Daughters of Darkness is a young adult Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novel by L. J. Smith. It's the second book in the Night World series and was published in August 1996. It was later reissued in the omnibus Night World 1, along with Secret Vampire and Spellbinder.
Rowan, Kestrel, and Jade are three vampire sisters on the run from their powerful and controlling family, the Redferns. They seek out a new life with their great-aunt Opal Burdock in the small town of Briar Creek, but shortly after arriving, they discover Opal's murdered body in the basement. Mrs. Burdock's seventeen-year-old neighbor Mary-Lynette Carter senses something is amiss when she sees the sisters burying something in the garden, and they are suspiciously vague about their aunt's whereabouts when she questions them. Mary-Lynette sets out to investigate, attempting to recruit her brother Mark too, but he's more interested in getting to know Jade. Meanwhile, Rowan, Kestrel and Jade's troublemaking brother Ash arrives looking for them, causing suspicion to fall on him, though he's far from the only suspect. Whoever the killer is, they're close by and waiting to strike again, unless they can be apprehended before it's too late.
Not to be confused with the 1971 Belgian horror movie about vampires.
Tropes found here include:
- Asshole Victim: Todd and Vic, two local delinquents, don't garner any sympathy after being fed on by the Redfern sisters and then hypnotized into forgetting, seeing as they'd intended to sexually assault the sisters and are implied to have done similar things to other girls. When Mary-Lynette finds out, she thinks it's hilarious and that the boys had it coming.
- Attempted Rape: Although no one explicitly mentions sexual assault, it's made pretty clear that this is Todd and Vic's intention when they pick up the Redfern sisters in the dead of the night and drive them to a remote location, mentioning that they're "lonely guys" looking for fun, that no one would hear them scream out in the middle of nowhere and grabbing hold of them. When Rowan realizes their intentions, she says that her sisters are "far too young for anything like that" (Kestrel and Jade are seventeen and sixteen, respectively). Unfortunately for Todd and Vic, the girls they chose to prey on this time happen to be vampires.
- Bathos:
- The scene where Todd and Vic are trying to force the Redfern sisters to have sex with them is a serious matter, but it's also got a comedic side due to the sisters - especially Rowan - not really understanding what Todd and Vic want at first, finally figuring it out and treating it as an annoying embarrassment more than anything, and carrying on a conversation with each other partially telepathically, which leaves Todd and Vic pretty confused.
- Upon finding Aunt Opal's staked body in the basement, her nieces are horrified. Then Rowan tearfully says that "The poor dear must've tripped" carrying some garden stakes. Jade and Kestrel give each other a look and exasperatedly tell Rowan that Opal was clearly stabbed on purpose. And then when they're discussing who could've done it and a vampire hunter is suggested, Rowan quickly says she thought they were a myth to scare children - essentially a vampire version of the boogeyman.
- In the climax, Mary-Lynette watches in horror as Jeremy - who had come within inches of killing her until she stabbed him with a silver knife - dies in her burning truck. She crawls over to the badly-wounded Ash - who was earlier completely curb-stomped by Jeremy - to see if he's still alive. Ash regains consciousness and one of the first things he says is "Did I kill him?" Mary-Lynette starts crying and laughing at the same time.
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Mary-Lynette and Ash, coupled with their respective siblings, Mark and Jade. The relationships serve as a Foil to each other; Mark and Jade pretty much fall in love upon sight, have a rather smooth transition into Official Couple and go around holding hands and making goo-goo eyes at each other like the love-struck teens they are. Meanwhile, Ash and Mary-Lynette are almost instantly hostile, yet also unwillingly attracted, to each other, spend much of their time bickering and making snarky comments, and eventually fall for each other kicking and screaming all the way.
- Bittersweet Ending: Mary-Lynette kills Jeremy, saving herself and Ash and ending his killing spree, but she's pretty traumatized by it. She and Ash also realize that they're not ready to be together right now, Soulmate Principle or no. Ash is able to mislead Quinn about what happened, allowing his sisters to stay in Briar Creek and keeping the town safe. The novel ends with Ash leaving to start his Redemption Quest and telling Mary-Lynnette "Even when we're apart, we'll be looking at the same sky!" while a meteor shower takes place.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- One of the earliest scenes has Mary-Lynette filling up her car. As a sign of her middle-class roots (as opposed to the ridiculously wealthy upbringing of Ash and his sisters) her car is an old beater; the gas cap is always stuck and she keeps a scrolled fruit knife in the car to prise it off. At the climax, she confronts the murderer, who is also a werewolf. She remembers that the fruit knife is silver, and uses it to kill him and save her own life.
- The hole in the porch of Mrs. Burdock's house, which Ash trips over. Ash isn't familiar with the house and so didn't know it was there. But whoever dumped Mrs. Burdock's goat on the porch clearly did know because they avoided it, so the killer is someone who spends a lot of time at the house.
- Dead Animal Warning: Mrs. Burdock's murderer kills one of her pet goats, impales it with dozens of wooden stakes and leaves the corpse on the porch for her great-nieces to find, in an attempt to make them leave Briar Creek.
- Disposing of a Body: Upon finding their aunt Opal's corpse in the basement, the Redfern sisters bury her in a shallow grave in the garden. However, they soon realize this is only a temporary solution, as people will inevitably notice Opal is missing and the garden is the first place they'll look for a body. They end up shifting her body to the nearby woods to re-bury her.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The climatic scene with Mary-Lynette tied up and at Jeremy's mercy has undertones of sexual violence. Jeremy was prompted to capture Mary-Lynette out of jealousy when he saw her kissing Ash. Mary-Lynette desperately tries to keep him talking while avoiding showing her revulsion of him. Jeremy tells Mary-Lynette that they belong together and that she'll come to like it eventually (he's also talking about turning her into a werewolf like him, which is implied to involve a blood exchange). He starts taking his clothes off to transform while Mary-Lynette tries not to panic. At one point, when she's struggling against her ropes, he tells her not to fight and that "If you relax, it won't hurt".
- Dying Town: Briar Creek was established as a gold rush town back in the 19th century, but after the gold dried up it's slowly been on the decline, with most residents not having much money and the buildings falling into disrepair. It's mentioned that "the wilderness is taking it back" and a lot of young people move out as soon as they can, because there are few opportunities and not a whole lot to do. Both Mark and Mary-Lynette find Briar Creek pretty dull. In contrast, the Redfern sisters – especially Jade – find it exciting, because they rarely got to leave the enclave and they're free to do almost anything they want here, plus it's so small and out-of-the-way they're unlikely to run into any Night People who would turn them in.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: In the climax, Mary-Lynette's truck catches fire and later goes up in a fireball; in fairness, it's a really old truck that frequently overheated, with Mary-Lynette even saying her stepmother worried this would happen someday. It also turns out the killer tampered with the engine, which didn't help. The car is eventually engulfed in flames, though Mary-Lynette notes there isn't a huge, loud explosion like there is in the movies.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire book takes place over around a week, during which time Opal Burdock's nieces find her dead and try to hide the body, Ash tracks down his sisters to try and get them back home, Mary-Lynette and Mark investigate what happened to Mrs. Burdock and find about the Night World, and they both end up falling in love with Night People, culminating in Mary-Lynette fighting off a werewolf serial killer. It was a long week.
- Foreshadowing: As Mary-Lynette herself notes, there are a lot of clues that Jeremy Lovett is a werewolf: he tends to keep to himself and has never quite fitted in with everyone else in Briar Creek, the land he and his family have lived on for generations is called Mad Dog Creek and people have mentioned seeing Sasquatch and wild wolf-dog hybrids out there for years, and Jeremy wears a signet ring with a black flower, which Mary-Lynette later realizes is a foxglove (Rowan had earlier mentioned that foxgloves are the symbols of werewolves).
- Genre Deconstruction: Ash and Mary-Lynette's reaction to their soulmate bond leans more on the realistic side for these kinds of stories. They're outraged and humiliated when they rapidly develop strong feelings for each other, even though they were complete strangers a few days ago, initially don't appear to have anything in common and have good reasons to dislike each other (Mary-Lynette especially thinks that Ash isn't her type at all). They do start to warm up to each other, but take things too fast after getting caught up in the intense feelings the bond causes, to the point Mary-Lynette unthinkingly agrees to Ash making her a vampire despite having only known him a week. After they come back to their senses, they realize that they're not ready to be in a long-term relationship - not even with each other - as they both need time to become more mature (Ash in particular)
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: When Kestrel and Rowan bite Todd (who had been planning on assaulting them), he babbles "What the freak are you doing? Who are you? What the freak are you?" It sounds as though the word "freak" should be replaced with stronger language, but given the book is aimed at teenagers and was written in the 1990s, dropping f-bombs or anything like that was probably pushing it.
- Hostile Hitchhiker: Inverted, then played straight with justification. When the Redfern sisters get dropped off at the bus station near Briar Creek, their aunt Opal isn't waiting for them as planned. They end up getting a lift from two local boys, Todd and Vic, but they make it clear they're not helping them from the goodness of their hearts and expect sexual favors. The sisters turn the tables on the boys, overpowering them and drinking their blood, then hypnotizing them into forgetting.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Mary-Lynette and Mark both remark that nothing interesting ever happens in Briar Creek, with Mark especially wishing at the start that "something wild" would happen. Then vampires show up in town, their eccentric neighbor Mrs. Burdock goes missing and the siblings get a supernatural murder mystery on their hands.
- Red Herring: Both the Redfern sisters and the Carter siblings come up with various theories as to who killed Mrs. Burdock, though not all of them are valid.
- Initially, a lot of the evidence appears to point to Ash as being Opal Burdock's killer, in an attempt to intimidate his sisters to come back to the enclave; in particular, he shows up almost immediately after his sisters and the Carters discover the body of Opal's goat and find it had a black iris in its mouth. His sisters are quick to believe he's responsible, saying he'd probably do anything to protect the family honor. Ash insists he's innocent and that he arrived in Briar Creek after his sisters, by which point Opal was already dead. Ash appears genuinely surprised to hear Opal is dead and also points out it would be pointless of him to kill a goat and stuff a black iris in its mouth just to send a message to his sisters; even Rowan admits this doesn't sound like something he’d waste time on. He's quickly eliminated as a suspect.
- Quinn, an associate of the Redfern family, comes with Ash to find his sisters and it's made clear he's ruthless enough to do something like this, despite Ash insisting that Quinn give him time to handle the situation himself. Quinn isn't involved at all and has no idea what's been happening until Ash tells him a version of what occurred in the ending.
- A Vampire Hunter is considered as a possible culprit for killing Mrs. Burdock, as whoever killed her clearly knew what they were doing (namely, that a wooden stake to the heart really will kill a vampire) and that repeatedly staking someone is the traditional execution method for lamia. It's pointed out a vampire hunter could hide more easily in Briar Creek than a Night Person. It turns out the culprit was another Night Person, not a human.
- Mary-Lynette realizes that her friend Jeremy is likely a werewolf and so would know Mrs. Burdock was a vampire, which he later confirms. He also spends a lot of time at Burdock Farm, doing repairs and odd-jobs for Mrs. Burdock. However, despite the occasional animosity between vampires and werewolves, Jeremy has lived peacefully alongside Opal for years with no issues and they got along well, to the point she confided in Jeremy her reasons for moving to Briar Creek: he has no obvious motive to kill her. Rowan also notes that werewolves usually only kill to feed, which clearly wasn't the case with Opal or her goat. Just when Mary-Lynette is convinced it wasn't Jeremy, it turns out he really did do it; he happens to be a werewolf with serious anger management problems and psychopathic tendencies, killing Opal in a rage when he learned she was bringing more vampires to live in Briar Creek.
- It's noted that a local girl named Bunny Marten could potentially be involved; she often uses wooden cuticle sticks similar to some of the sticks found stabbed into Mrs. Burdock's goat and Rowan states her name is technically a lamia one - both Bunny and Marten refer to animals. She's also quite fixated on the Redferns, especially Ash. Mark thinks it's unlikely given Bunny appears to be rather ditzy, but Mary-Lynette counters it could potentially be an act. Bunny is completely innocent and it's never revealed if she is a Night Person.
- The Reveal:
- Around the middle of the novel, Mary-Lynette realizes that her childhood friend and secret crush Jeremy Lovett is a werewolf; he confirms it's true and that his entire family are werewolves when Mary-Lynette asks him.
- Opal Burdock left the lamia enclave ten years ago because her husband Hodge Burdock was executed for telling a human about the Night World and she couldn't stomach it there anymore.
- Opal Burdock's killer is Mary-Lynette's long-time friend Jeremy, who has also been responsible for other deaths and disappearances over the years; he felt that Opal's great-nieces coming to live with her would encroach on his territory, nor does he hold much respect for human life or the Night World's laws.
- Running Gag: Mary-Lynette keeps kicking Ash in the shins whenever he says something to annoy or offend her, which happens a lot.
- Shout-Out:
- Upon seeing the Redfern sisters burying what looks very much like a body, Mary-Lynette tries to reassure herself that this isn't Rear Window or The Twilight Zone.
- When she turns detective to find out what happened to Mrs. Burdock, Mary-Lynette compares herself to Nancy Drew, though she occasionally notes that Nancy does a much better job of detecting than she does.
- When Mary-Lynette and Ash first meet, Mary-Lynette sarcastically says "They call me Mary-Lynette. That do speak of me."; this is a reference to the line "They call me Katherine, that do talk of me" from William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, which Mary-Lynette studied in her honors class. To Mary-Lynette's surprise, Ash responds with "How about M'lin the cursed?", referencing Petruchio's response to Katherine.
- When Mary-Lynette realizes whoever killed Mrs. Burdock's goat left something in the goat's mouth, Mark mutters about the "Silence of the Goats" as she takes it out, referencing Buffalo Bill's Calling Card of leaving moths in his victims' mouths.
- Vampire-Werewolf Love Triangle: Mary-Lynette finds herself in one of these with newcomer Ash (the vampire) and her childhood friend Jeremy (the werewolf). Ash wins by default, as the Soulmate Principle means he and Mary-Lynette are destined for each other, though the fact that Jeremy turns out to be a psycho who tries to kill her helps too.
