Twisted

August 15, 2011

Sluggish pacing and an overwhelming number of characters will once again test fans' devotion to this paranormal-romance series.

When readers last saw Aden Stone, he'd been turned into a vampire by his girlfriend, vampire princess Victoria, in a desperate attempt to save him after being stabbed by his best friend Mary Ann's ex-boyfriend Tucker, who was being controlled by Victoria's father, Vlad the Impaler. Yes, really. The soap opera continues as Aden and Victoria nearly kill each other by cross-feeding their blood back and forth. As Aden's vampiric powers increase, Victoria becomes more human, losing her mind-controlling voice, teleportation abilities and diamond-hard skin—but gaining empathy and a truly tender heart. Meanwhile, Mary Ann has fled to Tulsa, Okla., (demonic Tucker and devoted shape-shifter Riley following close behind) to research the three supernaturally powered souls living in Aden's consciousness, hoping to purge them from his mind. Both Aden and Mary Ann face a variety of brutal vengeance-seekers, including Victoria's long-lost brother Sorin, witches, fairies and, once again, Vlad the Impaler. Showalter's strength is in playing with conventions of various paranormal mythologies. Plotting and cast management, not so much: The pace here might charitably be called stately, while her cast of characters threatens to spill out of these overstuffed pages.

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September 15, 2011
Grades 10-1 Whoever said vampires have no soul never met Aden, because he has three. The much-anticipated third book of the Intertwined series has arrived. Twisted, appropriately named, centers around a group of teenagers with varying gifts and personalities. Aden and Victoria, vampires who can switch souls when they share blood, team up with a werewolf and a drainer for some fun times with fairies, demons, and witches, who, coincidentally, all want them dead. As Aden struggles to accept his role as king of the vampires, Victoria starts to undergo some unexpected changes of her own. For lovers of the vampire genre, Showalter is royalty, and this allows her to go beyond the normal laws of paranormal fiction and really show us what her characters are capable of. The fluid structure makes this a roller coaster of a read. It will get your blood pumping and leave you craving more; a vampire story through and through.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)