Look For Me By Moonlight

April 24, 1995
A lonely teenage girl, an isolated inn by the ocean, a ghost, a mysterious stranger-sure, these are gothic cliches, but in Hahn's (Stepping on the Cracks) able hands, they add up to a stylish supernatural thriller. Cynda, the 16-year-old narrator, has trepidations about moving in with her estranged father and his much younger wife at the Maine inn that they run even before she hears that the inn is haunted, ostensibly by the ghost of a young woman murdered some 60 years ago. Soon after her arrival, handsome, sophisticated Victor Morthanos checks in for a month-long stay. Cynda's five-year-old half-brother, Todd, hates him on sight, but Cynda just as quickly falls in love: Victor alone understands her jealousy and resentment of Todd and her stepmother, and he alone truly appreciates her. By the time Cynda figures out that Victor is a vampire and the murderer of the ghostly girl, she is well on the way to becoming a ghost herself, as is Todd. How Cynda overcomes her thralldom makes for a deliciously spine-tingling story-all the more gripping for its sturdy psychological underpinnings. Ages 11-up.

May 1, 1995
Gr 6-9-A vampire story with all the formulaic trappings of Gothic romance. Rebellious and hostile, Cynda refuses to accompany her mother and stepfather to Italy, so she goes to spend a six-month trial visit with her father, young stepmother, and half-brother at an old inn on the winter-desolate Maine coast. She learns the dark history of her new home, which is reported to be haunted by the ghost of a former innkeeper's daughter, who was murdered, drained of blood, and tossed into the ocean in the 1930s. Will, the housekeeper's grandson, fleetingly wins Cynda's attention until a mysterious, tall, dark, and drop-dead handsome stranger appears in a silver Porsche bathed in moonlight during a blizzard. Vincent, sexy and poetic, jokes with her that he is 30 years old, give or take a few centuries. He quickly insinuates himself into the inn's routine, charming everyone, especially Cynda, who feels like an outsider in her father's new family. Only the child Todd fears and distrusts Vincent. When the vampire turns his attention to the boy and sucks his blood, Cynda fights back to save him. The novel's aura of romance and suspense, coupled with images of Bess, the landlord's daughter from "The Highwayman," elevate the prose somewhat and help sustain reader attention and interest. But like Cynda's crush on Vincent, the narrative is predictable. The happy ending is disappointing; could a weakened vampire's thrall so easily overcome her centuries-old despoiler? In most vampire stories, evil demons usually fight to the death, taking a few innocents with them. Though a step up from "Fear Street" and other horror novels, this book lacks the gripping, palpable action and poignant emotion of Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (Delacorte, 1990) or Margaret Mahy's The Changeover (McElderry, 1984). In Look For Me by Moonlight, it is the easy seduction of a teen who is a victim of her own insecurities that rings most true.-Alice Casey Smith, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, Manalapan, NJ

March 15, 1995
Gr. 7^-10. Sixteen-year-old Cynda has seen her father only sporadically since his divorce and remarriage, but now she's spending the year with him and his new family at the old Maine inn they run. Lonely and unsure of her place in this new world, Cynda is grateful for the friendship of Will, the grandson of the inn's cleaning woman. But her attraction for Will fades when Vincent Morthanos comes to stay at the inn. Sophisticated, yet with an untamed edge, Vincent is particularly attentive to Cynda, sympathizing with the uncertainty she's feeling. Naive Cynda has no idea Vincent's attention comes with dangerous strings. When it comes to writing about the supernatural, Hahn remains one of the best in the business. She writes in a style that is by turns crisply contemporary and lushly romantic. Although readers will realize Vincent is a vampire long before Cynda does, they will eagerly immerse themselves in a story that both terrorizes and tantalizes. Only the ending, rushed and a little too convenient, breaks the spell. But even then an eerie air lingers. ((Reviewed Mar. 15, 1995))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1995, American Library Association.)