The Morganville Vampires Series is a series of young adult novels written by Rachel Caine. The books center around Claire Danvers, a sixteen year-old genius who graduated from high school early and started school at a small town college to satisfy her overprotective parents. When a girl in the dorms threatens Claire's life, she resorts to answering an ad in the paper for a roommate in a four bedroom house, which is how she meets Eve Rosser, a goth girl a few years older than Claire who works at the local coffee shop in town. Eve introduces Claire to the two other boys who live in the house, Shane Collins and Michael Glass. Claire barely gets in the door when Eve tells Claire the secret of the quiet college town— it's inhabited by vampires.
The first novel was adapted into a web series
in 2014 and published on YouTube by Geek & Sundry.
The series comprises of the following books:
- Glass Houses (October 2006)
- The Dead Girls Dance (April 2007)
- Midnight Alley (October 2007)
- Feast of Fools (June 2008)
- Lord of Misrule (January 2009)
- Carpe Corpus (June 2009)
- Fade Out (November 2009)
- Kiss of Death (April 27, 2010)
- Ghost Town (October 26, 2010)
- Bite Club (May 3, 2011)
- Last Breath (November 1, 2011)
- Black Dawn (May 1, 2012'')
- Bitter Blood (November 6, 2012)
- Fall Of Night (May 7, 2013)
- Daylighters (November 5, 2013)
Tropes in this work:
- Affably Evil: For a measure of evil at least, Amelie is ruthless and willing to do "anything" to keep vampires safe but isn't unnecessarily cruel and speaks in a polite and calm voice. She can also show genuine kindness to others and is known to Pet the Dog.
- A God Am I: In the climax of Fade Out Ada considers herself "the goddess of Morgansville"
- And I Must Scream: Michael in Book 1. Nearly made a vampire (something he despises, by the way), came back as a ghost that dies again every single morning, stuck that way until sunset and his return to a proper body, and stuck in the house for ever, because the house is what kept him "alive" in the first place. This status does not change, no matter how much his housemates need his help. What becomes the only way out of this? Voluntarily become a vampire.
- Badass Bookworm: Claire moves from being a small school-obsessed girl who got up extra-early to avoid a bully, to dealing with vampires trying to kill her on a regular basis. Still school obsessed. Also, Myrnin.
- Badass Normal: When you've lived in this town for long enough, it's bound to happen. Though notable ones are Shane.
- Badass Biker: Shane's dad and his biker gang.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: You know Oliver, the really cool old guy? He's a vampire. A complete Jerkass one at that.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Bishop in Lord of Misrule specifically, but it's rare to find a volume that ends on a truly peaceful note.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Myrnin. Dear god. Apparently showing up at your door and borrowing a Crock-Pot isn't crazy behavior for him.
- Cliffhanger: The end of most books, usually in less than pleasant ways. In order: Shane's dad kills Michael, Claire sells her soul to Amelie, Amelie's father comes to town, Morganville civil war, Bishop wins, the heroes beat Bishop.
- Cool Old Guy: Oliver, the hippie dude running the cool coffee shop he maintains as Neutral Territory—between humans and vampires, despite his own human status. His status as otherwise is perhaps the nastiest shock of Glass Houses.
- Myrnin, in spite of his apparent age. When he's not acting under vampire Alzheimer's, anyway.
- Crapsack World: Yes, this town somehow makes it, between humans literally referred to as the slave race, vampire turf wars, various characters' concepts of acceptable losses, and the resulting mayhem that is every single volume.
- Easily Forgiven: Well, forgiven may be a strong word, but Shane has a weird way of dealing with those who've hurt him. He hates Monica, but more in the way you'd dislike a colossal jerk (which she is) than the way you'd dislike the responsible for the death of your sister, which she also is. He often chafes under Amelie's authoritarian and vampire-slanted rule, but he doesn't seem to hold a grudge against her for having his mother assassinated. And finally, while he's slow to forgive Jason for nearly getting Claire killed, he quickly shrugs off the fact that he also stabbed Shane in the stomach and landed him in the hospital.
- Elderly Immortal:
- Oliver is a 400-year-old vampire who has long gray hair and looks middle-aged. He was turned into a vampire when he was 60, and hence looks his age before his siring.
- Bishop looks like an old man and he's the oldest vampire in existence, being over a thousand years old.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: The Draug have the ability to transform into living water in order to move around and envelop their victims to consume them.
- End of the World as We Know It: Lord of Misrule has this feel to it. And then Bishop wins.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For a varying value of "evil" in the cases of Myrnin, Amelie, and even Oliver and Frank. As the former points out, at least the Morganville residents are trying. The Big Bad he's comparing them to... Not so much.
- Faux Affably Evil:
- Oliver is a rather classic example. While not without redeeming qualities, Oliver acts fairly calm, polite and is even soft spoken but say the wrong thing or piss him off and that facade breaks revealing him to be thoroughly cruel underneath that.
- Mr Bishop is an even better example. Bishop is fairly polite and well spoken but that simply hides an utter monster whose perfectly fine killing even his own daughter and creating a virus to send all vampires except his followers into extinction if it means that he can get power for himself.
- Fun with Acronyms: TPU's fraternity, Epsilon Epsilon Kappa. Also known as EEK.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Miranda. Every. Time.
- In Ghost Town a lot of people get magical amnesia and forget
the deaths of their loved ones or the fact that they're vampires. It doesn't end well.
- In Ghost Town a lot of people get magical amnesia and forget
- Handsome Lech: Shane.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Frank in Ghost Town.
- Historical Domain Character: Oliver is throughout the series strongly implied to be Oliver Cromwell himself having become a vampire
- Jail Bait Wait: Shane and Claire.
- In spite of Claire's many, many efforts.
- La Résistance: a group of people lead by Captain Obvious. That is until Bishop takes over Morganville and Amelie is forced underground with her followers.
- Magitek: Claire valiantly tries to explain away the most blatant examples of magic, such as the teleporting doorways, amnesia field around the town, etc (all held together by a steampunk vampire computer). Good luck with Bishop's evil tattoo, though.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: One of the more blatant symptoms of vampire Alzheimer's. Poor Myrnin.
- Monster Progenitor: Magnus is the Master Draug. He acts as a Hive Queen, being able to manufacture all other members of the Draug species, with them effectively being extensions of his will.
- Mr. Fanservice: Michael and Shane in-universe.
- Near-Villain Victory: Lord of Misrule and Carpe Corpus take place during Bishop's rule over Morganville.
- Oh, Crap!: Claire when she realizes she went down the trap-door spider's alley.
- Perky Goth: Eve Rosser.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Amelie shifts between this and Bad Boss. Surprisingly Oliver as well, but only very occasionally.
- Religious Vampire: Dr. Theo Goldman and his family are vampires and devoted Jews. The vile vampire Bishop, out of a mix of bigotry and hatred of Theo and his family's happy life and devotion, had them turned into vampires as a way to mock and break their faith. However, to Bishop's annoyance, this didn't work and they stayed together and are still faithful even in the present.
- Steampunk: How Claire describes the vampire computer holding Morganville together.
- Snark Knight: Standard character technique of trying to stay sane. Good luck with that.
- Undying Loyalty: The Glass House residents, with their "weird mini fraternity." Even before Michael becomes fully undead.
- Vampire Monarch: Amelie is the queen of all of the town of Morganville's vampires, which are also the last vampires left in the world as well. Amelie created the town as a safe haven for her kind.
- Vampire Procreation Limit: During the early years of vampires, vampire numbers almost overwhelmed the human population due to their ability to transform humans into vampires rapidly as well as the human population being smaller than it was today. In order to prevent the humans running out and hence endangering the vampire's food supply, it was agreed by the higher vampires of the time to remove the knowledge of how to create more vampires, simply by refusing to teach it. Over time, this knowledge became lost even to the elder vampires resulting in it only being available from two sources, these being the world's oldest vampire, Amelie as well as an ancient spell book where it was written down.
- Viler New Villain: Amelie's father Bishop. She's a ruthless vampire, but she's a Well-Intentioned Extremist. Bishop by contrast is a ruthless sociopath far more prone to violence and bloodshed, who'd let vampires go extinct if it means he'd be on top. She's also capable of showing genuine kindness, while Bishop's politeness is fake.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Amelie wants to create a space where her people will be safe, even if the humans aren't quite happy, and to cure the disease threatening to wipe out the former. If this fails, however, she makes it quite clear that nobody will survive. Human or vampire.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: One of the saddest versions ever. After Claire "dies,", Shane starts claiming he can hear her. This naturally freaks the hell out of Michael and Eve. Eve, whose usual names for Shane are (affectionate) "jackass" or "asshole," suddenly begins calling him "sweetie" and "honey." Paraphrased:Shane: No! No! You don't call me that. You call me jackass, or asshole, or jerk, or—not sweetie! Not—not honey! Stop!
