The Morganville Vampires is a series of young adult urban fantasy/vampire novels written by Rachel Caine. The novels feature Claire Danvers, a student at Texas Prairie University, and her housemates in the vampire-controlled city of Morganville, Texas. While the mayor of Morganville is human, the population co-exist with a group of vampires. Morganville is also home to an unusually large number of second-hand thrift stores.
Several of the novels have made the New York Times bestseller list. In September 2009, Caine announced that she had signed a contract with Signet to write books 10, 11, and 12 in the series. The following year, in January 2010 Rachel Caine revealed that beginning with book 9, Ghost Town, novels in this series would first be released in hardback. In September 2011 three further books were contracted for the series bringing the total to 15.
Series
Novels and anthology Glass Houses (October 2006, Signet Books, ) The Dead Girls' Dance (April 2007, Signet Books, ) Midnight Alley (October 2007, Signet Books, ) Feast of Fools (June 2008, Signet Books, ) Lord of Misrule (January 2009, Signet Books, ) Carpe Corpus (June 2009, Signet Books, ) Fade Out (November 2009, Signet Books, ) Kiss of Death (April 27, 2010, Signet Books, ) Ghost Town (October 26, 2010, NAL Hardcover, ) Bite Club (May 3, 2011, NAL Hardcover, ) Last Breath (November 1, 2011, NAL Hardcover, ) Black Dawn (May 1, 2012, NAL Hardcover, ) Bitter Blood (November 6, 2012, NAL Hardcover, ) Fall Of Night (May 7, 2013, NAL Hardcover, ) Daylighters (November 5, 2013, NAL Hardcover, ) Midnight Bites (March 1, 2016, Berkley Softcover, )
Short stories "All Hallows" in The Eternal Kiss (2009, ) and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Amelie's Story" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "And One for the Devil" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Anger Management" and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Automatic" in Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Dark Rides" and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Dead Man Stalking" in Immortal: Love Stories With Bite and Vampires: The Recent Undead and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Drama Queen's Last Dance" in Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" in Many Bloody Returns and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Grudge" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Home: A Morganville Story" in Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery "Let Them Eat Cake" "Lunch Date" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Murdered Out" in the UK version of Carpe Corpus and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Myrnin's Tale" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "New Blood" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Nothing Like an Angel" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Pitch-Black Blues" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Sam's Story" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Signs and Miracles" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Vexed" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "The Viper and the Farmer" "A Whisper in the Dark" in Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Worth Living For" in UK version of Ghost Town and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" and Midnight Bites (2016, ) "Your Mileage May Vary"
Characters Claire Danvers, the main protagonist of the series, comes to the town of Morganville when she becomes a student at Texas Prairie University. Graduating high school early and attending university at the age of 16, she is one of the youngest characters in the series but is exceptionally intelligent for her age which causes many people (especially vampires) to take a special interest in her. Although intelligent in most subjects, Claire is exceptional at science and her intelligence can cause some to dislike/misunderstand her. She is the assistant of Myrnin and was assigned to the job by Amelie, the Founder of Morganville and the oldest vampire in the world (other than Bishop). Claire becomes close friends with Myrnin because of their similar intellectual interests; although their relationship has been strained at points by Myrnin's impulsive, uncontrolled conduct due to both his vampire nature and the effects of a disease some vampires contract with age. At one point Bishop takes an unwilling Claire to be his minion, partially as a 'slap' to Amelie as Claire is one of the few humans the founder is shown to care for. Claire is dating town bad boy Shane Collins, which her parents do not appreciate, stating that they think she is too young to have a boyfriend. After moving to Morganville themselves, they frequently insist that she move back in with them. Claire is best friends with the town goth, Eve Rosser, (who often calls her 'CB', short for "Claire Bear") and also with musician Michael Glass (who treats her more like a little sister) and enemies with Monica Morrell, who despises and torments her initially but has since developed a grudging respect for her. From the beginning in Glass Houses, Claire is somewhat naive but as the series moves forward, she quickly shows herself to be tough and clever (if sometimes slightly reckless), and has incorporated herself into Morganville's vampire-ruled world better than most of the other human population. She is well known by vampires and humans alike, sometimes respected and sometimes hated by individuals from both sides as vampires tend to think she is allowed too much liberty (as humans are unofficially considered second-class), and humans often view her as a traitor and puppet of the vampires. As of Last Breath, Claire was killed by the master draug, Magnus, but the Glass House saved her like it did Michael, by making her into a ghost but trapping her within the Glass Houses walls. Claire is described as small and short with brown hair, although towards the end it is described as mostly red than brown thanks to Eve. At the end of Bitter Blood Claire get permission to leave Morganville to go to MIT, a gift from the founder for all the work she has done for the town. She briefly attends MIT but after discovering the Daylight Foundation she returns to Morganville to find they have taken over; she then aids in the rescue of the vampires and the bringing down of the Daylighters. Michael Glass is a Morganville native and owner of the Glass House. His grandfather is Sam Glass. When the series begins, Shane and Eve are already living with Michael when Claire joins them as a fourth roommate. After Michael's mysterious disappearance during the day begins to strain his relationship with his housemates, Michael is forced to explain his strange behavior. After being attacked in his house and left for dead by Oliver (who was attempting to turn him into a vampire, but failed), Michael has become a "part of the house"—he is effectively a ghost, vanishing by day and corporeal at night. In this state, Michael can draw power from the house itself, making him extremely powerful inside it (while in a corporeal state); however, he cannot leave the house, which leaves him intensely frustrated with his inability to protect his friends when they are out of his reach. To escape this fate, he convinces Amelie to turn him into a vampire, which puts further pressure on his friendship with Shane. Michael is very responsible, mature, and charming, with a kind, noble, generous nature (to the point that he has been described as a boy scout). For all his loving, patient manner he is very protective of his loved ones and quite aggressive when provoked. He is an amazing musician and in the book Kiss Of Death he is offered a record deal, and a chance to leave Morganville for recording. He records a demo CD, but nothing is stated to come of it afterwards. In the last book he is forcibly given a cure to vampirism with a low success rate, fortunately he survives and turns back into a human. He starts a relationship with Eve early into the series and they marry twice (their first marriage was forcibly annulled because it was a mixed species marriage). Michael is described as very good looking by many female characters in the series. He is tall, lean built, has sincere blue eyes and blonde hair. Shane Collins is one of the Glass House residents and is a Morganville native. He is hotheaded with a penchant for getting in trouble, often by his own doing. Regardless, he is very protective, a quality which extends especially to Claire, Michael, and Eve. He has a fierce hatred for vampires which causes strife especially between him and Michael but has slowly started to accept that not all vampires are bad, like Michael. He initially returned to Morganville on a mission from his father, Frank, to find out ways to kill the vampires. He despises Monica Morrell because he believes she killed his sister, Alyssa, in a house fire (even though it has not been proven... no one doubts). Soon after the fire, Shane and his parents left Morganville, hoping to escape the reminder of Alyssa's death. Shane's family quickly began to fall apart. His father's alcoholism worsened, causing him to become abusive, and his mother's memory block began to fail, allowing her to remember Morganville and the vampires. Shane and his father believe that she was killed by vampires at Amelie's bidding, though the death was made to look like a suicide. This leads Shane and Frank on a vengeful path to destroy the vampires. Shane eventually rejects his father's violent agenda, furthering the rift between them. Shane frequently struggles with his anger and has been known to cave into his urges toward fighting and violence, which becomes especially problematic in Bite Club, although since then it appears that he is genuinely trying to change his behavior. He is described as very tall with a lot of muscle. He is very good looking and has brown eyes and hair. Eve Rosser She is a Morganville native but turned down Protection from her family's vampire Patron/Protector, Brandon, who appears to have been sexually harassing her starting when she was around fifteen, she refused and he may have started abusing her younger brother, Jason instead. She dresses quite extravagantly in all-Goth clothing and makeup, partly as a way to make fun of the vampires. Although she is generally very upbeat, energetic, and independent, she tends to be emotional and occasionally melodramatic. She is smart-mouthed and at times outspoken to the point of recklessness, and has, at some point, offended nearly all of the vampires in town. Eve has a deeply troubled past with her younger brother, Jason, who is a criminal and claims to have murdered many girls, and later threatens to kill Claire. Eve drives a very old black Cadillac; in the book Kiss of Death her Cadillac gets destroyed and she buys a black hearse to replace it. In Fade Out she plays the theater role of Blanche DuBois, one of the two leading ladies in A Streetcar Named Desire. When the series begins Eve works at Common Grounds and is strongly attached to her boss, Oliver; however, this affection quickly turns to hatred and she quits the job when Eve discovers that Oliver is not only a vampire but killed Michael. Eve spends some time working at the university coffee shop instead, but by Kiss of Death has returned to work at Common Grounds. She and Oliver's relationship remains quite uneasy but has softened once again from the state of mutual hatred that they harbored for a while; although most of their interactions consist of Eve going out of her way to annoy him and the two pushing each other's buttons, they do still seem to like each other on some level, even reportedly sharing a dance in Bite Club. Eve is described as being a tall and pretty girl. She dresses in a very extravagant manner, as a goth mostly to mock the vampires in Morganville. Eve had a crush on Michael before the start of their relationship which started early on in the series, they marry twice (their first marriage was forcibly annulled due to him being a vampire and her a human).