Uninvited [Paperback]

THREE QUICK POINTS:
* Point 1: This book reads like the anti-Twilight. The characters are shallow and the plot is paper thin. The difference is, rather than a clean cut new honor student who's completely enamoured by the vampire who's been stalking her, it's the story of a constantly drunk honor student wishing she weren't being stalked by the new vampire.

* Point 2: Redefines the term "lush life." Everyone is drunk and high (except maybe the parents, but I can't be certain) throughout most of the book.

* Point 3: Jordan needs to develop an actual personality. I really wanted to like her character, but didn't. Throughout the book, we're trapped inside her head while she complains about every facet of her life and it feels as though the air is slipping away fast.

SHORT SYNOPSIS:
It begins with Jordan talking to a vampire who's perched in a tree outside her bedroom window, and then walks us through how that situation came to be. Michael Green, who dated Jordan for two months a year prior to his untimely death, reappears at her house on the night of his funeral. Eventually she figures out what happened to him.

For three months, she holed herself in her room before nightfall and waited for Michael to come calling. Every night he'd ask to be let in and every night she'd deny him. Finally Jordan has an epiphany about her life and what she's doing to herself and decides to do something about it, starting with Michael.

MY THOUGHTS:
I wanted very much to like this book; it has such a cool cover and plenty of positive reviews. However:

Half-way through the book, I began mixing up the characters because they all seem to be the same one dimensional person struggling for a voice. By chapter six, I wanted to put the book down and not really pick it back up again because I was afraid the whining about life would continue endlessly. And when I closed the book, I said "meh, that's it?" and then it just became another foggy memory.

Jordan, who narrates the story, has a social anxiety disorder and a self-centered absentee mother. Jordan's way to deal is by partying, and by partying, I mean drinking to get "faced", partaking in various illicit substances, and having random "flybys" with guys she doesn't know.

But that's not my problem with her; her ennui drones on for about a hundred pages and when other characters did pop in, they were just another version of Jordan. There's some effort to make them different, but it never quite worked, and some were exaggerated to the point of being unbelievable-- especially Michael, Jordan's vampire stalker, and Lisa, the convenient catalyst who makes an appearance too late in the game.

The first half of the book is Michael and Jordan's back story. Unfortunately, it was banal and redundant. I stopped caring that Michael smelled like coconut suntan lotion, that he was an SOB who chased anything with legs, and that Jordan felt she wasn't stalk-able because she was some lowly prole he dated for two months.

The final let down came when we learn Michael's reason for stalking Jordan. This is going to be a spoiler, but necessary to see the plot's paper thinness. (If you don't wish to know, skip to the final sentence.)

Don't believe the back cover. Michael did not dump Jordan. The first line ("when rejection comes back to bite you...") is a play on the storyline in which Michael begins stalking Jordan because he can't believe she, the pathetic lush, dumped him. I guess when you have an eternity on your hands, it's best to torment the one that got away.

Then to throw a chunk of salt into that gaping wound, we have Lisa who enters the story as Jordan's catalyst. I didn't believe for one second that the two were ever close friends so the situation was unbelievable. In that vein, Lisa's character could easily have been replaced by Nutty, Jordan's cat. The conversation could go something like:

Michael: "If you ever want to see Nutty alive again, you'll beg me to come in..."

Jordan: "Oh gawd, no, not Nutty...Michael, come in. Please. I'm begging you to come in. Just leave Nutty alooonnneee."

Michael: "I knew you'd cave." Starts climbing in window, then stops. "Oh wait...I think I'll still kill Nutty just because I'm a Really Bad Man™. Muahahahaha!!!"

Jordan: Uh oh, no. I love Nutty so much I can't let him do it. I better grow a pair and do something. Where'd I put that stake again?

My apologies for the snark, but, I hope it helps to get the point across.

While I don't regret reading the book, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it either.

These days, Jordan's got a lot on her mind. Her social phobias are getting the better of her, she thinks she messed things up with a guy she really connected with... and her ex-boyfriend, popular jock Michael, has been appearing at her bedroom window since the night after his funeral. It seems the rumors that Michael killed himself aren't true -- he was attacked by a vampire, and became one himself. Now he wants Jordan to join him. Every night, he pleads and cajoles and turns on his charm, trying to get her to invite him in, and Jordan's arguments are starting to crumble.

UNINVITED is a tense, scary book that manages to throw in a little humor on the side. Marrone does a superb job of building the suspense about Michael's true intentions and how Jordan will deal with them. Nothing works out quite the way the reader will expect, and Jordan's struggles will have them on the edge of their seats, unable to put the book down. The climax is thrilling and dark, and the ending is hopeful without leaving its heroine unscarred.

It may take readers a little while to warm up to Jordan, whose binge-drinking and pessimistic ways may seem too depressing. But it quickly becomes clear that she has every reason to want to drown out the rest of the world. Her growth as she fights her fears and destructive tendencies is both believable and inspiring. The supporting characters are well-developed as well, from Michael's twisted personality to Jordan's quirky friend, Rachael.

Readers who enjoy books a little out of the ordinary, especially the dark and suspenseful, should run out and grab this one as soon as possible. It takes one of the most familiar creatures of the supernatural genre and manages to tell a story unlike any you've read before.

Reviewed by: Lynn Crow

I was sorely upset with what this book had to offer. When I saw it at Borders I was intrigued by the cover of the book and it seemed like a good light read. My friend had advised me against it but I didn't listen, instead I bought it. I should have listened to the old proverb of not judging a book by it's cover because I could have written the story better.

The story seemed to drag out very slowly and the characters personalities were never really developed. For some reason in my point of view our main character seemed to laid back and lazy. Instead of trying to solve the problem of having a dead boyfriend trying to sneak into her window, she decided her best plan is to whole herself up in her house and drink herself silly. Also I didn't appreciate how her ex was made out to be completely evil. Maybe it's from reading to many vampire books where the vampires are good but i thought that the cliche evil vampire was too much. He could not have been completely evil.

It also bugged me that they never really used any foreshadowing to let you know how evil her boyfriend was when she was dating him. Until as soon as she dumped him he turned into an uber evil son of a b****.

Another issue of mine was when she went to the party. First of all her friend bothered me when she decided to go topless for no apparent reason. Maybe it's because I'm only 14 and don't understand hormones, and all that crap, well enough yet but it seemed a little rash and sudden. It also bugged me when she was getting hooked up with a guy and she led him on and then was all noble and acted like she was innocent of being bipolar all the sudden. This is another scenario where the guy turns out to be incredibly evillll.

Maybe it's just me but i hate it when stories only have vampires as the bad guys. And maybe it's also just me who hates it when a book character is drunk and/or high half the book. Well maybe it was just me I don't know. If you share my view pints i would not recommend buying the book. If your still intrigued you should check it out of the library.

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