Secret Vampire, Daughter of Darkness, and Enchantress
***SPOILERS***
My best friend
and I love reading. I've always been fantasy and she's always been romance. It
meant we could never talk about the same book. But then came the explosion of
fantasy romance in young adult fiction. (I dislike that teenagers between 13-16
are called ‘young adults’: the term should mean adults that are young, i.e.
18-20 maybe, rather than teenagers that aren’t even adults.) My bestie
investigated the Night World by L. J. Smith after having read The Vampire
Diaries and knew it was a series we could share.
The
Night World is an organisation of vampires, witches and shapeshifters that
inhabit the human world in secret. For the protection of the Night World, a
Night Person must neither tell humans about the Night World nor fall in love
with a human. All nine books in this series explore what happens when both these
rules are broken.
Volume
One is absolutely hilarious. It works really well to grip readers to the
series. Though, unfortunately L. J. Smith used quotation marks (‘x’) rather
than speech marks (“x”) for speech.
Secret
Vampire (story I)
This story
revolves around the best friends (and later soul mates) of teenagers Poppy and
James. Poppy gets cancer who
decides she needs ‘Poppytive [positive] thinking’ which I find cute. James is,
Poppy finds out, a lamia (born vampires that reproduce and age like humans
until they decide to stop aging). James makes Poppy a vampire (stuck to that
age and unable to reproduce) to cure her of cancer.
James
even says he has broken both Night World rules. Hallelujah, he finally said he
loved her. Sorta. But then we find out Poppy is a lost witch (someone who is
unaware of their witchy heritage) so James didn’t break the rules. But the fact
that James was willing to break both rules (each of which individually carry
the penalty of death) was a clear statement of affection.
Ash
Redfern (Redferns being the vampire royalty), James’ cousin, hijacks Poppy and
takes her to Las Vegas. Poppy meets Thea Harman (Harmans being the witch
royalty). Ash mentions that vampires are named after natural things. Poppy says
Maddy, James’ mum, isn’t a natural thing but Ash says it’s short for ‘Madder.’
But how can it be short if it’s the same length? When James locates Poppy,
James says he wants to break one of Ash’s bones for each tear Ash made Poppy
cry. Cute.
Vampire
blood can’t carry oxygen, hence vampires feed of human and animal blood to get
oxygen-carrying blood which they need (like humans/animals) to live. This is a
really clever explanation as to why something as large as a vampire needs blood
but also why vampires can (and do) eat normal food. One presumes that human
blood is preferred because it’s the closest match a vampire can get.
One
section in particular got to me: ‘Pain. Poppy was brave, but facing constant
pain would crush anyone.’ The accuracy in this is almost painful.
Daughters
of Darkness (story II)
Mary-Lynette
(human) is friends with Opal who’s looking forward to her three nieces coming
to visit. When Mary-Lynette goes to visit Opal, she meets the nieces (Redfern
sisters Rowan, Kestral and Jade), learns they are vampires and discovers Opal
has died. ML searches for the killer, Mark (ML’s brother) and Jade discover
they are soul mates, and Ash Redfern comes to bring her sisters back to the
vampire exclave.
ML,
who knows not only that Ash is a vampire and as such is very strong but also
knows exactly how cruelly Ash has played with humans like toys in the past,
doesn’t hesitate to kick Ash in the shins. A lot. The fact that the three
sisters are confused that Ash does nothing back really adds to the hilarity. The
sisters giving the pair space afterwards was also great, to the point where Ash
and ML were standing on the porch and the others knocked to get permission to
get out.
They
then discover that ML and Ash are soul mates. Jade: “Poor Ash.” Ash: “Why not ‘poor
Ash’?” Jade: *repeats previous statement*. This book was quite easily the
funniest in the Night World series. Though there were serious moments: ML sends
Ash off on his way to repent for his bad actions. That and ML watches as her
childhood friend Jeremy (a werewolf) burn alive after they discovered he killed
Aunt Opal.
Enchantress
(story III)
A STORY
ABOUT WITCHES. AT. LAST.
We
see how magical spells/items are created and used and how a witch can
communicate with animals. We meet Grandma Harman, an old lady and fantastic,
funny character who is my favourite character in the Night World series. She’s
the Crone (and thus leader) of the Inner Circle, a group of nine witches that
lead all witches. She has blonde hair and violet eyes, features deemed as ‘Harman
traits’ with all Harmans having these except Thea and Blaise.
This
one returns to Thea (who was met briefly in ‘Secret Vampire’) who is at school
with her cousin Blaise. Blaise (as a member of Circle Midnight) is a witch that
likes to play with humans and decides to play with Eric because Thea was
getting too close to him. Thea is in Circle Twilight which is more respectful
and kind towards humans. Blaise only increased her efforts when she learnt that
Thea and Eric were soul mates. In order to protect Eric from Blaise, Thea
releases a ghost which causes havoc, killing people.
Feminism was a continual humorous
feature in this one. Rosamund, Eric’s sister, said she and her guinea pig were
tired of living under the patriarchy and that ‘Feminism is the radical notion
that women are people.’ At one point, after Eric has confessed he thinks Thea
will disappear if he blinks, Eric and Thea were about to kiss, but being so
happy herself and knowing Rosamund was so upset with the discrimination in the
world, Thea draws away to go make Rosamund happy (drawing a groan from Eric).
‘Bitch’ is used interestingly here.
Blaise revels in how fun it is to be a bitch (so ‘bitch’ being a compliment). Whereas,
when Thea sends the ghost back, she shouts ‘Go speedily, conveniently and
without delay, you bitch!’ (so ‘bitch’ being an insult). This feeds into the
feminism theme, because some feminists see ‘bitch’ as derogatory but others
take pride in a feminine skillset.
Thea had to enlist Eric’s help to
send back the ghost (hence telling him about the Night World). The Inner Circle
(including Aradia, who’s blind and the Maiden of all Witches) discovers this
and that the pair are soul mates, this breaks Night World law, yet by banishing
the ghost they saved lives (upholding a witch law). Old Bob of the Inner Circle
says obeying one law doesn’t validate breaking another. Grandma Harman
dismisses Old Bob’s thoughts because she changed his nappies and wouldn’t let ‘bloodthirsty
vampires dictate to’ her. So funny.
The
solution to this issue was cleverly found and then technically avoided with the
help of Aradia and Blaise. Aradia sends Thea and Eric to Circle Daybreak, a
Circle for all creatures, Night World and human, that seeks for peaceful
coexistence. It’s named after the extinct Circle Daybreak which ended after the
persecution of witches (which event also ended the practice of witches having
familiars, much to Thea’s disappointment).
Reviews: Night
World (L. J. Smith)
Volume Two
Volume
Three 1/2
Volume
Three 2/2
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