REVIEW: Uninvited by Amanda Marrone

Jordan has a regular visitor at her window after dark: her ex-boyfriend Michael. And Michael is dead. It's rumoured that he killed himself, which doesn't really make sense - Michael was always seen as a popular golden boy with everything to live for, unlike Jordan and the wild crowd she hangs around with now. Another strange thing is that Michael seems intent on getting back with Jordan, even though he didn't waste any time finding loads of other girls after he and Jordan broke up. Every night, he tries to persuade her to invite him in. Of course, now that Michael is a vampire, this could mean the end of Jordan's life as she knows it. And she's finding it very tempting...

There are some great teen vampire novels around at the moment. This one is completely different from all the others, although it's equally wonderful. For a start, it's not really a 'vampire novel' at all, even though there's a vampire in it. The story is more about Jordan learning to cope with life, and it's beautifully written. Jordan is lost, in an utterly believable, realistic and touching way, even though she has an added paranormal problem on top of the non-trivial day-to-day issues of functioning at school and in the world. In Uninvited it is extremely easy to relate to her worries. All the way through, this page-turning novel operates on more than one level, and I found it breathtaking to spot the significance of the title as the events unfolded.

This is a brilliant book. Fans of vampire novels will love its darkness and the nail-biting action sequences. Fans of general teen fiction will love this story of a young woman struggling to realise the value and importance of her own life.