Author: Annette Curtis Klause
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Year: 2010 (1st published in 1990)
Language: English
Format: Ebook
Pages: 260
Zoe is wary when, in the dead of night, the beautiful yet frightening Simon comes to her house. Simon seems to understand the pain of loneliness and death and Zoe's brooding thoughts of her dying mother.Simon is one of the undead, a vampire, seeking revenge for the gruesome death of his mother three hundred years before. Does Simon dare ask Zoe to help free him from this lifeless chase and its insufferable loneliness?
The Silver Kiss is a young adult urban fantasy novel about Zoe and Simon. Zoe is your average teenage girl and her mom is dying of cancer. Her mother’s sickness turns her life upside down. Her relationship with her father changes and so does her relationship with her best friend Lorraine. Her father seldom goes home because he has to stay at the hospital to accompany her mother. She can’t even talk about her mother with Lorraine. To make matters worse, Lorraine’s family is planning to move out of the town. She feels lonely and estranged until one night a mysterious boy named Simon approaches her. Little did she know that Simon is a vampire.
This isn’t my first Annette Curtis Klause. I read Blood and Chocolate and I enjoyed it. I like her take on werewolves so I’m curious to see how she handles vampires. It turns out that The Silver Kiss is actually her debut novel. This book is published in 1992, way before Twilight. Some people compare this book to Twilight which is understandable because of the similarities in some aspects. For instance, there is a romance between a teenage girl and a vampire, but in my opinion that’s the only thing those two books have in common.
Vampire has always been a fascinating subject in literature. I’m always intrigued to see different interpretations of the creature. In The Silver Kiss, vampires are described as pale and white haired. Their fangs can be retracted and only shows up if they smell blood. They also can’t enter a house unless they’re invited. Direct sunlight is fatal for them and they can be killed by impaling them. The main thing is they’re scary, but at the same time they appear as this mysterious and exotic creature which can be very attractive to their potential victim.
Besides the vampire, we also have Zoe. I like her. Although at times she sounds whiny and annoying, she’s rational. When she realized that she’s being stalked by Simon, she’s trying to tell her parents and Lorraine. But then again, she’s dealing with a creature with a power of hypnosis. Simon is drawn by her loneliness and grief because that’s exactly what Simon’s been feeling. They immediately feel connected. In some way, they help each other going through their despair.
I won’t say that this book has a happy ending. Still, it ends on a positive note. Like that’s the best possible ending for this book. All in all I enjoyed reading this book. I like Blood and Chocolate better though. Still, if you’re looking for a young adult vampire literature, I recommend this one.
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