Daylighters: The Morganville Vampires (Morganville Vampires, #15)

by Rachel Caine

While Morganville, Texas, is often a troubled town, Claire Danvers and her friends are looking forward to coming home. But the Morganville they return to isn’t the one they know; it’s become a different place—a deadly one…

Something drastic has happened in Morganville while Claire and her friends were away. The town looks cleaner and happier than they’ve ever seen it before, but when their incoming group is arrested and separated—vampires from humans—they realize that the changes definitely aren’t for the better.

It seems that an organization called the Daylight Foundation has offered the population of Morganville something they’ve never had: hope of a vampire-free future. And while it sounds like salvation—even for the vampires themselves—the truth is far more sinister and deadly.

Now, Claire, Shane and Eve need to find a way to break their friends out of Daylighter custody, before the vampires of Morganville meet their untimely end…

Includes a teaser from Prince of Shadows: A Novel of Romeo and Juliet!

• ISBN10: 0451414284
• ISBN13: 9780451414281
• Publish Date: 1 April 2014 (first published 5 November 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Berkley
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451414281

Reviews

[Angie]

Daylighters was not the ending that I was anticipating, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Claire and Company are back in Morganville, but it’s almost unrecognizable. The Daylight Foundation has rounded up all of the vampires, the streets are clean, and the Founders’ houses are freshly painted. But the cheery appearance does not at all match up with the horrible activities taking place. The vampires may not be torturing the humans anymore, but far worse is being done to them. Of course, it’s up to Claire to save them all and take back the town.

I found it a bit odd that the big finale would be focused on an outside source. I fully expected Daylighters to go back to the roots of the series, and have the humans and vampires of Morganville find some kind of peace and understanding together. Instead we get this random, new threat that everyone has to fight against. I suppose in a way, it brought the humans and vampires together after seeing that things can be worse, but I just don’t know. I didn’t dislike it, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

Being the final book in this long series, I find that I don’t have much left to say about Daylighters. The series has been up and down for me, but overall, it was a ton of fun. As far as series finales go, I’ve definitely read better, but it’s certainly a worthy ending. I love happy endings, after all! It does get a bit cheesy and I don’t know if I agree with everything that happened, but it did leave me with a smile on my face.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

I am such a huge fan of this series, I was so excited to read Daylighters, but I really wasn't looking forward to the end of the series. The Morganville Vampires series is one of my favourite series, and so reading Daylighters was pretty bittersweet. And sadly, it wasn't my favourite story.

Morganville has been taken over by the Daylight Foundation, an organisation set of bring peace to those who have been terrorised by vampires. The vampires have been forced into an enclave, and the residents are feeling safe. The houses have had a make-over, people are no longer rushing home when they're out, and everyone is happy to have the vampires off the streets. This is the Morganville Claire comes home to, and she and her friends are split up humans and vampires - Claire, Shane and Eve, and Oliver, Myrnin, Jesse, and Michael. The Daylighters seem to think they can help the vampires as well as the humans, but there's something not quite right about head Daylighter, Fallon. Now Claire must do all she can to free her friends - but is that the right thing to do, when the humans are finally no longer scared?

As I said, I was so looking forward to this story, and the idea behind it was just awesome! Fallon was incredibly creepy with his normal, nice manner, having such bad ideas - for the good of the people! - and seeming to make sense. I loved Claire's moral dilemma with trying to work out what she should do. These are her friends and they are locked up. But these friends are vampires, and have caused so many problems for years. If she helps them to get out, she'll be condemning the humans back to a life of fear. Yet her friends have no freedom. What's the right thing to do?

There was a lot of potential for this story to get crazy dangerous, like other books in the series. I was waiting for it, eager for it... but it never really happened. There was tension all the way through, but things never seemed to get too bad. They headed in that direction, but then things seemed to conveniently work out. That really bugged me, so much. The way the story was going, you knew beforehand just how conveniently things were going to go before they happened. One of the things I loved most about this series was how unpredictable it was, but not so much with Daylighters. And there were several characters who just seemed to be left in the middle of things. Shane, Amelie, Myrnin - things happened with them, but we didn't find out until much later what the outcome of those things were.

Claire was on her own for most of this book, or skipping from being with one character to the next, and mostly everything that went right was her own doing (hurrah for character development and Claire finally being able to save others on her own, when she could barely save herself against Monica in Glass Houses - is that the point? She does it all in the final book?), and I really missed the other characters so much. It's the last book, and they weren't in it all that much. Monica got what I can only call a brief cameo. Monica. Michael was locked up, and Shane and Eve had their own things happening away from Claire. It was just weird. I really wanted to see my favourite four together kicking butt, and it never really happened.

All my issues are with this particular story though, not with the end of the series. Despite some rather awesome things that happened at the very end (which I would like to have seen in more detail!), it doesn't really feel like the end of the series. It didn't feel like a definitive ending, that there could never be another Morganville Vampires story. It's just the end of this story, and it felt very much like there could be more to come. Like it was decided there wouldn't be any more after this one, rather than making this specifically the very last book. But Caine says at the end of the book this is the very last one, so I find that kind of frustrating. I knew Daylighters would be the last book, but it doesn't feel like much of an end to me. There's no real closure for the series as a whole, I feel. Especially as I'm not going to see Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael again. I would have preferred a more closed door if there's no chance of there being more Morganville Vampires stories.

Overall, I'm kind of disappointed in this book. But there are all the others in the series that are awesome, and make up for this one. Just wish the series ended on a high rather than a low. Still worth a read if you like the series, despite the negatives - it still has all those awesome characters, after all.

Thank you to Allison and Busby for the review copy.

[ellieroth]

Me ha gustado, sentimiento agridulce, acabar una serie de libros tan larga, una serie que estuvo prácticamente conmigo desde que le encontré gusto a la lectura. Una serie de libros que me hizo ver que los vampiros y la literatura juvenil podían ser una buena combinación sin llevarlo a lo rosa.

Gracias Rachel Caine, disfruté y me enamoré de cada uno de los libros de Morganville.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

The Morganville Vampires has been one of my all time top most favorite young adult paranormal romance series. Rachel Caine is a phenomenal author, who has written such a fun and interesting world filled with characters that I have absolutely fallen in love with. It's hard to say goodbye with the final book being, Daylighters. Claire, Michael, and the gang all return for one final adventure before the series takes its final bow and I couldn't have asked for a better series ending than the one Caine has written. It's truly amazing to see it all come full circle.

Throughout the course of the series, the characters evolve and grow into fantastic people that I have come to adore, some more than others. It was exciting, as always, to see Myrnin at the center of the story and being such an integral part of it. Amazingly insane, he is one of the most brilliant highlights throughout this particular novel. Claire and Myrnin working together sparks to life on the pages and gives the story so much heart. As always, there is a whirlwind storm of intense and crazy danger lurking around every corner. You won't see the twists and turns coming, until they happen and that's one of the things that I love best about this series.

In Daylighters, Morganville isn't the same town it started out as. You get to see it from an entirely different perspective, which is both intriguing as it is terrifying. Caine tells an darkly rich and menacing tale in her own brilliant and satisfying way. You'll absolutely want to devour this book in one sitting, because it is that captivating and engrossing. Most of all, it's just plain fun.

With that being said, I leave you all with this...

"Welcome to Morganville, you'll never want to leave..."