Dark Angel, The Chosen, and Soulmate
***SPOILERS***
This volume
wasn’t as funny as the first. However, each story here deals with very strong
emotions throughout so naturally there would have to be fewer funny situations.
It set the scene ready for Volume Three, being the perfect intermediary between
the introduction in the first volume and the conclusion in the last volume.
Dark
Angel (story IV)
Gillian
Lennox is a teenager who desires to be popular (‘Is it cool or uncool to rescue
someone?’) and loved because she feels like that is the way she can achieve
amazing, wonderful things. Her mother is an alcoholic who hallucinates. After
dying (and going through the ‘tunnel’) but then being brought back by a figure
who calls himself ‘Angel’, Gillian not only gains popularity but also the
skills of her lost witch heritage (which is why Gillian’s mum has visions).
At one point, someone writes this
note to Gillian: ‘R U new? What’s yr #’ Writing in electronic mode? Great. (Written
mode is formal and visual [i.e. one reads it], spoken mode is casual and heard,
and electronic mode is casual and visual.) But if someone writes in this short
manner, there is no way they would have included the apostrophe of possession
in ‘ What’s ’!
It turns out that David (Angel’s
real name) is also a lost witch, being Gillian’s cousins. Both having purple
eyes, they are lost Harmans (witch royalty). Apart from the shared eye-colour
(reason one), there were hints throughout the story which showed Gillian and
Angel are relatives. Reason two: Gillian notes that only friends and family greet
people at the end of the tunnel. Reason three: Gillian felt unconditional love
for David straight away (when unconditional love is reserved mainly for
family).
The
Chosen (story V)
Rashel, a
toddler, witnesses a vampire kill her mother and her best friend Timmy. As a
teenager, Rashel is a vampire. But then she discovers her soul mate is Quinn, a
really evil made vampire (as seen briefly in story II) who is heir to Hunter
Redfern (the de facto vampire leader). Rashel also goes to a vampire island exclave
to save some girls that have been taken for a vampire blood feast. Whilst on
the island, Rashel finds out that non-other than Hunter Redfern was the vampire
from her toddlehood and that Timmy has become a vampire.
When Rashel and Timmy are seen
playing at the start, Rashel says how Timmy was ‘a whole mouth younger than she
was.’ This is spot on: at that age, even being a day older than someone else
makes all the difference.
Near the end, Quinn helps Rashel
confront the vampires. Quinn tries to intimidate them by asking them if Hunter
would be pleased with their blood feast. Someone behind Quinn asks if he gets a
vote and, surprise, surprise, it is Hunter.
One vampire (named Ivan) is referred
to as ‘Ivan the Terrible’ (in reference to a notorious Russian leader) due to
his face and stature. Later, Ivan is knocked-out and is then referred to as
‘Ivan the Unconscious’ which I found amusing.
Soulmate
(story VI)
The plot in
this was very detailed and was really fascinating to watch it unfold.
Human
Hannah Snow has hypnosis and discovers she’s had many previous lives. When
Hannah is contacted by her soul mate Thierry (a vampire), she learns that she
is an old soul along with her best friend Ket who has existed in all of Hannah’s
lives. Her first existence (Hana of the Three Rivers who bestie was worried
because a tribe member wanted to ‘mate’ her) was back in the stone ages. This
was at the same time as Hecate Witch Queen and her daughters Hellewise
Hearthwoman (ancestress of the Harmans) and Maya Dragonslayer (ancestress of
the Redferns).
Maya turned herself into the first
vampire. She transformed her lover Thierry into the first made vampire. Maya
gave birth to Red Fern, the first lamia (born vampire). She wanted Thierry to
live with her but knowing Hannah was Thierry’s soul mate, Thierry refused. In
each of Hannah’s next lives, Maya tries to find Hannah to kill her whereas
Thierry tries to find Hannah to save her.
In this life, Hannah is rescued by
Thierry who leads Circle Daybreak. Hannah goes to Thierry’s house which is very
opulent, deciding she could live that lifestyle ‘If forced.’ That made me
chuckle. Also she asks if she’s still in danger and Lupe (a half-werewolf) she
Maya wants to kill Hannah and is very good at killing so of course Hannah’s
still in danger. That really made me smile.
However,
Maya steals Hannah and reveals how to break the cycle: Maya would turn Hannah
into a vampire, kill her as a vampire and then gloat that vampires can’t be
reborn. Thierry asks why Maya is determined to do this and Maya says she wants
to win and she’s in too deep to give up. At first, it seems quite silly that
this is the driving force for the plot. However, Maya was clearly obsessed and
obsessions do look silly to the outside world.
Notes on
the order of stories in Night World
So far, the
stories are two vampire-based plots, two witch-based plots and then two
human-based plots. This got a bit repetitive so my proposed order mixes it up to
vampire, witch, vampire, human, witch, then human: Secret Vampire,
Enchantress, Daughters of Darkness, The Chosen, Dark Angel, and then Soulmate.
Further,
Quinn was only a very minor character in Daughters of Darkness, so by the time
The Chosen is read, the reader forgets that Quinn ever existed. By moving the
two stories Quinn is in to next to each other, one can’t forget he existed.
Admittedly,
they were published as soon as they were written so reorganising them would be
impractical, though hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Reviews: Night
World (L. J. Smith)
Volume One
Volume
Three 1/2
Volume
Three 2/2
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