cover image Midnight Cravings

Midnight Cravings

Joelle Sterling. S&S/Strebor, $17 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-59309-419-5

Sterling (a pen name for the prolific Allison Hobbs) may be aiming for a YA True Blood, packing this trilogy launch with varied supernaturals in a rural Southern setting, but it veers unsteadily in the direction of paranormal romance before crumbling under the weight of its sluggish pacing. Character development is supplanted by repetitive scenes and graceless writing, and by the time insecure teen witch Holland Manning finally stops reflecting on her pretty new haircut, and dreamily sensitive newly made zombie Jonas stops quivering in self-hatred and notices that his new vampire buddy Zac is a bad egg, the plot descends into chaotic flurries punctuated by dreary lulls. A seductive vampire family appears out of nowhere, a redneck farmer becomes a zombie and goes on a flesh-eating spree, Holland and Jonas meet and moon and meet and moon, and no one connects the dots. Plot threads are introduced and left dangling for sequels, but the real question is whether readers will even make it to the end of book one. (Oct.)