30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith

I snuck this one in just last night, taking a short break from my current read, Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult.

30 Days of Night was my first-ever graphic novel. I usually don't go for that kind of thing, but the movie was really good so I was curious about the book. I also want to read the sequels to find out what happens after the movie ends, so I figured I should probably read the first one first.

Most of my observations about the book are actually observations about graphic novels:

* I had to keep reminding myself to slow down and look at the pictures, rather than just reading the dialogue. I'm not used to having artwork to look at, let alone a handful or more of illustrations on every page. Often I caught myself skimming along just reading the dialogue, and had to make myself go back and look at the pictures for more clues about what was going on.

* There is a lot going on in the illustrations. There are many visual cues buried in the illustrations, so you can't depend solely on the dialogue. I'm there there is plenty that I missed in the parts that I skimmed.

I actually found the graphic novel format a little overwhelming — having both dialogue to read and illustrations to look at made it difficult to keep up with everything. You can miss a lot more of what's going on this way, because the interpretation of pictures is more subjective. However, I also get the feeling that you could reread this book over and over and get something new from it every time — which is perhaps why fans of graphic novels like them so much.

The Awakening by L.A. Banks

The Awakening is L.A. Banks's next book after Minion, a vampire novel I finished last week.

In my post about Minion, I'd mentioned the author's wordiness and meandering scenes. I was hoping her writing would improve in future books, because I really like the story — but so far it doesn't seem like it will. The Awakening is pretty much the same way.

One of the things that is so frustrating about this is how little story is actually in each book. They always leave off at an important scene, with the rest to be continued in the next book. Problem is, if you got rid of all the unnecessary, repetitive, and meandering stuff, the entire story probably could have fit into one good-sized novel.

Of course, I like the story itself, so what it comes down to is whether I will continue reading the series in order to find out what happens — even if I can't stand the author's writing style. I'm not sure yet, but I have a couple of other things to read before they are due back to the library, so I have a little while to decide.

Minion by L.A. Banks

I'm a pretty big fan of vampire fiction, particularly Anne Rice's vampire novels, so when I spotted L.A. Banks's Minion at the library, I thought I'd try it.

The novel is kind of on the other side from most vampire fiction: It's actually about the vampire hunters, rather than about the vampires.

It's a pretty good story. The main character is a vampire huntress just coming into her destiny: basically, to be the queen-bee vampire slayer. There's a hint of adolescent angst, all mixed up with the bigger issues of living to fight the supernatural.

There is a mother-daughter-like relationship between the main character and one of her gang of vampire hunters, and the dynamic between them is pretty strong. There is a great quote that reminds me of my own coming-of-age, and the dynamic between me and my mother:

"I've taught you almost everything I know to make you strong, independent, and courageous, and I tried to pass on all of that — then, when you were ready to fly, I was the one clipping your wings. Like I said, it's insane, but real. I'm sorry."

Isn't that a great line?

Unfortunately, the novel sometimes comes across as a little wordy, and some scenes meander a bit too much. I'm trying to cut the author some slack, since it is her debut novel — and since the story is really good. There are quite a few books that come after this one, and I'm sure I'll be reading them too, so I'll let you know if she improves any!

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Amazingly, with all of my literature background, and with all of my fascination with Anne Rice's vampire novels, I've never read Bram Stoker's Dracula. I'm now reading the book at last for a book review I'm writing for About.com's Classic Lit site.

I've been surprised by how interesting the book really is. Even though it was written during the height of the Victorian era, the book doesn't seem Victorian at all. The narrative style - the character's journal and letters used to piece together a story in the first person from multiple points of view - is pretty typical of the era, though. (Case in point - Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, etc.)

Of course, the narration is a little wordy at times, but it's still an amazingly dark (and sexual, in parts!) story for the time period.