Shattered Mirror

Starred review from July 28, 2003

In this third installment in the series that began with In the Forests of the Night, teen witch (and vampire killer) Sarah Vida gets more than she bargained for when she befriends vampire siblings. "Fans of the goth writer will likely find plenty to feast on here," wrote PW. Ages 12-up.

September 1, 2001
Gr 8 Up-Fans of vampire fiction will really sink their teeth into this one. A fifth-generation witch who is a vampire hunter finds herself challenging everything she's been brought up to respect and defend when she meets two charming vampires posing as high school students. Instantly attracted to the male, Sarah Vida finds it harder and harder to carry out the duties she and her family have sworn to do. When it's revealed that Christopher is really Kristopher, twin brother of one of the most hunted vampires since the 1800s, Sarah's loyalties are even further divided. Though the ending isn't necessarily a big surprise, readers will be racing to reach it as they devour this compelling tale. Atwater-Rhodes does another fine job of building a suspenseful mood and sustaining it throughout. Characters are likable-both the heroic hunters and the beguiling hunted. The portrayal of a fantastic subculture that lies just beneath the surface of normal suburban teen culture is lurid in its attention to each tempting detail. By the end, one feels as torn as Sarah in deciding which life to choose. Readers will be swept away by the seductive world of good and evil and find themselves lusting for just a few more chapters.-Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2001
Gr. 6-10. Teens who prefer their vampire fiction unencumbered by complex emotion or logical plotting will feed greedily on teenage Atwater-Rhodes' third novel, a bloody, action-packed thriller, replete with teenage angst. Vampire hunter Sarah Tigress Vida moves to a new high school, only to find two vampires in her class--one of whom, Christopher, starts sending her roses and poems. Against her better judgment, she becomes involved with Christopher and also with his twin brother, Nikolas, a powerful, clever vampire who prefers turning his prey into "blood bonded" slaves rather than corpses. Picking her way through a small town positively strewn with supernatural creatures, Sarah survives several encounters with Nikolas on her way to the shocking discovery that vampires are as capable as mortals of love and loyalty. Next to Annette Curtis Klause's " Blood and Chocolate" (1997), this "sucks," but Atwater-Rhodes owns a readable prose style and a vivid imagination; polish will come with practice. Fans of TV's Buffy and Angel will clamor for more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)

September 24, 2001
In this third installment in the series that began with In the Forests of the Night, Atwater-Rhodes focuses on teen witch (and vampire killer) Sarah Vida, who "never asked for anything more complex than the simple good and evil definitions she had been raised on" but gets more than she bargained for when she befriends vampire siblings Nissa and Christopher. This is trouble: it's harder to kill when you know your prey, and her mother—the most infamous witch of all—will disown her if she finds out about the friendship. Her conflict intensifies when she discovers that Christopher's twin is Nikolas, the same vampire who long ago murdered a Vida witch. Atwater-Rhodes chooses an interesting theme (no one is purely good or evil), and she builds some creative elements around it. SingleEarth, an organization of all creatures, for instance, includes vampires and witches who work together for peace. Her description of Nikolas, whose home and clothing are completely black and white, plays into this well, and provides for some striking visual images. Some of her writing, though, as in Sarah's final faceoff with Nikolas and Christopher, is over the top ("I want it as much as humans want to breathe, but I have control," Christopher says of Sarah's blood). Still, fans of the teen goth writer will likely find plenty to feast on here. Ages 12-up.

January 1, 2002
Witches from the Vida family hunt vampires--they have laws against befriending them. But Sarah Vida cant turn away from Christopher, a vampire she meets at school, and that friendship makes her first a victim of Christophers vampire twin brother, then a vampire convert herself. Even rampant melodrama and a conveniently malleable sense of honor dont sap this energetic novel of its fun.

(Copyright 2002 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)