Soulmate by L.J. Smith

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Soulmate is the sixth entry in LJ Smith’s ambitious Night World series, which consists of nine books with an overarching story. Only at the end of this volume do the major themes of the series really begin to get underway. Unfortunately, the necessary development of these detracts from what, already, is only a mildly successful paranormal romance.

Sixteen-year-old Hannah Snow has been missing time. After these gaps in her memory, she finds notes–from herself, to herself–warning her that she’s destined to be dead by seventeen. She visits a psychologist to explore these events further; when he puts her under hypnosis, she flashes back to an earlier, pre-historic life. Meanwhile, a coterie of vampires she’s met before seem to be chasing her–including Thierry, Lord of the Night World, who claims to be her soulmate.

All of this, particularly the flashbacks, are mildly entertaining; unfortunately, the character development in Soulmate is terrifically lacking. Hannah’s counselor Paul stands out as being completely unconvincing as a character and a mental health professional, but even Hannah and Thierry themselves aren’t major improvements. Both are flat characters, completely bland were it not for their situation. Villain Maya fares a little better than the rest, as her sinister intentions mean that she actually seems to have both motivations and desires, something lacking in the rest of the cast.

What’s more, the novel’s climax and denouement is muddled as Smith tries to explain Circle Daybreak, the coming apocalypse, and “the soulmate principle.” Throughout the series, I’ve found the requisite discussions of this principle to be didactic–they almost always are composed of stiff, affectless dialogue that feels oddly juxtaposed to the supposedly passionate subject matter. It’s too bad that Smith chose to sink a good handful of chapters in this volume into exploring this further. Hopefully, in the next three volumes, there will be a little less (dry, stiff, and humorless) talk, and a little more action.

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A Night without Stars by James Howe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved James Howe’s Bunnicula series. So when I found A Night Without Stars, a 1983 children’s hospital story, by the same author, I was naturally pretty curious.

It’s clear from the cover that this is meant to be a Serious Book, in the manner of all those After School Specials and Degrassi episodes from the 80s. Maria has a hole in her heart and has to go to the hospital for surgery. There’s she meets a young boy, Donald, who suffers from terrible burns. Because he is an experienced patient, Donald is able to help her through her fears–once she overcomes her prejudices against him.

Though this is a fairly well-realized book, it’s also almost completely joyless and didactic. The adults here are both useless and clueless; Donald (sensitive, gifted, and pretty much perfect despite his burns) is the only one able to treat Maria’s concerns with empathy and respect. The message is simple: don’t judge people; be honest with children. I guess that’s okay.

Unfortunately, the characterization of the young patients is a bit flat and overly simplistic. The only characters who really breathe, who really seem to have any complexity, are Maria’s family, whom we hardly see. This was an okay book, one that I could see giving to a child before a hospital visit for a “teaching moment”, but not one that I’d recommend for recreation.

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