Fade Out (The Morganville Vampires #7) By: Rachel Caine (Book Review)

 ***This review will contain spoilers***

Summary:

Without the evil vampire Bishop ruling over the town of Morganville, the resident vampires have made major concessions to the human population. With their newfound freedoms, Claire Danvers and her friends are almost starting to feel comfortable again…Now Claire can actually concentrate on her studies, and her friend Eve joins the local theatre company. But when one of Eve’s castmates goes missing after starting work on a short documentary, Eve suspects the worst. Claire and Eve soon realize that this film project, whose subject is the vampires themselves, is a whole lot bigger—and way more dangerous—than anyone suspected.

Another fantastic book in this wonderful series that keeps on giving. The previous one we finally got the big bad Bishop killed and brought back some normalcy in Morganville. So typically, once you kill the big antagonist, it's hard to keep a story going, however, I'm so happy to say this wasn't the case. I love Caine's writing style because it's never just one story line. She always has a few things going on at the same time and you don't realize it till the end where everything is finally revealed. And comes to a close

I love just how much Claire has grown overall. We definitely see a new side of her; possessiveness with a hint of jealousy. We're introduced to Kim, a Morganville resident and a old flame of Shane's...more like a tiny speckle of a flame but still. Eve is enamored with her but our girl Claire must have a sixth sense when it comes to trouble because from the very beginning she knew Kim would be bringing nothing but issues to the gang. Kim set up a bunch of cameras around Morganville, some thanks to the vampire Morley. Kim wanted her big reality tv show break and Morley and his posse just want to escape Morganville no matter the cost. 

This wouldn't be a Morganville story without some sort of confrontation with vampires. I love how Eve, Shane and Claire have this fluidity when they team up and fight against the fang foes. They are like the Scooby gang : Buffy the vampire slayer edition. Except instead of the slayer they have Michael the vampire who sometimes saves the day but really it's the three humans figuring a way to get out of their predicaments. But what's a vampire confrontation compared to a computer who controls all the portals and most of Morganville becoming corporeal...yup somehow Ada found a way to materialize for some time and actually attack people. Primarily, Myrnin and Claire. She thought that they were participating in a relationship similar to what Ada had with Myrnin which, of course, if he wasn't so bad shit crazy and almost killing our girl Claire I would say to go for it but alas Shane is clearly the better choice. 

Is it sad that I actually feel bad for Ada? From what was revealed in this book both she and Myrnin were in love and he turned her into a vampire. She was his first assistant and eventually he made her into what we have come to know; a weird computer who controls portals and requires blood as sustenance. She almost kills Claire a couple of times and once of which were with modified spiders that were as big as the Acromantulas from Harry Potter, ya know the huge spiders. It's unfortunately, never a dull moment for Claire. Poor thing isn't even legal yet but she has had more life threatening situations than birthdays. 

Claire; being the absolute resourceful girl that she is was not only able to fight Ada off but also was able to eventually reboot and 'destroy' her. I keep being impressed with Claire time and time again. When you think about where she first started and how much she has grown since then it's like an entire lifetime has passed. 

Rating: 

As if it's surprising, I'm giving Fade Out 5 stars on 5! I loved this book and am so impressed how Caine is able to keep us invested in the story despite the big bad being axed. I do wonder what else is going to happen next. Especially, who is going to replace Ada now that she is gone..for good this time.