Hourglass

Claudia Gray

An Evernight novel

HarperCollins (2010)

ISBN: 978-0-7322-8969-0

Reviewed by Tehani Wessely

After the destruction of Evernight Academy, born-vampire Bianca has taken refuge with boyfriend Lucas and the Black Cross. But Bianca’s nature is becoming harder to ignore, and when the vampire hunters find out her secret, nowhere is safe. Pursued by vampires on one side and hounded by Black Cross on the other, Bianca and Lucas try to live a semi-normal life together, until Charity, insane and obsessed, uncovers them. Nowhere is safe, and suddenly Bianca’s unusual physiology is causing even more problems. Can she and Lucas ever be together?

I missed book two of this series, but managed to pick up the missing pieces fairly easily. I remember loving Evernight, particularly for the very clever setup of the story; however, while the author is still trying to keep the story entertaining in Hourglass, with world-building that sets it apart from most of the other teen paranormals, for me, it dragged a little. Gray seemed to be trying too hard to cram a whole heap of action into the story, which felt forced – I would have preferred a little less stuff happening for a cleaner, more committed story.

This series is an entertaining read, and is one of the better additions to the genre, but I hope the author tightens up her storytelling in the next instalment.

Evernight

Claudia Gray

HarperTeen (2009)

ISBN: 978-0061284441

Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts, Syndicated May 2010

This one’s been on my shelf a while. I don’t remember why I chose it originally except that it sounded good, and by the time it arrived in the post I went ‘ugh vampire boarding school, what was I thinking’ and chucked it on the shelf. I got it out again on a whim yesterday, read the first chapter and went ‘ugh, rebellious girl who thinks she’s plain, gorgeous guy, bland flirting, spooky hints surely I’m not going to bother reading this one…’

And then I kept reading.

Despite the utterly drippy first chapter, I was sucked into the story of Evernight, a boarding school full of suspiciously beautiful, ethereal and sophisticated students. Bianca is one of a small minority of far less elegant and more, well, human kids at the school and despite her parents being on the faculty, she really doesn’t fit in.