Risika, a teenage vampire, wanders back in time to the year 1684 when, as a human, she died and was transformed against her will. ( )

I read this book when I was in middle school.

17 year old Rachel Weatere, born 1684, lives with her twin brother, half sister and father. Her twin brother, Alexander, thinks he is the devil. He can read people's thoughts, make things happen without touching anything, and manipulate fire. Accidentally burning their half sister, Lynette. Rachel is Alexanders only comfort.
A stranger brings Rachel a black rose, it pricks her finger making her bleed. Later that night Rachel hears Alexander sneaking out and follows him. Alexander was speaking to two vampires, Ather and Aubrey. They were going to turn Rachel as vengeance against Alexander for interfering when Ather previously tried to feed on Lynette. Rachel tries to protect Alexander but he is dragged off by Aubrey wielding a knife. As Rachel tries to go after them she is grabbed by Ather and turned into a vampire.
300 years later, Rachel now calls herself Risika, while trying to feed she accidentally trespasses on Aubrey's territory. He leaves her another black rose and a note reminding her to stay in her place. She burns the note.
Aubrey finds out that Risika has been accompanied by a Bengal tiger named Tora and kills it. Absolutely heartbroken, Risika transforms into a hawk and searches for Aubrey. They start to fight, Risika then transforms into a tiger and tackles Aubrey down. Aubrey offers Risika his blood, opening a mental connection. Risika accepts and takes his knife which contains magic and gives him a scar like he had given her telling him to remember the events of the day, reminding him there is still room for revenge of the deaths of Tora and Alexander.
If you want to know how it ends I guess you'll just have to read the book :)

For it only being about 140 pages and written by a 13 year old, I enjoyed it. ( )

Teenage vampires! I remember this being full of energy and emotion, if not originality. ( )

Risika, born Rachel Weatere in 1684, and now a vampire in contemporary Concord, is haunted by her past in this moody teen thriller. The daughter of colonial Puritans, Rachel was changed into a vampire and renamed Risika by the powerful Ather. Her hatred is reserved for Aubrey however, who murdered her twin brother Alexander. Flashbacks from that earlier time alternate with scenes from the present, as the book leads inexorably to a showdown between Risika and Aubrey.

Written by the author when she was thirteen, and published when she was fifteen, In the Forests of the Night was something of a sensation when it appeared back in 1999. Although it never strayed very far from the conventions governing such teen thrillers, Atwater-Rhodes' debut was surprisingly well-written for such a young author. With the recent advent of writers such as Christopher Paolini, Nancy Yi Fan and Flavia Bujor, the children's literature scene has become more accustomed to adolescent authors, but it was still something of a novelty when this was first released. ( )

I hadn't realised the authors age (when she wrote the book) when I picked this one up. It was fine enough for a short novella but there wasn't enough of a story here. What it needed was another character to offset the predator mindset. The lead girl Rachel was well written for the type of person she was but the emotional impact would have been better with another person. I appreciated that a teenager in the 1700's wasn't unrealistically educated with the exception of her admitting she was outspoken for the time period. I also understood why she didn't develop relationships.
The tiger was promising but the brother relationship was underdeveloped.
I got more out of "The Silver Kiss" by Annette Curtis Klaus. The relationship with the cat made me cry.

Kudos for believeable characters (with the exception of her twin brother Alexander) and vampire mythology. The emotional impact from the climax just wasn't there. ( )