In the Forest of The Night

Rhodes, Amelia Atwater. In the Forests of the Night. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999

Annotation: In the 18th century a 17 year old girl has been transformed against her will into a vampire, in the process she gets into a bitter dispute with another male vampire that lasts 300 years.


Nomination for Rejection: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes writes an average vampire tale for young adult readers. She creates a 17 year old girl from the 18th century who is transformed into a vampire against her will. While this book is fast paced and action packed, it has a vague plot. It is written in large font with lots of white space and forced transitions. I found the characters to be one dimensional and not developed enough. The author has a good sense of drama and uses elegant phrasing. She writes mostly in first person with a suspenseful tone. The setting shifts between 18th century and 20th century and is mostly organized around the forest and back alleys. The author does a good job of changing between the centuries listed making the story line play out very well. The main character Riska or Rachel is not very developed for being three hundred years old. I would think by now she should know more about herself and her nemesis. I never really got to know the characters and ended up not caring about them or what happened to them. I found the author to use more description than dialogue throughout the text. The most inspiring item about this book is that the author was fourteen years old when she wrote it. This will resonate with inspiring young adult writers. As this author matures, she should develop the skills worthy of an award winning author.

Genre: Supernatural/Horror/Vampire Fiction