyfriend, the object of my lust, and half-vampire, half-Telar hottie. 
Shanti- telepath and part of Sita's gang.
Lisa French- teacher who is on the edges of Sita's gang, but the one who originally informed Sita of the IIC.
Paula- mother of John and possibly a modern day version of the Virgin Mary.
John- possibly a reincarnation of Christ or Krishna, plays a lot of video games.
Cynthia Brutran- leader of the IIC and all around bad ass woman.
The IIC- a billionaire company that uses psychics to make money, gain power, and kill.  
The Telar- ancient, immortal race who want to destroy humanity because they don't see them as worthy to walk the earth.  
Umara- Matt's Telar mom, and wife of Sita's lost love, Yaksha.
The Source- the high ranking jackwagons who run the Telar.
Professor Sharp- the man who mentored Cynthia and the other founders of IIC before his technology was stolen by them. 
Freddy- hippie, and ex-boyfriend of Cynthia, used to be part of IIC before things got so heavy, man.
Mary- Freddy's amazing partner who's got some big secrets.
Jolie- psychic and psycho daughter of Cynthia.
Lark- leader of the children that make up the Lens of The Cradle- sociopath of the highest order. 
Haru- leader of the Telar- related to Umara.
Yaksha- yeah, he's been dead awhile, but his memory looms large in this book.

Midnight Moment:

I found several scenes in the book midnight-able.  I enjoyed Professor Sharp's explanation of how the IIC began and the ESP trials, I found it fascinating. Also, I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100- what is it? 

When Sita comes back to life, she can't remember what happened to her in the afterlife, and I really enjoyed the chapter that dealt with what went down.  It was very Greek mythology-ish, and I loved it!

Stop The Clock:

Honestly, if you've already read the first 3 books, then you just need to keep going.  Sita is never boring! 


Christopher Pike— Website |Simon & Schuster's Page (his official site is still under construction)

Thirst No. 4 gets a Midnight Book Rating of: 

Challenges: A-Z challenge, Christopher Pike reading Challenge, TBR and Mt. TBR challenge. 

Possess Review

From Goodreads

Possess
by Gretchen McNeil
Genre: YA
Format: Kindle E-Book
Midnight Minute: A darkly humored YA novel meets The Exorcist.
From Goodreads:

 Rule #1: Do not show fear.
Rule #2: Do not show pity.
Rule #3: Do not engage.
Rule #4: Do not let your guard down.
Rule #5: They lie.

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.

Midnight Thoughts:

~When writing a book about the Catholic Church, exorcisms and the ability to speak to demons, you have to tread carefully between being offensive to Catholics and coming off as preachy on religion.  Somehow, with both humor and awesome characters, McNeil not only balances on that tightrope, she practically dances across it. 
~Bridget is friends with all boys and it's not a big deal.  The boys are all very different from each other, but Hector was by far my favorite, and here's why:

Hector avoided confrontation like it was a herpes flare-up.

Me too, Hector, me too.
~Matt is totally a teen age dream, and like his dad, he's a Good Guy.  Which I have to say is a wonderful change from the dark, tormented bad boys that plucky heroines usually banter with before completely giving up all their own kick ass qualities to angst over whether or not the bad boy loves them.
~Two gripes: one the dig that Bridget makes at Coldplay, but I will forgive it because there is both a reference to Buffy and Teen Beat in the book.
~Second gripe: Peter kind of goes off the tracks with his crazy behavior.  Bridget had a lot to deal with, true, but it was clear something was really wrong with her friend.
~One of these days, I wish the Hubs would take me on a date to a mental hospital (you know, without checking me in).  I know that Matt and Bridget's "date" might seem unconventional, but that's the magic of it.
~As funny as this book is, it's also creepy.  The cover alone freaked me out, so that's why I bought it for my Kindle.  I don't think I'd want that cover staring at me from my bookshelf...
~McNeil uses the word whackadoo to describe Father Santos.  I both love and have been called this name.
~Mrs. Pickleman's Tiny Princess Doll Shoppe- warning, it will give you nightmares! Also, almost 30% of the lines I highlighted on my Kindle come from the time spent inside the doll shop.  So yes, creepy, but also hilarious.
~This is a stand alone book.  I could totally take more of Bridget, but it's also nice to have a paranormal YA book that doesn't stretch out over 70 books.

Timeless Characters:

Bridget Lui- our snarky heroine.  Unlike a billion other YA heroines, Bridget is half Chinese-half Irish, all smart ass.  I loved her!
Monsignor  Renault- Bridget's  mentor in all things exorcism, only he calls it "banishment".
Father Santos- A warrior priest who (in my mind) looks like a young Philip Seymor Hoffman.  Kind of bumbling, yet suspicious at the same time.
Hector- Bridget's best friend, who is both overweight and homosexual.  He had a lot going on, would have liked to have seen more of him, because what I saw I loved.
Peter Kim- Also B's friends, only he's obsessed with her in a very unhealthy and obvious way.
Brad-  Another friend, he's a bit cooler than the rest of the group, and he's a jock.  Hector has major crush on him.
Matt Quinn- childhood friend, hottie and recent ex-boyfriend of  Mean Girl Alexa.  He wants to play white knight to Bridget's damsel in distress, but Bridget is pretty good at taking care of herself.
Alexa- she's a Mean Girl and is not happy when Matt starts hanging out with Bridget.
Sammy- Bridget's adorable little brother.

There's also some parents, a mental patient and a ghost cat, but you'll have to read the book yourself to find out.

Midnight Moment:

The best part was in the doll shop, surrounded by creepy, possessed dolls.  It's also where Bridget first gets an inkling of the bigger picture.

Stop The Clock:

Possess is a perfect October read!!  I may have only read two books so far by Gretchen McNeil, which may be because that is the number of books she has thus far published, but I am officially a fan for life.  The book is scary enough for those that love thrills, and humorous enough for those of you who don't like to be scared- just read with the lights on!

From the author's blog

Gretchen McNeil—  Blog |Seanchai

Possess gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

How has this not been made into a movie yet?!

 And don't forget that I'm co-hosting Bloggers Dressed in Blood all this month, stop by and participate and you could win a whole slew of creepy books and a Kindle Touch!  Check it out!