Book #66: Bite Club

Title: Bite Club (Book #10 of The Morganville Vampires series)

Author: Rachel Caine

Date started reading: May 2, 2012
Date finished reading:  May 5, 2012

Publish date: May 2011
ISBN: 978-0451233189
Number of pages: 352

Official summary: "After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble. There's a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare-knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other -- or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire -- accompanied by her friends and frenemies -- to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville..." (http://www.morganvilletexas.com)

Video interview with the author that explains the series through this book (I thought it was rather interesting. It's still current information except for the part about the film rights, which have now expired):

How I obtained the book: Bought a copy on eBay for $3.75

Memorable quotes:

• "(Claire) was living in a house with a vampire. And, strangely, that was not the weirdest part of her life." 
• "When you sleep later than a vampire, Claire thought (about Eve), that's probably taking it a little too far." 
• "You didn't have to finish first to win, not in science. You just had to be more right than the other guys." ~ Claire
• "Afternoons are hard. Mornings are pure evil from the pits of hell, which is why I don't do them anymore." ~ Eve
• "You take me the most interesting places ... murder scenes, interrogations..." ~ Eve to Michael
• "Interesting news travels quickly in a town as boring as this." ~ Myrnin
• "It's like The Terminator meets Buffy." ~ Claire describing Oliver and Amelie fencing each other
•  "Always glad to be of help to the vampire community. We all know there is no crime in Morganville. And the humans are all just happy to be here. It's paradise on earth. Ain't that what it says in the brochure?" ~ Frank very sarcastically
• "Juice, Claire figured, was Eve's new code for blood. Well, technically, it was juice, Claire supposed. People juice." 
• "Deep down ... way deep down, I realized why my dad had been the way he was. It was easy to let go of all those demons, let them roar. And it felt good. That was more frightening than anything else I'd ever known." ~ Shane
• "Claire realized that she'd sneaked out of a window, and nobody, not even Shane, knew where she was. That hadn't been the best plan ever probably. Note to self: in the future, leave an I-know-who-killed-me message. Morbid, but practical, at least in her social circles." 
• "It's a sad day when Myrnin is the safe choice." ~ Claire
• "Their idea of justice is to haul in the usual dickheads and throw somebody to the wolves. Doesn't matter who it is." ~ Jason
  "You're saying you're not guilty." ~ Claire
  "I'm the usual dickhead." ~ Jason
• "Morganville's changing you. You used to be scared of them, but the more you're around (Myrnin), the more you think the vamps can be your friends. They aren't. They can't be. They're ranchers. We're cattle." ~ Shane to Claire
• "Everything gets better with pancakes. It's a law of the universe. ... Eat up. Pancakes is brain food." ~ Eve
  "Apparently not grammar food." ~ Claire
  "Wow. You college girls are mean." ~ Eve
• "Critical thinking has become a sadly rare skill these days." ~ Myrnin
• "Old loyalties die hard among our kind. So do old enemies." ~ Myrnin
• "Life with Dad had been boiled down to gyms, bars, cheap motel soap, and blood." ~ Shane
• "Pain was good. Pain kept you sharp and kept you motivated. Pain made me feel alive." ~ Shane
• "Shopping (with) Miranda. Really? Wow. Talk about the color-blind leading the blind." ~ Eve to Claire
• "Karma. It's a bitch." ~ Miranda
• "There's a lot of us who are sick as hell of getting our asses kicked by vampires, sick of being your cheap wine bottles with legs, sick of letting you rule this town like lords." ~ Shane
• "I hate fang-bangers worse than the vamps. At least the vamps are just doing what comes natural. Your kind, you're perverts." ~ Sandro to Eve
• "A bleeding human was like catnip to a vampire."
• "I trained my son to survive in Morganville. I'm not apologizing for that." ~ Frank
• "I'm the best killer who ever lived." ~ Bishop

My commentary:

• One thing about this series that I find interesting that I haven't commented on yet is about how the author includes a list of songs at the end of each book that helped inspire her as she wrote the book. I thought I had a large variety of musical tastes, but seeing Rachel Caine's track lists make me think I may not be as weird in my playlists as I thought. I normally think you can figure out a lot about a person by the type of music he/she listens to. But seeing Rachel list Bob Dylan, Kelly Clarkson, Marilyn Manson, 3OH!3, Ke$ha, Three Days Grace, Hilary Duff, Sick Puppies, Maroon 5, Vanessa Hudgens, Within Temptation, and so forth... I honestly have no clue what her music lists say about her personality. Her music player must be like a jukebox set on random...
• With this book, the author starts bringing in other perspectives than just Claire's. It's weird switching from just seeing things from Claire's point-of-view, to seeing things from someone else's. That being said, it was intriguing getting to see so intimately into Shane's head. I love Shane's character. I think maybe I relate to him so much because of the abuse in his past. There is so much pain inside him and a deep-seated anger at the world. I feel for him. I feel like him most of the time.

• I was personally struck by the scene shown in the photo above. Eve was talking about the type of wedding she'd want and said that her bridesmaids would wear black and she'd be in a red gown. This really stood out to me because that's exactly what I've been planning for my own wedding. I am wanting the red wedding dress below with the bridesmaids all in black dresses. It's really awkward when a goth character's dream wedding colors are basically the same as yours.

• This may actually be my favorite book so far in the series. It was very action-packed with so many emotions and so many conflicts, both internal and external with the main characters. Rachel Caine keeps me on the edge of my seat (figuratively speaking because I'm normally laying down when I read) during the entire time I read her books.
• There is one specific quote by Claire in this book that I think completely sums up reading this book series: "Let's get this circus on the road."

Buy on Amazon.com: Bite Club (Morganville Vampires, Book 10)